I'm sure many of you have become very aware of the organic movement as of late. Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart has even gotten in on the act. Buying organic has never been cheap so we'll have to see what happens to prices as they enter the market. Like most people I would love to be able to eat organic but doing so requires money and some planning. I've noticed that with organic fruits and vegetables they don't tend to last as long so you really have to buy what you are planning on eating in the next couple of days. There's nothing worse than seeing that expensive, albeit delicious, produce rotting in your refrigerator after a few days.
One thing that I hadn't thought about when it comes to organic foods is that not all organic is equal. Michael Pollan brought this up yesterday on Weekday, here on KUOW in Seattle. He discussed many topics such as the difference between eating organic local foods and organic foods that have to be transported here by planes, trains, ships, giant trucks, etc. Like many people I always thought of eating organic as an issue of doing something that is good for me, and it is. But in addition to that there is the idea of organic farming is also important for the environment.
With industrial farming, the soil ends up being stripped of nutrients over time making them unusable for growing anything. Granted, this can take decades but why would you want to do something that would take away valuable land for growing food to feed an ever increasing population. So by practicing sustainable farming they are able to keep the soil fertile so it can feed us for generations. The question here is, when large companies like Wal-Mart start pushing organic and need larger supplies of this type of food there will be large farms using industrial farming techniques to grow organic food. So in the end, is this organic food really that good for us and our environment?
In addition to the industrialization of organic food, there's the idea of eating locally. How good is that organic tomato you're eating if it's had to be shipped all the way from South America? In addition to it not being picked when it's ready to eat because it has to travel, the fuel that is being used to transport it to you has to be considered. Granted, some sort of transport has to happen with all foods but wouldn't it be better if all that was was just a three hour drive from the other side of the state? Of course, in order to do this people will have to change how they eat. These days everyone is used to having things like tomatoes all year, but if you only ate locally then that wouldn't be possible. There'd probably be high incidences of scurvy in some parts of the country where citrus isn't native so there would have to be some exceptions. I know I probably wouldn't be able to grow mangos here in Seattle, but eating locally when I can will have to be a conscious decision I make when shopping.
The best strawberries I had ever tasted were ones that I had picked myself at a strawberry farm here in Washington state a few years back. I never knew what a real strawberry tasted like because I had always bought them prepackaged at the supermarket. These however were ripened naturally in the fields and I was rewarded with sweet and juicy berries. I think that is the biggest selling point for buying locally. Farmers can harvest what is in season and ready to be eaten instead of picking items early for shipping and letting them ripen in giant storage facilities.
Luckily in Seattle we have amazing farmers' markets all over the city, from the famous Pike Place Market to all the neighborhood markets starting to spring up this time of year. In addition to that, there are a number of CSAs here in Seattle, such as the Pike Place Market CSA, Boistfort Valley Farm CSA, and the Full Circle Farm CSA. For those of you unfamiliar with CSAs, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. For some you pay a certain amount of money upfront and during a period of time (usually summer through early fall) you'll receive fresh produce delivered weekly to one of many delivery locations. Others you pay per delivery but it is still delivered weekly and sometimes you can get a discount if you pay for a certain number ahead of time. What's great about this is you get what is fresh at that time and if you pay in advance, the money helps to give the farmers some working capital for the year. It's a win win all around.
I had been thinking about joining a CSA for a while but always thought it was too expensive. But the other day I was breaking down the cost and it wasn't really that much more than what I spend every week. Plus, not knowing what I'll get will force me to be more creative with my cooking. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing.
So what have I taken from all of this? The first thing is I'm going to try to eat more organic food. The second is, when eating organic I'm going to try to eat locally. And the third is that there is definitely a tie between what we eat and the world around us. What's the point in eating organically if we just end up killing the planet anyway?
Having said all this, I'm going to go see how the strawberries I planted last spring are doing.
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