Local is the New Organic

[nosmokes]

original-emagazine

Local is the New Organic

The Growing Movement to know your Farmer and your Food

By Brita Belli

It used to be that organic was enough. That organic label told consumers their food was safer, fresher and more likely to have come from a small, reliable farm than a mega-farm-factory. Then, last year, Wal-Mart started selling organic products. Suddenly, organic didn’t seem so special.

Last fall, an outbreak of E. coli bacteria in California- grown organic spinach that left three dead and hundreds sick shone the national spotlight on the question of where food comes from. Most produce people eat, organic or not, travels thousands of miles to reach the shelves of their local supermarket. The journey exacts a huge toll on the environment as refrigerated tractor-trailers packed with green tomatoes and bananas crisscross the country, burning diesel and spewing pollution and greenhouse gas. And the potential for unsanitary handling and nutrient depletion exists at every stop along the way.

According to statistics in Brian Halweil’s Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, fruits and vegetables now travel between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to market, “an increase of roughly 20 percent in the last two decades.” And that’s just the produce within the U.S. Halweil says that 898 million tons of food are shipped around the planet each year, four times the amount that was shipped in 1961.

“It’s amazing that you can buy organic food at Wal-Mart,” says Jen Maiser, the founder of the blogs Eatlocalchallenge.com and Lifebeginsat30.com. “But some of us really wanted a better handle on our food. Now organic is so corporate.” Living in the Bay Area of California with plenty of access to year-round farmer’s markets, Maiser is a self-described “locavore” (others, including vegetarian cookbook guru Deborah Madison, refer to themselves as “localtarians”). They are at the forefront of a movement that stresses eating local as a way to reconnect with one’s food.
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complete article here

[kestrel91316]

1. I'm trying to eat local as much as possible, which is pretty easy in

California (I define "local" as from SoCal if possible, but NoCal if not). My lunch choices, unfortunately, leave a lot to be desired. Today it was chicken tortilla soup at El Pollo Loco. I know. I'M SORRY.

[gollygee]

2. I'm not sure how much I can trust the word "organic" anymore

So I buy groceries from places where I trust that the people selling them wouldn't lie about it. Which means locally owned shops and often local producers.

[porphyrian]

3. Absolutely. And you can grow lots of things yourself with little effort.

Bell peppers, for instance, are easy to grow. You don't need a farm to do it, either, just a few pots.

[SoCalDem]

4. People have to be re-educated about SEASONAL foods

and get used to eating what's available again. There was a time when we all "knew" that, but today's shoppers want grapes in January, and strawberries year-round.

Local means we all can start eating in harmony with nature.. perhaps Mother Nature did it "purposely" so we could all have the variety, which is probably how our bodies evolved..

"Marketing" came along and claimed to help the farmers get top dollar year round, but we all know that the middlemen get the lion's share.

It's always annoyed me to see that crops grown right here cost more and are not top-quality, because our "best" gets shipped out to other parts of the country so they can pay premium prices for out of season (for them) veggies & fruits...and we never really have seasonal fruit anymore (at seasonal prices)..

this is not accidental.. It's a clever marketing tool to get us all used to paying $3 lb for tomatoes..

[fed-up]

6. I'm having to teach my son's GF about seasonal-she's teaching me about eating grasshoppers

She had no clue that prices could vary due to season and transport time. She also had no clue when things would be ripe and cheapest.

I am also teaching her that working conditions and farm chemical use can be much different than what is allowed in the US (more toxic).

[fed-up]

5. My farmer BF transports his organic greens 20M (rt) on Sat & 160M (rt) on Sun

First time for me to hear the term "locavore" and "localtarin"

[nosmokes]

7. CSA*s, CO-OPs and Farmer's Markets are the Key

*Community Supported Agriculture, where you buy a share of a local farm's harvest and get a box of produce once a week, straight from the field. depending on the CSA you get everything from greens and berries to chicken and beef. and you 'll end up w/ veggies you've never heard of before. it's a lot of fun. and your $$ goes straight to the farmer, no grocery chain taking the lion's portion for trucking it miles away, sorting it, and trucking it back in shrink wrap plastic so that it's now a week old and has traveled 1200 miles burning fossil fuels.

find CSAs:here