Going Organic, Part One

Okay, now you may have heard this one before. Do you know where your food comes from? No, not the supermarket. That could be where you bought it, but where was it produced? Why is this important? Well, the closer you are to your food source, the more secure that source is.

Why? For one thing it is fresher. It hasn't traveled a thousand miles or more. This means it did not have to be specifically engineered to travel well. That's right, food in our supermarkets is grown with an emphasis on travel, not on freshness or nutrient value, so while the price at the store may be low, the quality you are getting is also low.

Another point is the farther the food travels the greater the odds are that there will be a disruption or other problem on that voyage. This includes both accidents and intentional acts of tampering. Why risk it?

Another good point is the amount of fossil fuels that are used to get the food to you. Transporting food across country spreads pollution all along the route. I find this ludicrous. Food, which we consume for health (or at least that should be the primary reason for eating) causes pollution to spread across the country as it travels from one coast to the next or over oceans.

Add the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to this and food creates illness. Now that is strange.

This brings me to the point of this week's article: Organic certification. If the food you eat is certified organic, then you do not have to worry about it being sprayed with chemical substances that will harm you. It is important to know though, that even if the food is certified organic, if it comes from another state or province and travels miles to your table, then it is still polluting along the way, and it is still susceptible to accidents and tampering.

If your food is to be truly secure and safe, you need to grow it yourself, organically, or purchase it directly from a local organic grower. Now this direct purchase may happen through a buyer's cooperative, which we will explore in a future article, or at a farmers' market or farm gate or a community shared agriculture project.

In short, the way to achieve food security is either to grow it yourself or in cooperation with others or to buy it from a locally owned and operated, preferably small scale (and we will explore small scale production in the future) farm. You can talk with the owners, the people who grow the food you eat. You can ask them questions and perhaps even visit their farm.

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