By Cory Whitney (First Published in Ecology and Farming Issue 43)
CNN announced in May that Wal-Mart, now the world's largest corporation, has also become the largest retailer of organic milk. There was a time when organic farmers and producers wouldn't have expected their products to end up in a big box store, now even the largest food markets have organic sections. These sales boosts represent both successes and failures for organic. The success is that more farm land is being managed organically. The benefits to the watershed, the farmers, and all the immediately associated biotic and social communities are immeasurable. The failure is that intensified production and increased food-miles have negative effects on these same communities. Large retailers selling organic products may be undermining the high ideals that got the Organic Movement where it is today.
There is a guilty pleasure that comes with eating fresh fruits and vegetables year round. Ripe bananas and strawberries can be purchased when snow is still on the ground - lush greens and melons in the middle of a dry season. The problem is that those organic goods go through a lot to get to us, and it is a system of distribution that does not echo the standards and original ideals of organic agriculture. The greens for our organic salads are trucked from a farm to a processor, who packages and ships that produce to a distributor, who then sends the produce to other distributors or to market. The still perky, fresh greens meet us at the opposite end of a long food supply chain that covers many thousands of miles. The associated biotic and social communities for this 'beyond production' impact are easy to overlook, the distribution process is designed to be invisible.
There is no doubt; organic is the way to grow. The benefits of supporting organic agriculture outweigh the negative aspects of shipping in many cases. The positive environmental impacts of ecological farming practices are the impetus of the organic farmers and consumers. The organic farm consumes nearly no fossil fuel, yet it has the potential to produce food at nearly the same rate as an industrial farm while maintaining a diversity of crops. It is not only better for the farmers, the farm life, and consumers; it mitigates global climate change. Organic agriculture minimizes the release of greenhouse gasses. It does not use nitrogen fertilizers; therefore no nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere. It does not use pesticides and therefore supports biodiversity. By composting and crop and animal grazing rotations organic contributes to further reductions in the releases of significant greenhouse gasses. Carbon sequestration takes place in the thick, healthy soil and surrounding biotic life. Organic agriculture actively improves the health of ecosystems beyond the farm by encouraging agro-forestry and forbidding the clearance of primary eco-systems.
Buying our food is an opportunity to ‘vote’ for the practices which we most agree with. This vote that we make with our investment in sustainable production can outweigh the impact of transportation. Even when accounting for the long distances that the products have to travel we may still effect positive change through our purchases. When Europeans choose to buy organic cotton from cooperative producers in India rather than conventional genetically modified cotton from a closer source they make a statement with their purchase. They pledge a vote for biodiversity, seed diversity, for the inherent community health of traditional organic farming rather than modern industrial methods, and for the livelihoods of hard working, environmentally conscientious people.
Buying organic and local is consistent with the moral standards of the organic movement. Among the many benefits of this choice is the decrease in food-miles. The shorter the supply chains the greater the profits for the farmer. Small farms with sales within the district they are grown are more economically viable and ecologically sustainable. With a strong emphasis on local food production economies can rely less on imports for sustenance.
There is a problematic blurring taking place today. The (altruistic) organic, and the (economic) industrial ideals are blended together in marketing models around the world. The unfortunate trend, now well established in the United States and catching on globally, is for demand at supermarket level to change the way food is grown. Markets with sales as large as Wal-Mart and McDonald's cannot do business with small producers. Even the smallest dairy operation demands thousands of gallons of milk per day from a farmer in order to justify a relationship with a supplier. Because of this market demand and consequent strain on the producer, the shift in production from small to industrial becomes inevitable. Having no options but to 'go big or go home' small farms around the world are disappearing.
Among the many victims in this system is the word 'organic' itself. In places, like California, with large industrial operations 'organic' has taken on a different, even slightly ominous meaning. Food is produced in California's rural central valley at a super-industrial level and then shipped to distribution centers all over the US. This kind of organic production on an industrial scale, with shipping long distances after production seems to miss the 'big idea'.
In the interest of making informed shopping votes we must ask fundamental questions about our food. This requires initiative on our part to be sure we understand the costs and benefits of different foods available at the local market.
We should ask ourselves these basic questions each time we walk down the produce aisle, through the bazaar, around the farmers market, or into the deli: Where did this food come from? (A few hundred miles of shipping must be weighed against the production methods and practices. A shorter supply chain usually equates to a smaller carbon footprint.) How much was it processed? (Stewing, grinding, baking and fermenting are all secondary processes which require another level of infrastructure, transportation, and storage for the food.) How is it packaged? (Much of the packaging is unnecessary and can negate the benefits of eating organic.) If we take these into account, and actively research our food sources, we will make substantial changes in our individual and communal ecological impacts.
Choosing local organic produce is voting for fair practices and standards for our whole Earth community. Organic agriculture's decreased use of fossil fuels and lack of fertilizers and pesticides all lead to a system that is helping to change the relationship between people and their natural environments. Choosing local foods further reduces ecological impacts by decreasing the transportation costs. Everyone has an important role to play in realizing this critical transformation. Governments should be supporting local and sustainable practices, encouraging and rewarding small scale transformation from conventional to organic. Donor and development agencies should have organic agriculture programs based on outreach, awareness, and best practices, especially in ecologically sensitive regions. More funding should be invested in research to improve existing farming and local marketing techniques. Farmers should grow organic for their communities rather than for large suppliers. Finally, and most importantly, we consumers should be choosing locally grown organic food.
The IFOAM Growing Organic internship is nearly over here in Bonn and I am just now starting to clean up from my nine months of work. These nine months I've written and published several articles in Ecology and farming, made a website, sent thousands of emails, proofread countless documents and attended agricultural conferences around the world. The wrap up includes writing more emails, writing guidelines for the next person to take over my work and general clean up and organization of posts, wikis, and networking. This makes for long days and and necessitates ample espresso consumption. Thank you Rapunzel for supplying the office with fair-trade, organic and tasty espresso grounds.
