Going Organic?

By now you’ve learned that the way food is grown has a huge impact on its nutritive value and quality.  You’ve also learned that many of the current commercial agricultural practices do not produce high quality food.  You want to give your family the best but can’t switch everything to organic all at once.  So where’s the best place to start?

An important guiding principle should be that whenever possible, you should buy your food from a local source.  Much of the motivation for adding preservatives to food, picking fruit when it’s ridiculously green, and in other ways extending its shelf life has to do with the need to transport that food over long distances and have it still be presentable by the end of the trip.  If you buy your food locally, you eliminate the need for your supplier to have the food he sells you subjected to all that abuse.  If many people make a point to buy their food locally, the market will eventually catch on (though don’t hold your breath).  There are, of course, exceptions to this, like if you want wild salmon and don’t live anywhere near Alaska.  So, buying local is a guiding principle, not a rigid law.

There are many ways you can start buying locally.  One is to shop at farmers’ markets.  Farmers’ markets are where local growers set up a booth at a specific time, usually weekly, to sell their produce.  It is often in season fruits and vegetables, but it can also be meat, honey, dairy products and even art work.  When shopping at a farmers’ market, you are usually buying food directly from the grower, so you can talk to the grower about how that food is grown.  Rather than relying on a label such as “organic” you can learn exactly what cultural practices go into producing the vegetables or meat you are eyeing.  You will undoubtedly find that while many small growers won’t go to the trouble of getting themselves officially labeled “organic,” they are organic for all practical purposes.

Another way to shop locally is to become a member of a community supported agriculture farm, also known as a CSA.  You buy one or more shares in the CSA and that entitles you to a weekly portion of fresh fruits and vegetables that you can pick up at the farm or another prearranged pickup location.  CSAs can also deal in dairy products, flowers, honey and other things.  Most CSAs are organic, and you can speak to the grower about the specifics of how the food is grown.  By buying a share of the CSA produce, you are assuming part of the risk for the grower.  If it’s a great season, you will enjoy your piece of a bountiful harvest.  If it’s a poor season, the weekly pickups will be smaller.  Of course, CSA farmers do their best to ensure a good harvest, but the fact that they share the risk does allow them to put more effort into producing quality over quantity.  They can also try to grow different crops and use different cultural practices without having to shoulder the entire burden of risk.  As a participant in a CSA, you will become more educated about what goes into producing the food you eat.

As a general rule, taking a more active role in your food production is an important step to improving its nutritional value.  Part of the reason food quality has been allowed to decline so much is the increasing separation of the consumer from where the food comes from.  By reconnecting with the source of your food such as by shopping locally at farmers’ markets or becoming a member of a CSA, you can have much more say over its quality.