Hello again, everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. The weather is finally warm up here, and I couldn’t be happier! Today I am breaking down a topic where there is a lot of controversy: organic versus local foods. The ultimate question is this – organic versus local: which is better?
Both of them have their own benefits and drawbacks, just like anything else; I believe that what you consider as better is a matter of your own personal preference. To shed light on this topic, I have broken each side into three sections:
- Defining the initiative
- Economic considerations
- Environmental considerations
- Health considerations
Breaking it down this way will allow you to make an informed judgement about which is right for YOU. It doesn’t have to be black or white, either; you can reap the benefits of both!
Let’s start with organic foods.
Organic
What does “organic” mean?
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), produce, meat, dairy or animal by-products that are considered “organic” must be grown without the use of GMOs, nanotechnology, artificial preservatives and colours, synthetic chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, sewage sludge or irradiation.
For a product to be labelled organic in the country it must be certified by the Canada Organic Regime, which was established in 2009, and follow all of the standards of the 1999 National Standard of Canada for Organic Agriculture act. Products that are at least 95% organic may use the Canada Organic logo that you’ve probably seen on many different products in the grocery store (I’ve included a photo of it on the right!). Organic food production promotes environmental preservation by supporting soil health, ethical care of livestock and labourers, and conserves the overall quality of the environment.
Organic farming only makes up 1.8% of total farming operations in Canada. Saskatchewan has the most organic farming practices in the country, with 27% of their farms being organic. Quebec is next (26%), followed by Ontario (18%) then British Columbia (12.7%). Organic farms in Canada cover 953,000 hectares of land and employ 11,167 Canadian workers. As this industry grows, even more jobs will become available.
Cost
If you’ve been to any grocery store, you’ve definitely noticed that organic products can be significantly higher in price than non-organic, conventional products. Why? There are a few factors that go into the pricing of organic food products.
For one, organic farms are usually much smaller than the average farm, 60 to 85 hectares smaller. Organic farmers believe that upholding their values of preserving the land and soil quality can be better done with small, diverse crops. Organic farmers that don’t have the same amount of equipment or space as conventional farming charge the consumer more for their products because it costs more for them to produce good food.
There are fewer organic farms (as of 2011, Statistic Canada’s Census of Agriculture found that there were 3713 certified organic farms in Canada versus the total 205,730 farms in the country), so there are higher transportation costs to get them around the country. Bananas, for instance, must be grown in tropical climates. For this reason they are rarely grown in North America; Hawaii and Florida are some of the few places you can find bananas being grown. Therefore, organic bananas have to travel far before they get to our grocery stores.
Environment
Since one of the many goals of organic farming is to improve soil quality, it does include some environmentally conscious thinking compared to other conventional food production practices. Organic farming relies on crop rotations to replenish nutrients in the soil; harvesting one crop on a piece of land one season then harvesting a different crop the following season ensures that the soil quality is not compromised, each different crop providing all sorts of good nutrients for the soil that they need.
Organic farming relies mainly on manure as fertilizer, using the natural nitrogen and phosphorus to enrich the growing crops without harmful synthetic additives found in man-made fertilizers or pesticides. Using natural fertilizers instead of synthetic chemical substances decreases the use of non-renewable energy sources that are usually required to produce such chemicals. Gases released when burning these non-renwables (like fossil fuels) are also reduced as more organic practices are used, improving air quality. In addition, organic crop production uses minimum tilling (stirring/upturning soil to mix up the different compounds in it and loosen up large pieces) so the carbon held in the soil stays there instead of being released into the atmosphere.
The drawback to this is that this type of fertilization, just like synthetics, can be and is overused. The excess nutrients not used by the crops accumulate in the soil or on land: when it rains, these nutrients are washed downhill and leach into our natural waterways. Excess phosphorus and nitrogen can cause aquatic bacteria to thrive and grow into large communities, forming swampy clumps called algal blooms. This process of eutrophication prevents oxygen from circulating through water beneath the blooms, turning the ecosystems into toxic zones that can support hardly any life. Lake Erie’s infamous algal blooms, for example, decreased the amount of in the Lake significantly, and have even poisoned the drinking waters of local communities.
As mentioned, organic produce can require greater travel to reach consumers. This increases the production of greenhouse gases from transporting the goods, further promoting climate change. India is the largest producer of bananas worldwide, producing approximately 20 million tonnes of bananas a year. Keep in mind that these aren’t even organic bananas. Now imagine how far an organic banana has to travel to get to markets all over the world, considering there are much less organic banana farms.
