Issues: Should you buy local or organic food?
Organic, pesticide-free food is better for the environment
Amanda Heinbockel
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: Issues
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No reasonable person seeks pesticides, additives or growth hormones for their diet, but most people unknowingly eat them every day. Unnatural processes and ingredients make high productivity in the food industry possible. Human and environmental health should not be sacrificed, however, for a bottom line.
Global demand for food will only increase, so the industry itself must change. Organic food offers the most effective solution to issues of health and environmental sustainability.
The scope of the organic-food movement reaches far beyond just ingredients. Organic agriculture includes every step of the food process from planting to transportation and packaging. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements states on its Website, "the role of organic agriculture, whether in farming, processing, distribution, or consumption, is to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings."
Although organic agriculture doesn't always meet the IFOAM ideal, it exists in both local and industrial food production. Local farmers, in fact, introduced the idea of organic farming. Furthermore, the supporters of the organic agriculture movement and the local farm movement come from the same base of environmentally conscious people. Often supporting local is actually the same as supporting organic.
While supporting solely local food decreases fuel consumption and encourages small business, big industries must convert to organic practices before the organic movement can have a real effect on national human and environmental health. Fuel consumption during transportation is only a minor issue compared to the challenges big industry poses nationally and globally.
Pesticides alone have negative effects that spread through the earth's land, water and air. Pesticides kill off food sources for many organisms, and in effect cut off the food chain's base. According to the USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, pesticides contribute to about 20 percent of endangered and threatened species. Runoff from pesticide-treated farms makes its way into rivers and our water supply. Pesticides can also produce ozone- one cause of global warming.
Global demand for food will only increase, so the industry itself must change. Organic food offers the most effective solution to issues of health and environmental sustainability.
The scope of the organic-food movement reaches far beyond just ingredients. Organic agriculture includes every step of the food process from planting to transportation and packaging. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements states on its Website, "the role of organic agriculture, whether in farming, processing, distribution, or consumption, is to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings."
Although organic agriculture doesn't always meet the IFOAM ideal, it exists in both local and industrial food production. Local farmers, in fact, introduced the idea of organic farming. Furthermore, the supporters of the organic agriculture movement and the local farm movement come from the same base of environmentally conscious people. Often supporting local is actually the same as supporting organic.
While supporting solely local food decreases fuel consumption and encourages small business, big industries must convert to organic practices before the organic movement can have a real effect on national human and environmental health. Fuel consumption during transportation is only a minor issue compared to the challenges big industry poses nationally and globally.
Pesticides alone have negative effects that spread through the earth's land, water and air. Pesticides kill off food sources for many organisms, and in effect cut off the food chain's base. According to the USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, pesticides contribute to about 20 percent of endangered and threatened species. Runoff from pesticide-treated farms makes its way into rivers and our water supply. Pesticides can also produce ozone- one cause of global warming.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Clifton Middleton
posted 11/09/07 @ 11:56 AM CST
The fundamental problem with converting 'commercial agriculture' to organic is finding a replacement for chemical fertilizer, primarily nitrogen, derived from natural gas. (Continued…)
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