“Cal-Organic Farms, along with Earthbound, dominates the organic produce section in the supermarket. Cal-Organic is a big grower of organic vegetables in the San Joaquin Valley. As part of the consolidation of the organic industry, the company was acquired by Grimmway Farms, which already enjoyed a virtual monopoly in organic carrots. Unlike Earthbound, neither Grimmway or Cal-Organic has ever been part of the organic movement. Both companies were started by conventional growers looking for a more profitable niche and worried that the state might ban certain key pesticides. “I’m not necessarily a fan of organic,” a spokesman for Grimmway recently told an interviewer. “Right now I don’t see that conventional farming does harm. Whether we stay with organic for the long haul depends on profitability.
Philosophy, in other words has nothing to do with it.”
- Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
For the last several years Mr Chiots and I have been focusing on eating locally and organically. When I have the option, I like to buy local organic. When I don’t have that option, I chose local over organic. I could buy certified organic apples from Chile in the supermarket to eat instead of my non-certified semi-organic apples from a local orchard, and they’d probably be cheaper. Why do I choose a local product that probably has a few chemicals & pesticides on it? Because it’s important for me to know where our food is coming from. I know exactly what is on that apple because I can talk to the guy that grew it. I can visit his orchard and see what he does. I can’t visit the orchard in Chile, so how can I be sure it’s actually “organic”?
I’ve had a few great conversations with our local dairy/beef/chicken/egg farmers about this topic. They used to be certified organic and it got too expensive and too constrictive to keep up their certification. They had trouble finding good quality organic hay to feed the cows in the winter. Someone they knew had good quality hay that wasn’t certified organic, but since it’s wasn’t certified they couldn’t use it. They finally decided to drop their certification. Now they label themselves as “Voluntarily Organic”. Personally, I don’t mind that they don’t have the government seal, I’m glad they’re putting the health of their cows ahead of a label.
I’m guessing some of you have heard of the 4-year study conducted in Europe that concluded that organic food (including vegetables, fruit and milk) contained up to 40% more antioxidants than conventional food and were more nutritious (the percentage were up to 60% more antioxidants for organic milk). I wonder how the raw milk from the farm would stack up to conventional milk? I’m pretty sure it would be way better than 60%.
The problem with studies like this is that it’s hard to know what kind of organic products they used in testing. Did they use big-box organic, or small organic? Did they use produce that had been grown, picked, processed in another country and was flown halfway around the world, then sat on a grocery store shelf for a couple days before heading to your home. Did they leave it in the fridge for a few days before testing to make the study more authentic? I try not to put too much credibility in studies like these, even if they support my viewpoint. Studies can be done in such a way to get the desired outcome (sometimes looking at the funding will give you a good idea of what the outcome will be). I try not to get caught up in the hype about what’s “healthy” what’s not, what’s the “in” vegetable, fruit, nutrient, vitamin at the moment. It’s really too much to keep up with. We now try to focus on eating real whole food. Our diet would probably not be considered healthy by some because we eat lots of butter, drink whole milk, eat lots of animal fat. Bacon anyone?
The search for good quality real whole food is main reason I started to grow some of our food. I know exactly what’s in it, I know how it was grown. What I grow in my garden is the healthiest food available to me. It’s as organic and local as it gets. We’ve developed a hierarchy of food for ourselves.
Homegrown
Local Organic
Local
Organic from local health food store
Organic from big chain grocery
Conventional
I still buy food from far away, mangoes and plantains will never be local for me, and they’ll never be out of my diet. Coffee is a big NEED in this household as is good chocolate, local sources for those are not feasible either. I’m not striving to make my diet to be 100% local, but I want eat local when I can! I don’t want to rule out delicious food from far away, but I don’t want to eat only long distance food either. I really appreciate some of the things that local eating had taught me, we’re enjoying a much wider variety of food now. I also appreciate that organic is gaining popularity because I am able to find an organic option for just about everything I want. It seems like in our lives we’re finally achieving that balance between local, organic, and exotic.
Which do you focus on Local, Organic or a patchwork of both?
My heirarchy is pretty much the same as yours I think.
I focus on local and organic whenever I can. I’m lucky in that I have a farmer right near me who is both local *and* organic. I make every effort to buy for him as much as I can, and chose him as my CSA farmer. It shows that there *can* be both.
But beyond that, I like to focus on local foods. There, I can know the farmer and support my community. Plus, there are some farmers here who try to follow some of the organic methods but can’t get certified because of the cost, or because they don’t use *all* organic methods. If there is a farm that is a bit further away from me, but still reasonably close, I’ll choose that if it’s organic.
Likewise, for the grains that I need to eat (and since my local grains are off-limits for me for the most part), I choose growers who practice responsible farming, and those who use organic methods whenever possible. If its not possible to get that, and I need the grains to have a balenced diet, well, I’ll take what I can get.
Our hierarchy is the same, too. And like you, we won’t be giving up bananas or coffee anytime soon, either. But when we buy things like coffee, we try to buy organic and fair-trade. I think it’s a balance. Our diet probably wouldn’t look like the healthiest diet to outsiders, either, even though we eat a lot of vegetarian meals, a fair bit of fish, lots of fruit, because we also eat a lot of butter, we eat red meat…but the butter and red meat is local and sustainable–therefore healthier.
I’m right there with you. I completely agree with your food philosophy. Our ‘food hierarchy’ is much the same. I believe that good quality meats and dairy should remain our diets. ‘Nourishing Traditions’ by Sally Fallon is an excellent book on the subject of whole foods, and actually helped shaped how our diet looks today.
Definitely local, as in your backyard. Pick up the organic seeds, tools, and organic insecticide (http://www.saferbrand.com/store/garden-care/5102), and you’ll be set for vegetables, at lest in the warmer season.
Right now it is a mish-mash of things, mostly conventional with organic thrown in. For produce I try to buy local, whatever one deems local—Washington apples rather than Chilean. Avocados in season here are much better than those imported from Mexico. I eat them by the dozen in July!
Wonderful! You expressed what I have been thinking and feeling beautifully!
Yep, “local” before “organic” because often the carbon footprint of the “local” is smaller too. Small guys have trouble getting the gov’t certification of “organic” and mostly practice good farming anyway.
Since my husband sells his honey in the local Farmers Market, local is very important to us. It supports people in our county. Our CSA is certified organic, but they also don’t do ceritfication for their chickens. Too hard and too costly. but I trust them and their chickens are delicious. The problem with local apples is that almost all the orchards around here use pesticides. It really takes work and money to grow apples organically. But we still buy local and wash them well. In the winter I do buy the grocery organic apples.
Homegrown first!! Then local…we are lucky to have a fantastic farmers market all year long ( way up here in the northern midwest)! I would guess 90% of the farmers practice organic methods but are not certified;the certification process here is very expensive .
My life would not be complete without my locally bought bacon…there is no comparison to store bought!!!
Also…I’ve given all of the Not Dabbling in Normal writers a blog award! Come on over to my blog to check it out.