What's More Important – Organic Food or Local Food?

Reader Contribution by Mary Lou Shaw
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People express surprise that I’m such a strong proponent of local food and say they don’t hear me emphasize organic. Don’t I think it’s important? Sure I do, but I’ve come to take “organic” for granted. Then the question comes up — do I think local food or organic food is the more important concept? I have a standard answer in life when given a choice between two things that I value: I want both! Let’s look at the pros and cons of these concepts and see if you can choose which you value more.

Organic Food

Organic became popular back in the 1970’s when people were becoming concerned about farm chemicals causing pollution and harming the environment. Herbicides and pesticides were introduced after WWII as industry sought a market for the neurotoxins that had been developed for chemical warfare. These petroleum-based chemicals kill by destroying the nervous system. Obviously, I choose not to eat food that has these poisons on or in them, so I vote for organic food.

The organic movement isn’t everything that the original founders had hoped however. After it became popular, the corporate world wanted to cash in on profits, and much organic farming is now done on an industrial scale. Just as in conventional farming, topsoil is lost, food comes from less than nutritious soil, produce is picked before it reaches peak nutrition, and lots of petroleum is used to produce, package, refrigerate and transport organic food. Additionally, the USDA allows many inorganic additives in food labeled “organic.” Chickens and cows whose produce is labeled organic don’t necessarily have pasture or sunshine. The food may be mostly organic, but it can be nutritionally inferior.

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