Health
In terms of the “health benefits” loosely claimed by various magazines, bloggers and fitness gurus, no conclusion has been made to prove that organic foods provide any such benefits. Just like any other scientific controversy, there are two sides of the argument.
There have been recent studies claiming there to be many more antioxidants and nutrients. This analyses of hundreds of studies found that organic dairy is richer in Omega-3s because grass-fed cows have a greater source of PUFAs in their diets, as well as vitamin E and iron. However, this study by the University of British Columbia claims that organic foods are not the “holy grail” media deem them to be and there is a lot of uncertainty around their so-called benefits.
There is a concern of increased exposure to contaminants with organic foods. Since organic agriculture uses natural fertilizers like manure, you can imagine where the concerns arise. Manure that does not undergo the proper composting processmeant to kill the trillions of bacteria present in it can cause serious illness if you are exposed to it. If you’re up to date with news, you may know about the current E. coli outbreak causing over 100 people to become ill because of contaminated romaine lettuce, including organic kinds. It’s considered the worst outbreak since the 2006 E. coli outbreak in California, causing three deaths and hundreds to become sick because of organic spinach exposed to contaminated manure.
No matter how advanced technology gets and however many systems are developed to monitor bacteria in our fertilizers and foods, some may always slip through the cracks. Contamination isn’t isolated to just organic foods, but there is an increased risk because of the exposure to things like bacteria-rich manure. This study from 2015 found that organic produce was twice as likely to be contaminated with Salmonella than conventional produce in Californian farmer’s markets!
Summary of organic foods
As you can see, organic products have many pros as well as cons. In my household, we buy several different organic products (mainly produce). If you’ve ever heard of the “Dirty Dozen” or “Clean Fifteen,” these annual lists break down the most (and least) pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables around the world. This is how my household typically decides whether we’ll purchase a certain produce item as organic or not. For instance, we purchase organic kale and spinach but not avocados or corn. These lists are backed up by a significant amount of research, and they’re useful tools to prove that you don’t need to buy everything organic. You do what you can! More and more Canadians are buying organic: the number of organic farms increased by 66% from 2001 to 2011 alone, and 56% of Canadian shoppers report purchasing organic products at least once a week! Each one of these individuals has made a small difference in their every day habits, but it is showing all of these little changes add up to a huge change in the way we eat around the world.
Local
What does “local” mean?
What is defined as “local” varies by region. Where I live, local is defined as anything produced entirely/almost entirely within the province. Every type of product has a different standard: for instance, at least 90% of a dairy product should be sourced from Ontario, with up to 10% of the milk being produced being sourced within Canada. Any ingredients included in the dairy product (such as yogurts containing added fruits or granola) must be produced within Ontario. Things like fruits and vegetables must have been grown in the province. Meat (beef, pork, lamb) must be born, raised and slaughtered within the province. For a detailed list of what type qualifies as local in Ontario, check out Foodland Ontario’s page. You can find all of the numbers I mentioned and more on their page.
Local food is really about building a connection between food and the community. Purchasing meat, baked goods or produce from a nearby farmer creates transparency in the process of getting food from the farm to the table. Most of the time you can actually visit the farm and see where your food is coming from; you can ask for a tour of the facilities, see how the animals are raised or how produce is harvested. You are connecting yourself to your food this way, from the beginning when the seeds are planted or the animal is born to the end when you put dinner on the table. This process emphasizes the circle of life principle of food; your food is grown or raised close by, delivered to you, and returns to the earth to be recycled and repurposed into new life. I think that knowing the name of the person who produced your vegetables or meat is amazing because you are really engaging with your community. You can build a trusting relationship with your food supplier.
Cost
Purchasing from local suppliers is the best way to encourage economic stability in your community and ensure that local farms can continue to grow for generations. Investing your money in local initiatives allows for growth because those farmers you invest can then invest that money into the community, as well. This promotes a circular economy, in which growth can occur in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way.
One argument often made is that local farms can’t sustain the world’s population. It’s a tough claim to make, and I really don’t want to believe it, but I do understand where this argument is coming from. Local farming requires time, patience and care. For a population that will near 10 billion by 2050, we need a lot of food, and an efficient food distribution system so everyone is fed. A significant part of this population growth is occurring in developing counties with poor agricultural systems. Hunger and malnourishment is very prevalent in these areas because their populations are growing too fast and the soils or climate aren’t suited for the amount of food production that needs to occur there to ensure the community has a sufficient amount of food.
