by Debra Macapagal

Created on: January 05, 2009

When available, people should only eat locally produced organic food.

As hard as eating locally produced organic food seems to be, it is important to the health of the local economy, community and us.

Buying locally is good for the local economy, as it helps our local farmers stay in business. Many farmers all over North America are loosing their small farms since they can not compete with the large government subsidised farms.

Farmers are a very important part of our community. Farmers feed people. Support local farmers and you will be supporting your local industry.

Locally grown produce if not organic, have fewer pesticides sprayed than produce from large scale farms. Smaller farms tend to combine pest management techniques such as using beneficial insects along with spraying, providing the local community with healthier and better choices.

Fact: Billions of pounds of pesticides are sprayed on our food annually by the large intensive farms.

Locally raised meat products can have less if any antibiotics, hormones since the animals will have lived more humanely. Unhealthy animals require antibiotics and hormones to keep them alive, which is the case for most of the animals that end up on our plates.

You just cannot compare the taste and texture of locally raised meat to that of factory farmed meat, it is far superior. You can find locally raised meat generally at your local butcher. They usually have a great selection, and it's all fresh. The product is exponentially better than anything you get from the supermarket.

The health implications of pesticide use, antibiotics and hormones, are only starting to surface. What will its effect on the health care system be?

The price of purchasing organic food may be seems costly, however, is that price less or more than the price of our health? Many of our health issues stem from the products we consume.

Organic or small scale family farms are not as heavily subsidised by the government as large scale chemical farms, therefore, the cost to run these farms are higher.

However, if the government did not exclusively fund large scale chemical farms, it would actually be less expensive and healthier to purchase from small scale local and organic farms.

Oddly enough, it has been found in a few studies such as Productivity and Efficiency of Small and Large Farms in Moldova by Zvi Lerman and William R. Sutton, that small family farms actually produce more yield than the large intensive.

Citizens need to demand from their government a system that provides everyone with clean fresh food from local sources.

There are many organizations such as Local Harvest that can help you find farms, co-ops, even restaurants in your area that use locally raised products.

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