So we made Tacos for dinner tonight... again. I love tacos and recently at Trader Joes I picked up some newer, organic ingredients to swap with the ones I always used to buy. So all is good and we are cooking and I am reading the article from Time magazine, called "Eating better than Organic", in between chopping and stirring. Its about eating local over eating organic. Jennifer posted the link back in the early days of this blog... yes March. Here it is again:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101070312,00.html
So I went from being all proud that I am having Organic black beans to all disappointed that they were a " a product of China". How much fuel did it take to get these beans to Trader Joes and is that any better for the environment then eating just regular old, non-organic black beans from California?!?! In the article its referred to as as "environmental wash" meaning they both make a negative environmental impact, so the author, or the guy hes interviewing, says at that point just go with what tastes better, and of course price becomes part of it ( for me at least).
What are your thoughts on all of this? We live in California which is supposed to be one of the few areas that can grow just about anything, meaning we have access to a lot more locally grown foods then say New York. Do any of you buy local over organic? Of course both would be great...
I really want to look into buying more locally, there are just a lot of benefits for our environment and health and community that I was oblivious to (Im growing up I guess). I swear up until a few weeks ago an apple was just a flippin' apple! Now I want it to be organic and local and I want to walk to go get it! Not with everything obviously (do they even grow bananas here?).
Anyway, please share your thoughts on local vs. organic. I could never see myself adhering to the "100 mile diet", but I will definitely get my family to a farmers market a couple times a month...
3 comments:
Not sure I have any advise. But since reading that article I too have been really aware of where food comes from. I think as consumers the more we buy local when it's available in stores and mention that we want to know where stuff comes from (sometimes it's almost impossible to tell), the more stores will respond. I like how Whole Foods pretty clearly labels where produce comes from. And Oliver's has good signage too (and not just in the produce section) pointing out local and organic products.
Yea, after rereading some of the older posts it seems like I am a little behind on this one. Seems like you have been doing this for a while now :) I guess its just an aspect of greenness that I haven't explored yet... It like purchases have to go through all these filters, is it grown locally, is it good for the environment, is it good for my waistline/health and is it good for my bank account. Not necessarily in that order :)
I like to buy local, food that is. My car, that's a different story.
I can't wait for the Farmer's market this year. Last year we got some pretty big strawberries for a pretty good price.
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