You have choice. You must pick one. Do you reach for locally grown or organic? Why?
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You have choice. You must pick one. Do you reach for locally grown or organic? Why?
Where I'm from, locally grown generally is organic. There's a very strong community mindset here (or there, it's half an hour away and I don't shop there anymore) so I would generally go locally grown. I like the idea of supporting local businesses and jobs, and helping get the regions name out there. The fact that it's also usually organic is a bonus, because I think if I didn't care about the community I'd choose the organic for health/environmental reasons.
No no. I'm serious. What is more important. If you had to choose one or the other what would you pick? And you can't say both :p
Local. Surrounded by farmers here. I know them in varying capacity. One of the major factories supports the local school and kinder. I "see" where my money is going.
Yes, it is tough at times, I would prefer some of them would look at more organic farming practices, but then my "food miles" are quite low when purchasing local, so offsets some of that.
Local. The way I see it, if I can choose only one, then the more I support local business, the easier and more cost effective it will be for them to institute organic practices. No idea if that is actually logical or simply wishful thinking though! LOL
I would go local, preferring freshness, cost & ease of acquisition over organic. It's reasonably difficult to get organic produce where I live & if I was relying on that we would be eating such a limited diet that it would be counterproductive, nutrient wise. At least if its fresh & nice everyone eats it. I'm talking fruit & veg.
Haha ok, I cheated :) I think I'd still go local though. Supporting the local community is important to me, especially when it's small.
It would have to be a case by case basis. What is the local practise, is it at least largely ethical, what pollutants are we talking? And how much further is the organic travelling, what's its footprint? Are we talking east coast to west coast, overseas? Are the locals receptive to change, planning it in the future at all or strongly against going organic? I don't know if I could support someone with no view to change...
Can I just grow my own lol.
I don't buy organic because I prefer local for a few reasons. The labelling of organic these days is pretty liberal. And if purchasing from a supermarket organic (which is pretty much my only option) it can still be (not always and depending on the produce) stored for longer periods before being available and that's not including transport time.
Ultimately I'd prefer to grow my own too. But in the meantime I will always support local over organic. Especially when dealing with major chains.
Definitely local. Supermarket organic is my only option as well, and it's such a limited selection!
If given the choice I think I'd go local.
I would go local.
Like LS said, I would then hope that the extra $ earned by the farmer could be put to instituting better practices.
I also believe in the economies of scale and think that although having little organic farms dotting the countryside is lovely, it's not always environmentally "best practice".
are we not better off having one farm of 100 acres, with 1 house, 1 road 1 lot of farm machinery etc and leaving the rest of the country side undeveloped than having 20 farms of 10 acres, miles of road, extra houses, cars, building a shop, putting in a petrol station etc.
The more I think about it the more I believe that the future health of our land, infrastructure and economy, especially being such a vast country, is dependant on us becoming more high density living minded.
I think it is a sounder model, keep people and nature separated. That way you can much more effectively maintain both.
Sorry, gone totally OT, and a bit ranty :redface:
Organic.
Because of the bees.
Bees are dying all over the world. It's terrifying. Without bees we will simply lose a half our fruit and vege varieties. We can possibly grow the same weight of food but variety is also important.
Organic farming helps the bees. Whilst not all non-organic farming is responsible for bee die-off there are certainly chemicals in use that are.
And Monsanto - Monsanto chemicals and GM crops are increasingly part of the non-organic landscape.
Does it have to be real or can it be preferred?
I don't buy organic for the reasons exactly that you've listed.
However, there is nothing (no word of a lie) local here. Even the tonnes of beef actually grown here gets shipped to Indo. Every. last. beast.
My understanding Monsato in Australia was only grain? Not something I'm going to buy locally anyway. And I thought the bees dying was to do with how canola was treated. And again not something I buy locally.
And just out of curiosity for those that do buy organic now, what certification do you trust? Do you even bother with certification? Or do you just assume that if they say its organic... It is?
I work the same way as Teeki. SA has a great selection of locally grown organic produce so I generally choose that.
If it comes down to the crunch though I go locally. Growing up in a fruit growing and farming area I know how important it is to keep agriculture going. I know a lot of the growers names when I see them in the shop and I will choose them over organic produce from say far north qld where there is no personal connection. (Sorry to anyone in far north qld ;))
That being said I pretty much 99% of the time refuse to buy fresh produce from overseas. I get so mad when I see calafornian oranges in the shop! Our poor growers are throwing them out because they don't get sales :(
On your question of buying organic, I quite often go to the markets where there is an organic and sustainability stall. They have a coloring system where you know the level of organic it is(ie. fully organic, minimal spray, sustainable farming). They also list the farm/grower and location so I know where and what I'm buying.
Organic is a tough one. I suppose I go by brand in some cases, sometimes I am just trusting.
Some products are pretty much organic, they just have not paid for the accrediation or through some minor thing cannot get the accreditation. That can be the joy of buying local, you can find out about what their practices are
This is me exactly. DH has a little vege patch but it is sadly neglected due to lack of time. We mainly grow our own coriander, basil, chillies & spring onions. We've tried a few others unsuccessfully due to pests/insufficient time.:
We have a local fruit & vege shop that also grows their own (not everything but a good selection). They generally source most things locally and are priced on a par with coles/woolies and often cheaper. Very little is imported and if it is, it's usually because it's out of season here and is clearly labelled. Organic is hard to find and limited. It would be nice to buy organic everything but not practical or cost effective where I live. We buy basics only at the supermarket.
Local all the way. We are lucky enough to have fortnightly markets two suburbs away that sell a lot of local produce.
