Local food is a really great way of understanding where food comes from, but does little or nothing in assessing the environmental impact of food production.

The push for local food was birthed out of the concept that food should be cultivated, transported, and consumed responsibility. Indeed, this is at the heart of an ideal food system. The problem with local, is that the target of food miles and proximity shapes the dialogue about our food system in a dangerous way that skips over more pressing problems. It’s only a matter of time until large scale companies (we’re already seeing this with Lay’s “Local” potato chips), take this concept of local and deconstruct it from it’s true intentions.

Making organic the standard method of operating needs special attention only because that deals closest with the manner in which food is produced. Yes, local food emphasizes transportation, but the majority of carbon and resource related concerns occur ON the farm, and are expressed by deteriorating water and air quality with special attention to soil quality (very, very special attention to soil!). Farm yields will continually go down and American small and medium sized farms will fail if soil quality continues to deplete at it’s current rate.

Non-organic methods will inevitably indebt American small farmers to GMO’s and Monsanto-esq technology, by forcing our small farmers into using genetically modified crops in order to supplement environmental degradation of soil and water (or lack thereof). We need a consumer backed pushed for organic to be the basic operating procedure of American farming and food production.

And please do know that I love greens, and turnips, and rutabagas, and all those cool weather crops, but cooking up huge amounts of them week after week can be challenging. Guess that’s when you run to the pantry for those put-up summer delights. I have a friend in a CSA who is frightened of all those greens–she has a 5 year old and there is just so much a kid can take.

Great articles, Heather…hope your garden overflows with deliciousness.
Lisa

That said, I buy local, organic food as much as I can. I do buy conventional from my neighborhood produce market, but usually only things like onions–never potatoes or soft fruits. While I do buy citrus, grown in California while it is in season, I do not buy fresh food out of season. Honestly, I don’t miss fresh tomatoes in February. Hothouses growing tomatoes in New Jersey in the middle of winter would require a lot of energy–both heating and lighting. Kinda defeats the purpose of eating local.

We need to consider a new way of eating–actually, an old way. Not just local, just seasonal, but in harmony with the seasons and in connection with those who produce/harvest our food. If you can actually talk with the not-certified-organic farmer about her farm management practices, you might learn that she’s doing things just the way a gov’ment certified farmer does things–maybe even with more care and fewer petroleum-based inputs. A mid-winter salad can still be delicious even it is is not composed of lettuce grown in Salinas Valley and packed in a incredibly process-intensive seven-layer plastic bag and a tomato grown with virtual slave labor in Florida or an energy-intensive hothouse in New Jersey.

I’m glad people are talking about this…let’s keep challenging ourselves to think, talk, and do more.

I choose organic over local when shopping at a grocery store because I know the local conventional farmers, the GMO crops they grow and the pesticide load in my area. But I draw the line at international foods or long-haul foods like Hawaiian pineapple, bell peppers from Holland and grapes from Mexico even if they are organic. These foods will grow here (limited success on the pineapple, but we’re working on it) in season, and sometimes patience is required. I’d rather support local farmers if given the option.

And I must admit I’d rather support a local conventional farmer in transition to organic than a mega-organic grower on the other side of the continent. But for most people, that’s a load of research they’d rather not do.

My first choices are always rooted in the philosophy of “shaking the hand that feeds you.”