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There's been a lot of stumping for purchasing our food locally lately. It was even included in a lot of the Live Earth literature.

This got me to thinking.

A few months ago our family went organic as much as possible, and natural where we couldn't. This was done for 3 main reasons:

1) It's healthier for us, as we are not ingesting pesticides, fertilizers, harmful chemicals, etc.
2) It's much better for the environment because we're not endorsing or supporting the use of fertilizer, pesticide, antibiotics, steroids, etc.
3) It gets us away from the absolute stupidity of dying the cheese yellow, bleaching the bread white, putting anti-caking agents on things like sugar (which is going to be dissolved during use anyway), etc.

However, most of these items we get are not produced locally. Most of it comes from California or South America. This means that a lot of emissions are created while fuel is used to transport these things to us here in Nevada.

Conversely, we could shop locally, using the farmer's markets and the mom & pop grocers that buy from the local exchanges. However, there isn't a single organic producer in this desert State. Everything is fertilized, pest controlled via chemicals, even irrigated by long-travel, high-power-drawing systems.

In other words:

Organic = bad for emissions and fuel usage
Local = bad for chemical and electricity usage

Both end up being harmful to the environment, and I cannot calculate which is worse. All I know for sure is that the organic route is better for our individual bodies, so that's the route we'll stay on for now.

Good choice.

We've struggled with this too. Fortunately, in addition to Whole Paycheck and Tame Oats we also have a really great natural grocery chain (http://www.newseasonsmarket.com/) here that carries as much organic as possible, but also carries a substantial amount of conventional, mostly local produce. For the local stuff they select farms that, while not strictly organic, are using lower-impact methods and use pesticides minimally. And fortunately for us there is a lot of that in NW Oregon today.

I'm often faced with the choice, and usually go organic. But if, as sometimes happens, the choice is between an organic product that was air shipped from Chile or Thailand vs. something grown by a responsible if not organic local farmer and trucked less than 100 miles, then I'll go for the local stuff. Local tastes better too!

my solution is to grow as much of your own food as you can

in about a month i wont have to go to the grocery store till mid fall for any of my produce. I'll just walk out the back door and pick it. fresh, 0 emissions for trasnport (besides my breathing) and no synthetic compounds on the plants or the ground ( i use a fish/seaweed fertilizer and compost)


I'll see if I can dig up a case study on organic vs. local for you tonight (I know i've read at least one)

California-grown produce seems like the least-objectionable (closest) alternative for you in Reno. You might have to shop on the California side of your stateline to get maximum choice. I think if you stick to produce you know is in season, you're less likely to end up with stuff flown in from somewhere else. For example Whole Foods might sell organic raspberries in February at a low price but -- they're from Chile. Obviously we're not doing the environment any favor by supporting this kind of bs.

I tried one of those organic delivery services for a while, but I thought it was too expensive and now just go to a nearby farmers market held near our house once a week.

Found you some links...

Here is a list of the certified organic producers in NV (most may be wholesale only)
http://agri.nv.gov/PLANT_OrgProducers.htm

And a list of all NV farmers markets
http://agri.state.nv.us/PLANT_Nursery_FarmerMkts.htm

Search localharvest.com for CSAs in your area:
http://www.localharvest.org/

Farmers Market starting 7/6
http://www.reno.com/article/20070628/RECREATION/70628006

Reno/Tahoe FMs:
http://renotahoe.about.com/cs/familyfun/a/farmersmarkets.htm

Organic consumer news in NV:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/state/NV.cfm

This definitely is one of those tough choices. A while back Grist had tackled the same question. You may have seen it. I am providing the link below. Umbra Fisk who answers these questions, typically does a lot of research and provides some analysis.

One of the things she mentions in there, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a great concept and some of you may already be doing it.

Luckily for us, there is a nice organic farmers market that we found. We live in Maryland and these folks are from Pennsylvania. So, its not too bad. Veggies and fruits grown about a couple of hours away.

Here's the link:

http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2002/11/26/umbra-organics/index.html

Good luck.

Thank you for the links, tarabell! I have some reading to do.

Hi All:

___Although I am not anywhere near educated on the debate of organic locally grown vs. pretty packed from wherever it comes from, Terrapass had an article in this months news letter dealing with exactly this topic at hand.

