Organic vs local produce?

I wrote a story for spicewok today, inspired by a conversation which I had with my mum earlier today...

H/L: Local vs Organic produce?

Intro: Oranges from Florida. Extra-virgin olive oil from Italy. Chilies from Mexico. Wine from Bordeaux. Tomatoes from Tuscany. Apples from Australia. While it's now possible to have the world served on a platter, is that healthier than sticking to what grows in your backyard?

Thanks to inventions like Internet-phones, I (sitting in San Jose, California) can have long chats with my mother (who lives in Bombay) on a daily basis. Today, she was talking to me about shopping for produce in Bombay and how firm, yellow bananas like the ones sold in America are more abundant than locally grown ones. She elaborated that fruit sellers sell apples from Australia, kiwis from New Zealand and long green beans from China. However, she said that she preferred locally grown produce over these "exotic" options any day, a fact which baffled the vendors to no end. My mother is unaware of the heated universal debate of Organic vs Locally grown produce but she still has an answer to it. "I like to know where my food is coming from," she succinctly informs me.

My husband and I face a similar dilemma when we go grocery shopping. Unfortunately, our perception is not as simple as my mum's and we have a lot more questions. Farmers' markets or Whole Foods or the local Indian grocery? Are the lauki or tendli sold in the local farmers' markets better than the ones sold at the Indian store? Are the organic apples shipped from Australia better than the non-organic ones grown locally in California (which have been sprayed with pesticides?)

Food miles

Some would say that the answer to my apple dilemma should have been obvious. But once you start thinking about how much fuel it takes to transport that Australian apple to California, it really makes you think. From farm to plate, how many miles has your apple travelled? The concept of food miles might be a useful index to valuate the goodness of food. Food in The USA travels an average of 2,000 km and changes hands half a dozen times before it is eaten. So, calculate the number of food miles your meal has travelled from the farm to your plate -- take into consideration the economic, environmental and health factors. Didn't the apple's taste suffer during its long journey? If it travels halfway around the world before it is consumed, an organic food still may be 'good' for the consumer, but is it 'good' for your body and your health?When food is transported long distances, they tend to lose taste and nutrition value because of the time and conditions of transit. Transport also consumes fuel and increases pollution. Freight transport is a key source of greenhouse gas emissions, which are a cause of global warming. Imagine how much cleaner the air would be if we all ate locally?

Is organic healthier?

The question of the link between pesticides and cancer is always foremost on the mind. Scientists have not yet conclusively proven that agricultural chemicals are harmful. It's not yet clear whether long-term exposure to the low levels of pesticide found on conventional produce cause cancer. Apart from the risk of cancer, several studies indicate that organic food is more nutritious -- organic foods contain higher levels of vitamins than their conventionally grown counterparts. In a paper published in October in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a team from the University of California, Davis, demonstrates that organically grown tomatoes have significantly more vitamin C than conventional tomatoes. Even so, the same study shows no significant differences between conventional and organic bell peppers.

Organic advocates profess that the way food is grown affects its nutritional quality. But advocates of local eating claim that what happens after harvest -- how food is handled and shipped -- is even more important than how it was grown.

Local vs Organic

Nearly a quarter of American shoppers now buy organic products once a week, up from 17% in 2000. Food purists however, swear that "local" is the new "organic," since it promises healthier bodies and a healthier planet. How important a factor is taste? If I can get my hands on locally-grown organic food, I know I've struck gold. But if now, I would opt for a freshly grown tomato any day over one that has travelled thousands of miles. This is also because a tomato is a rather delicate vegetable who's taste is directly linked to factors such as refrigeration and transport time. But for something like hard squash that can last months in storage without its taste getting affected, I'd opt for an organic version. A popular definition of 'local' comes from Gussow, a reporter for Time Magazine in the 1950s who went on to become a local-eating pioneer. For 25 years, Gussow has lectured on the environmental (and culinary) disadvantages of relying on a global food supply. Her most oft-quoted statistic is that shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calories of nutrition.

Sustainable farming

Not all locally grown produce may be organic. While California is privileged to have weather that supports growing a plethora of produce, it is unique in its position. But if you live in a humid climate, the moisture that encourages bacteria and fungi means that growing without pesticides is much more risky, expensive and rare. In other regions, like the upper Midwest, most big farms don't grow any vegetables for local markets, conventional or organic. Instead, they produce commodity crops like corn and soybeans for wholesale. This is a problem faced not just in the US but in other parts of the world as well, including India. Sustainable farming practices have not yet caught on in most places. Further, farmers' markets may not always provide organic produce, nor do many people live near one. But if you're willing to make the trip, you'll be surprised to find that your neighbourhood farmers' market might just sell enough organic produce. The benefits of these markets go beyond sustainable farming. You also get to eat only seasonal food, which is any day more healthier than genetically modified options. Depending on what is available locally is a radically new way of thinking about cooking because it's so very old.

With each local food purchase, you ensure that more of your money spent on food goes to the farmer and less goes to corporate retailers. It also helps make farming more profitable and selling farmland for development less attractive. Buying local food keeps money circulating in your community. We help keep our local farmers in business, and they help keep me fed -- and there's something about the elegance and sustainability of that exchange that makes a lot of sense to me.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs

What if you don't have a farmers' market near you or a store that sells a good variety of local or organic produce (whichever is your choice). An options worth exploring might be Community Supported Agriculture (csa) programs wherein a community invests in a local farm. At the beginning of each season, members pay the farmer a lump sum. Each week the farm delivers fresh vegetables (and, for more money, items like fruit, eggs and flowers) to a central location. And the pricing is reasonable as well. A core goal of CSAS is to remind you that your food originates in some place other than a grocery store. There are now some 1,200 csa farms in the U.S and you can find a csa near you at sites like localharvest.org

Restaurants going the organic way

Google's campus in Mountain View, California has a swanky cafeterias, Café 150, which only served food originating within a 150-mile radius of Mountain View. The fact that northern California is blessed with glorious farms and the Salinas Valley is a huge plus. In one interview, the head chef of Cafe 150 was asked if he thought a restaurant as strictly local as his would be possible anywhere outside central California, he answered, glumly, "Probably not."

But that's not the only one going local. Restaurants like Cinque Terre in Portland, Mozza in Los Angeles are run by chefs who strive to find local products. Some chefs are even growing their own food. The two Blue Hill restaurants in New York -- one in Manhattan and the other in Pocantico Hills -- buy less than 20% of their ingredients from outside the New York region. Much of both restaurants' food (including all the chicken and pork) is raised on about 20 acres next to the Pocantico Hills location.

BOX 1

HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR FOOD MILES

Find out the location of produce.

Find the transport distance from the location of produce to location of cleaning / preserving / packaging.

Find the distance from location of packaging to location of sale.

Combine this distance with information on greenhouse gas emissions (eg: per tonne per kilometer).

Check how environment friendly you can be if you eat locally.