What is the Difference Between Local/Sustainable and Organic Foods?

As someone who is out and about each and every day, with both consumers and farmers, I can tell you that the social discourse has been swinging heavily towards locally grown, wholesome foods.

With so many different messages being conveyed though, sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees (or the cornfield through the corn stalks as it were).

As more and more people choose to make healthier food choices for their families (organic food sales have grown by 20% per year every year since 1990) the most common question that I hear is "What's the difference between Certified Organic and Local foods?"

To answer a big question with a brief response let me say this ... there are lots.

Some very big players have gotten into the organic food business (Walmart is now one of the largest organic food sellers in the country) and it raises some serious questions as to what that little label on your package of organic strawberries really means.

For instance, did you know that 90% of the world's garlic now comes from China?

Next time you're at the supermarket, go to the produce aisle and find that convenient little tub of certified organic pre-cleaned garlic from Greenway (a major organic line). Now take a look just to the left of the Company's name ... guess what you'll see? A little word printed next it ... CHINA. If you weren't looking for it, you'd never even see it, but now you WILL!

If you're someone who has ever tried a tomato, still warm from a full summer day's sun, just plucked from the vine, bursting with juice and flavor, then you well know the difference between that glorious fruit and the ones sitting on the shelf at the supermarket.

When food is grown locally, by people who care about not only the environment, and the practices they uphold, but you as well, you reach another level of taste, nutrition, and satisfaction.

To me there are 3 levels of food:

1. Conventional — sprayed with chemical pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers on industrial farms;
2. Certified Organic — in most cases not sprayed with chemicals, but generally flown/trucked/boated in from all over the world and from very large farms;
3. Local/Sustainable — grown within 50-100 miles of where you live on small to medium sized, family owned farms.

This is not to condemn conventionally grown food, or certified organic foods flown in from Mexico, or any type of food at all ... nor to say that all locally grown food is good ... but a point needs to be made.

We as a country (on the whole) have entirely lost touch with where and how our food is grown. We now rely on people we have never met, never seen, and in most cases who live half way around the world, to grow our food for us.

So the answer is truly this, if you're worried about the food you are eating, ask the farmer. This is what I tell everyone who asks me about food. When you're in a position to ask the farmer what their practices are: how they grew that carrot, what kind of fertilizer did they use, are those chickens really free range, etc., you're in a position to make informed decisions about your food.

And when you make informed decisions, you have the power!

More food tips to come ...