Conservation tip: prioritize organic over local for a caprese salad (http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/2007/07/conservation-tip-prioritize-organic-over-local-for-a-capres.html)

___Again, I know very little about this stuff but just pushed the link out there for you to devour … literally ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wife and I are for what ever is in the super market. We can purchase local gown in Bixby and a few other places. Not worth the drive. We use to have a local market for about 6 months out of the year. But they shut it down. No use trying to sell fresh stuff to welfare folks and there little cards.

Thank you Wayne! That article gives more pure informational than any other source, and spells out the transportation costs in black and white.

That's what has let me make the decision that we are definitely sticking with organic over local food.

Funny thing, lately both my neighbors and people at my office are bringing in these incredibly sweet plums I can't seem to stay away from. Coming from their trees, it's like having the best of both worlds :)


Also, I happened to run across these two encouraging articles today:

The New Food Crusade
It was almost accidental activism. Acme Bread's Steve Sullivan was on a class trip to Washington, D.C., with his 13-year-old daughter when their flight home was canceled. A scramble to rebook ended with the Berkeley food artisan and his family seated almost across the aisle from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

So he handed her a copy of his new favorite book, "Food Fight," by Sonoma County author Daniel Imhoff. The book is a call to arms, urging Congress to use the 2007 farm bill to put more healthful food on people's plates.

The bill, which in recent years has totaled about $70 billion annually, comes up about once every five years. Although the farm bill has far-reaching consequences for the food supply, most people outside the Midwestern Farm Belt, which gets huge farm bill subsidies, have ignored it.

This year, things are different. Sullivan's trip down the aisle, and the book, are part of a wave of populist activism, much of it centered in the Bay Area, that is trying to change how a big chunk of farm bill money is spent.

The short version of the argument -- and nothing is short when it comes to the mind-numbing, complex farm bill -- is that the bill subsidizes the overproduction of corn and soy in the Midwest, which is driving up obesity and diabetes and polluting the land. Instead, they say, the farm bill should put more money into sustainable and organic food production, agricultural conservation and efforts to put a higher priority on fresh, local fruits and vegetables.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/10/FARMBILL.TMP&tsp=1

Organic farming can feed the world, UM study shows
Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming on the same amount of land—according to new findings which refute the long-standing assumption that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.

Researchers from the University of Michigan found that in developed countries, yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. In developing countries, food production could double or triple using organic methods, said Ivette Perfecto, professor at U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, and one the study's principal investigators. Catherine Badgley, research scientist in the Museum of Paleontology, is a co-author of the paper along with several current and former graduate and undergraduate students from U-M.

"My hope is that we can finally put a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can’t produce enough food through organic agriculture," Perfecto said.

In addition to equal or greater yields, the authors found that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizers, and without putting more farmland into production.http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/organic-farming-can-feed-world-um-study-shows-13675.html

Hi Tarabell:

___Again I am no expert but if you saw how corn is grown on a modern day Super Farm (I drive by multiples of these far outside the city and suburbs daily), the stalks are growing so darned fast (some fields are well over 7’ already!) and are so close to one another including the rows that you cannot even walk through it like I used to as a child. I look over the few bean fields and there is not a single weed for as far as the eye can see. This makes me believe these pesticide laydened and hyper planted fields are so super efficient and cost effective (especially with corn going for the mid $3.40 + per bushel for Sept. delivery) that nothing is going to compete with the latest and greatest super farms using every fertilizer (Corn only) and pesticide (Corn and Beans) trick in the book. Farmers are notoriously frugal when commodity pricing is placing them at a disadvantage and here in IL., they have been improving upon their crop yields through chemistry and biology like I have never seen before. The ethanol profit potential is really driving a lot of the corn planting around the Midwest as of late (as it should) but I am glad to see the mid-size and large family farmers finally enjoying the fruits of their labor. I should stop along my warm-up route sometime and take a pic so you could see these Corn fields’ crop densities. You literally can not walk through a row because the corn is so dense!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

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Organic farming can feed the world, UM study shows
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/organic-farming-can-feed-world-um-study-shows-13675.html

My understanding is that high land productivity organic food production requires high labor inputs and that there is a shortage of people wanting to walk fields with a short-handled spade for minimum wage. We probably would either have to pay a good bit more for food or create a large(r) underclass of agricultural workers.

Interestingly, I have noticed that Californian farm critics often criticize agricultural policies for direct subsidies to Midwestern farmers, but fail to mention western water subsidies that have been huge ecological catstrophes.

Wayne' s observations about midwest corn are interesting. Corn yields are up four or five fold in the midwest over the past 75 years and it seems likely that varieties and techniques have been optimized for chemical inputs, so changes would likely impair yields to some extent.