I do do both. <300km and organic or organic in conversion. And I don't deal with the major chains. I really couldn't choose!
Depends on what it is and where it's from. Most fruit and veg is local anyway, so choosing an organic variety is just a subset (I know you said you can't choose both, but still ;)). On the other hand, I refuse to buy any 'fresh' fruit and veg that is imported, regardless of it's organic credentials. I have a skepticism of overseas organic certification credentials that are not readily identifiable/credible. Plus, food miles!!
As for canned/manufactured goods, I choose local over imported organic. Security of local food supply and food miles are both important to me. Tinned tomatoes are a key example, there's only one brand in the supermarkets not made from imported ingredients. If that goes, I'll start bottling my own rather than buy tomatoes that come all the way from Italy, organic or not! Plus, protectionism of some overseas farmers and specific crops is leading to both overproduction and unsustainable levels of waste of some foods in those markets. It makes no sense. I read the labels on everything to see whether it's made from local or imported ingredients and choose local.
Our local butcher has his own farm and supplies a lot of the meat from that. I've had extensive conversations with him about sustainable farming. Anything he has to buy in, he personally goes and checks out the supplier, esp interstate. I trust his stuff more than any organic stamp.
And the ethical struggle I have with purchasing any organic packaged food due to the use of palm oil on the machinery. It's the only "organic" grease that can be used when manufacturing these items. And unfortunately Australia is way behind when it comes to certified sustainable palm oil labelling.
It becomes so complex when you look into it, doesn't it, Rouge?
I take heart from the fact that there are at least so many people who at least consider so many of these aspects when it comes to their purchasing decisions.
I'm a bit like teeki! Both options apply. Farmers market when it's on for local fresh produce, and tend to gravitate to organic stands.
Out here its relatively easy to source local produce if we aren't growing it ourselves. Meat we get direct from the farm where we can (ok, it's not entirely local but it comes from dd's godfather and they bring it when they are coming to visit anyway, so no extra transport costs!). Just the way it works for us.
I tend to be wary of organic at the supermarket, but I trust it at the farmers market (which is less verifiable. Go figure lol)
I hate this. I was using Earth Choice for cleaning products, then realised they use palm oil. I doubt the earth would choose that :(:
That is true - but there are some ways of using palm oil that are better than others (see statement in bold below) - and at least Earth Choice tell you they are using palm oil - many don't. The following is from the Natures Organics (who make Earth Choice website about Palm Oil. I think it is a better alternative than many other things.:
(Always local over organic - anything that is overpackaged organic or not I won't buy, I wouldn't buy something that is local and heavily packaged over something from a little further afield (although rule out from another country) that is un-packaged.
:
We are constantly posed with the question ‘How come other companies can claim they are palm oil free?’
The simple answer is if a company is claiming to be palm free they are instead using other forms of oil; coconut or petroleum.
Natures Organics has had many emails and phone calls from our customers and we are well aware of the environmental issues surrounding the production and use of palm oil. We voluntarily label palm oil on our products even though we are not required to disclose this information.
Natures Organics, along with other personal care and household cleaning product manufacturers started using palm oil many years ago in order to move away from a reliance on petrochemicals and animal derived ingredients. Palm oil fulfilled the requirements needed to produce these types of products as this oil had a composition which closely resembled that of crude oil, yet was from a sustainable, plant based source. As the cleaning and personal care industries were the main users of palm based ingredients at that time, the supply and demand for this oil was stable and the existing plantations were able to keep up with global demand without the need to encroach on the fragile and unique ecosystems coexisting alongside.
Technological advances over the last 10-20 years revealed that palm oil was a cheap and renewable alternative for many other industries including food and biofuel production. The rapid escalation in demand for this oil from these two industries (they currently use over 90% of palm oil produced worldwide) has led to the destruction of irreplaceable rainforest to open up land for palm plantations. Both the food and biofuel industries can utilise other plant derived oils, the only alternative we have at this time is coconut. Many organisations, individuals and even some manufacturers tout this as a highly desirable substitute but unfortunately this isn’t the case; coconut can only yield fruit in the same areas as palm, but coconut requires up to four times the area of land as palm to yield the same amount of oil. Currently it may be perceived as a more sustainable oil, but to put it simply it isn’t, and will only lead to greater deforestation.
Natures Organics is actively working toward minimising our reliance on palm as much as technology allows at this time. We have already managed to source corn and sugar derived ingredients to replace some of the palm derived ones and we have been researching and trialling ingredients derived from straw; a by-product of the wheat industry. We have made great progress with these but in order to use the quantities we would require to replace all our palm based ingredients, extensive toxicology/animal testing is required to be performed (by regulatory departments) as they are new ingredients. This puts us in a difficult position because these tests will compromise our CCF accreditation.
We banned all palm oil which had been grown in Borneo or Indonesia some time ago due to the significant environmental issues in these areas. We have now managed to secure a sole supply of palm oil from a well-established (30 plus years old) plantation in peninsular Malaysia where no orang-utans live (or ever have). The plantation owner is a founding member of the RSPO who voluntarily submitted themselves for auditing, achieving accreditation in 2008.
Natures Organics proudly sponsor The Orangutan Project, an Australian based organisation which is involved in the protection and rehabilitation of many threatened species in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra. We currently fund a four man protection team which patrol one of their animal sanctuaries preventing illegal logging and poaching.
We support the lobby for all palm oil to be labelled in Australia as it will encourage research for alternatives and push for complete sustainability.
All of us at Natures Organics are sickened by the devastation occurring in South East Asia and as such we are doing everything in our power to minimise our impact. We will continue trying to find viable alternatives.