Comments on: Are you Local or Organic?

By: Are You Local or Organic? Part Two

Are You Local or Organic? Part Two — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:32:17 +0000

[...] and it looks as if this year there will be cantaloupe. But after seeing how last week’s post (Are you Local or Organic?), on my declaration of choosing local over organic in most purchasing situations generated a bit of [...]

By: treemama

treemama — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:14:24 +0000

we are lucky to have three local and organic farmers we buy from.

and organic strawberries in peak season here, is like heaven on earth!

i find it impossible to be 100% organic anyway, so like you said, i weigh the options of most heavily polluted foods and get whatever i can here locally.

By: Ed Bruske

Ed Bruske — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:34:23 +0000

We don’t go out of our way looking for tomatoes in January (in the District of Columbia), but we’ve had some off-season, hot house tomatoes that were pretty darned good. Someone is getting better at breeding and raising them. And does local mean only “seasonal?” What if the hot house tomatoes are being grown in your neighborhood and are really good? And in temperate areas where the normal growing season ends in September or October, if everyone goes local won’t they necessarily need to grow things in hothouses?

By: Organic Trade

Organic Trade — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:22:02 +0000

Thank you for this thoughful article. The Organic Trade Association would like to offer a different perspective on the issue of local vs. organic. In fact, local and organic are not in competition with one another. On the contrary, they embrace many of the same values. They both emphasize support for the farmers involved in food production. And they both encourage people to consider the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions. Plus, as more and more local farms make the shift to organic, the choice between local and organic disappears: to buy one is to support and reap the benefits of both.

What should you do, then, if you are in the grocery store and the option to purchase locally grown, organic products does not exist? Which type of product should you choose?

When faced with such a choice, consider the following: organic offers a range of benefits that non-organic local products do not. Because they are regulated by the federal government, products bearing the organic label must meet a strict set of production/handling guidelines. They must be made without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and genetic engineering. Additionally, they must not undergo irradiation or contain ingredients made from cloned animals. Local products are not held to any such standards, and therefore cannot be counted on to meet any of the aforementioned criteria. And, because the term “local” is itself undefined, no guarantees can be made about whether a product is, indeed, local!

Organic products are also distinct with respect to traceability. In order to meet federal regulations, careful records must be kept about every phase of organic production. This means that everything from the source of the seeds to the way the products are placed on store shelves must be documented. Moreover, each of these steps must be verifiable by a third party. Local products, by contrast, are neither required to provide such documentation nor to undergo third-party review. As such, no guarantees can be made about where local products come from or how they are handled.

Does this mean you should abandon buying locally made products? Not at all. Instead, it means you should be thoughtful about the local products you choose to buy. If they are labeled organic, you can feel confident that they have been produced in a manner that not only supports personal and environmental health, but also helps to ensure product integrity from the farm to your family.