There is usually a fairly good selection of organic and local produce where I shop, especially in the summer and autumn. When winter rolls around, it’s slim pickings and I will pick up a bunch of greens that came from California. The rule for me is, “as close to home as possible, without sacrificing good nutrition.” This may mean stocking up on long-keeping winter squash when it’s available locally, or canning lots of tomatoes from the farmer’s market at their peak ripeness. If your food budget doesn’t allow for these measures, don’t beat yourself up, just do the best you can and know that every little bit helps. If you find no local produce even in the warm months, speak to the manager about it, tell your friends to do the same. If enough people demand a product, retailers will provide it.
A workable goal to keep in mind is one bunch of something dark green and leafy, and one or two other vegetables that are the most affordable. Carrots, potatoes, and winter squash are always a good deal. A bunch of cilantro is a regular weekly purchase for me and it provides a lot of flavor and nutrients for 99 cents. Make sure, also, to buy some long-keeping produce and some with a shorter shelf life. You don’t want to have to use everything up at once and have nothing left at the end of the week.
One way to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients needed from your produce is to “eat a rainbow” of colorful fruits and vegetables.
So Why are Local, Organic Veggies the
Best?
Basically, they are superior to conventionally produced veggies in every way. Several factors are affected by this choice: safety, environmental factors, nutritional value, flavor, local economy, and food security.
Basically, they are superior to conventionally produced veggies in every way. Several factors are affected by this choice: safety, environmental factors, nutritional value, flavor, local economy, and food security.
Organic farmers are not allowed to use synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms or fertilizer derived from sewage sludge on their crops, nor are they allowed to irradiate their seeds or the foods they produce. These guidelines are strictly monitored and enforced, meaning that organic vegetables are free of chemical residues and questionable practices that have been linked to all kinds of human health problems.
In addition to the toxic nature of many inputs used in conventional agriculture, there is a major, and disgusting practice that many people might not know about. Conventional farmers are allowed to fertilize their fields with sewage sludge from waste treatment plants, even though this material has been proven to contain traces of heavy metals and other pollutants. There is no clear consensus on the impact of this practice over time; how high will the levels of heavy metals in the soil go, will they be washed down into the subsoil, taken up by the growing plants and eaten, or a little of both?
Combined with the sewage sludge issue is the uncomposted manure problem. Organic farms are follow strict guidelines concerning the use of manure: it must be composted pre-use, or applied 90 days before harvest if an edible portion of the crop is in contact with the manure. These regulations make sense, because they eliminate the spread of pathogenic bacteria such as e. coli from the manure, to the vegetable, to the consumer. Too bad conventional farmers don’t have to follow the same rules! We are seeing increasing numbers of news reports concerning illnesses and deaths caused by e. coli from vegetable sources. This can be caused by contaminated water or by improper use of manure, either way, eating organic vegetables will save a lot of heartache, and stomachache too!
The invention of tractors heralded an agricultural system no longer dependent on animal power. This meant that ever larger fields could be created and maintained, transforming the rural landscape from diverse polycultures into vast monocultures. These huge sweeps of corn and soy, while easy to plant and harvest in a mechanized way, also necessitate huge amounts of toxic inputs. Insects can be baffled and diverted by a mixture of crops that changes from year to year, but an unchanging sea of corn is an open invitation to predation and must be stopped by pesticides. These, in addition to the runoff from artificial fertilizers and the huge amounts of diesel needed to run farm machinery, spell trouble for our planet. Organic farming has a much smaller carbon footprint, due to non-use of petroleum based fertilizers. This factor, combined with the elimination of toxic chemicals, makes organic the best choice for a conscientious person.
Conventional growers swear up and down that organic produce is not nutritionally superior to their own. They have even pressured the USDA into an official statement that the only difference between organic and conventional produce is the growing method. We only need to look at a two factors, though, to see that this is not the case.
How ripe was the produce when picked, and how far did it travel to reach your plate? Since conventional vegetable production is focused on the transportability and appearance of the produce, many items like tomatoes, oranges, and mangoes are picked while unripe, then gassed with ethylene to develop their characteristic colors. This prevents spoilage in transit, at the cost of flavor and nutritional content. Additionally, methods like gas exchange (think bagged salads), fungicidal waxes, plastic wrappers with anti fungal and bacterial properties, and cold storage are used to keep the product pretty for weeks on end. Too bad that each passing day after harvest means lower and lower nutritional content and flavor.
Sadly, instead of recognizing that the best way to remedy this problem is for people to eat fresh, locally grown produce, the industry is looking to genetic modification to solve the problem. Typical.
The average American meal travels 1500 miles from farm to table, requiring huge amounts of petroleum to accomplish this journey. No wonder conventional produce needs the assistance of so many artificial processes, coatings, and packages to maintain its appearance! As a result of this crazy system, 17% of the petroleum used in the United States goes directly to agricultural purposes.
In addition to the obvious environmental ramifications of our well-traveled food, there are economic and social justice issues infusing every bite we take. Small farms have been going under in ever greater numbers, due in no small part to federal subsidies that favor big, corporate agriculture. These subsidies allow large producers to sell their products at artificially low prices, undercutting small farmers and driving them out of business. This has resulted in the system we see today, with produce shipped in from Florida or California that could just as easily have been grown by a local farmer. What is missing is the will to pay a little more, supported by the understanding that quality means more than quantity, and that local farmers more than earn the price they ask for their produce.
Remember, a dollar you spend at your local Farmer’s Market or CSA has three times the impact of a dollar spent at a chain store. The money spent at the big box store leaves the community almost immediately, leaving only a pittance in non-living wage salaries behind. A dollar spent on local business provides jobs, benefits, and revenue for the infrastructure and support systems that keep communities functioning. What will happen if all the local farmers go out of business and your only option is the tasteless, well-traveled corporate swill?
Think about this for a minute: what would happen if natural disaster, political unrest, or simply the price of oil slowed the transportation of food to your grocery store. Would there be lines, rationing, riots? Would the federal or state government take responsibility for feeding their citizens? All of them, or just the “important” ones?
If the current trend continues and responsibility for our nation’s food production is handed over to corporate agriculture, then who will be left locally to feed the people? We can already see the results in urban and rural “food deserts”, places under-served or not served at all by grocery stores; dependent on corner stores, bodegas, and fast food chains for their daily supply of junk food and inevitable illness.
I’m not willing to leave a future like this to my daughter, and that’s why I support the local, organic farmers who in turn support me with healthy food, and a healthy community.