My experience with corn in standard 30" rows is that by July you can only walk down the rows turned sideways, but can't cross the rows without knocking down the plants with a great deal of difficulty (instead you look for a gap where seed germination was poor). For narrow rows--forget about walking through.

I haven't ever measured but my impression is that varieties of mature field corn are about 10-12' tall. There is a lot cellulosic biomass that is normally "wasted" in a field of corn.

Britain and Kenya are wrestling with a similar dilemma. So many tradeoffs, so little time.....and considering how nearby African areas need the food, so ironic.

It's a battle over who is to blame for climate change - poor African farmers who export their produce by air, or Western consumers who care about the environmental impact of 'food miles'.

'Who emits more greenhouse gases?' asks Charles Kimani among his avocado trees. 'A Kenyan or a Briton?' The average Briton emits 30 times more carbon than a Kenyan, according to World Bank figures - or 9.4 tonnes of CO2 compared with 0.3 tonnes.

Behind the furore is the proposal by the UK's Soil Association to ban imports of organic produce from poor countries like Kenya because of their 'food miles' - the carbon emitted by air transport. Starting with a debate in London tomorrow, the SA will hear views on the issue until September, when it may decide to introduce a limited or total ban. A ban would mean labelling air-freighted products so that they effectively lost their organic status due to their 'food miles'. Such a move would destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholders across Africa in one of the continent's most enterprising export industries, forcing them back into poverty and subsistence farming.

'A ban on our export market will be death for us,' says Kimani, who has put his children through school and college from the profits made from his fruit and vegetables on just seven acres of land.

Organic produce is the fastest growth area of Africa's horticultural industry, together with cut flowers and other high-value products like dried herbs and essential oils. In Kenya, where two-thirds of people live on less than 50p a day, horticulture is the largest export after tourism. The story is much the same in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania.

A chain of other industries from packaging to transport firms also rely on horticulture, so the knock-on effect would hit millions of jobs across the region.

The food-miles debate deepens the scepticism that many Africans already have towards Western rhetoric about ending poverty in the continent. Most farmers in upcountry Kenyan areas such as Kiambu do not look to increased aid as the way out of poverty. Devout Christians with a tradition of hard work and self-help, Kikuyu farmers see wealth coming from access to lucrative Western markets.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2126776,00.html

We've struggled with this too. Fortunately, in addition to Whole Paycheck and Tame Oats we also have a really great natural grocery chain (http://www.newseasonsmarket.com/) here that carries as much organic as possible, but also carries a substantial amount of conventional, mostly local produce. For the local stuff they select farms that, while not strictly organic, are using lower-impact methods and use pesticides minimally. And fortunately for us there is a lot of that in NW Oregon today.

I'm often faced with the choice, and usually go organic. But if, as sometimes happens, the choice is between an organic product that was air shipped from Chile or Thailand vs. something grown by a responsible if not organic local farmer and trucked less than 100 miles, then I'll go for the local stuff. Local tastes better too!

Yep I like New Seasons too, especially since we have one within an easy walk from us now in N. Portland. There's a lot of good CSA's in the Portland area too we joined one this year.

A lot of small farms can't afford to pay for the license or certification for the "Organic" label, but if you talk to them you can find out about there practices and would probably let you check there place out.

The food we grow in our little yard grow in our little yard is every bit as Organic but officially we couldn't sell it as Organic we're not certified. Doesn't make it any less organic though.

A lot of small farms can't afford to pay for the license or certification for the "Organic" label, but if you talk to them you can find out about there practices and would probably let you check there place out.
The food we grow in our little yard grow in our little yard is every bit as Organic but officially we couldn't sell it as Organic we're not certified. Doesn't make it any less organic though.

There was an article in I think in Time awhile ago and they expressed the same thing. Small growers can't afford the certification. Also they were talking about the costs to transport produce from Cali. to New York. They were saying while local produce might not be organic it SHOULD be FRESHER and less fuel costs. kevin

I'm not sure if I would say that either local or organic are inherently better than the other. I would expect that it would depend upon the specific food to some degree. Perhaps not according to some of the studies linked to so far.

What was an interesting thing to hear on science Friday the other week, was that cutting out red meat and dairy intake for one day a week could reduce your food footprint by up to 4%. I am by no means a vegetarian, but that sounds like a fairly sizable amount for a small cutback.