Pesticides, fertilizers, preservatives and other synthetic compounds were created to combat this issue and globalize the food industry. The discovery of the Haber-Bosch process, for instance, meant humans could synthetically fix nitrogen to use for fertilizer. This development saved millions from starvation all over the world in the 20th century, making food production much more plentiful during the struggling times brought on with the wars and the Depression that occurred. Local food systems that value small-scale, quality products clash with the large-scale, quantity-driven industry that really took off with the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process.
Without these large-scale processes, our food security issues would undoubtedly be much worse. Does this mean that we shouldn’t adopt a local food system wherever we can? Of course we should. We should also continue to research ways to make this system possible across the world (soil enrichment, smart irrigation systems to introduce to developing communities to strengthen their own food production). When communities are confident in their own food sources, they feel empowered and a stronger to each other and their land. If this local system is adapted more globally, we can create a sustainable food system everywhere.
Environment
Local is overall beneficial for the environment because it requires less transportation and processing to increase storage life. When you buy local products from a farmers market, you can be guaranteed that they are fresh, likely produced or harvested some time that month, week or even day! The short distance required to transport products to the consumer reduces the carbon footprint of these farms significantly, emitting fewer greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Less packaging is required for shorter travel as well, generating significantly less waste in the process of getting the product to the consumer. Another benefit is that fewer preservatives have to be added to increase the shelf life of the product or its resistance to damage. For instance, the Arctic Apple, a Canadian GMO, is modified so that it cannot bruise, making it easily transportable. Local products do not need these additives because the risk of damage is considerably less over such a short distance.
There are a few drawbacks when buying local. In a place like Canada, we are subject to a lot of seasonality and have a limited outdoor growing season. For instance, you won’t be getting peaches, berries and other Canadian crops in the dead of winter. Your diet may be limited to only a few products during this time. In winter, Ontario’s local harvests include things like rhubarb, beets, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, parsnips and a few other products; you can see the whole list of seasonal produce in Ontario here. However, you can have produce like berries, apples, peaches and other local crops any time of year with one simple solution: freezing produce during its peak season. You maintain the freshness this way and can enjoy local produce year-round.
Buying only local is that you won’t get as much variety in your diet as you would otherwise. Kiwis, mangos, bananas, oranges and other tropical fruits would be out of the picture for you. You can, however, purchase your products from a local natural food cooperative that supports smaller scale farmers, economic sustainability initiatives like Fair Trade or running campaigns against animal abuse. There are over 300 food co-op stores in Canada. Shopping at a cooperative is beneficial over a conventional grocery store as they are owned by the community, for the community. Decisions are made democratically by the community and not behind closed doors like with conventional grocery store chains. They strive for environmental, economic and social sustainability, supporting local farmers and producers to keep your money circulating in your community.
Health
A set conclusion concerning the health benefits of local food products hasn’t been made. However, local usually means fresher, which also means that the food products you are purchasing likely contain fewer preservatives and fillers that are being linked more and more to health problems.
There’s also the fact that fresh food just tastes better. I say this from experience. Eating a strawberry that was picked just a few days prior has much more flavour than one shipped over borders that was picked in a greenhouse who knows how long ago. I’d take a strawberry fresh picked from a farm in my region in June than the huge ones sold in the grocery store in the dead of winter, which have no flavour at all.
Something important to note is that local doesn’t always mean ethical. Unfortunately, there are many instances where local companies have exploited their labourers and livestock or rely on unethical production practices. This issue is very prominent with immigrant labourers, any of whom come from Mexico, Jamaica and Caribbean countries because they cannot find work at home. Despite earning more here than they would at home, they can be exposed to very dangerous working environments without proper training and do not receive the same benefits that Canadian workers receive.
In 2015, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program brought over 42,000 of the approximate 52,000 foreign agricultural workers in Canada, mainly to Ontario. These workers are only allowed to stay in the country and work for eight months out of the year whether or not they have finished their job in that time. These kinds of programs are really recruiting labour, not people, in the sense that they are stripped of basic rights that they should have with a working citizenship. The migrant workers lack any sort of union to protect them and work completely isolated from their families back home. A lot can happen in eight months: birthdays, graduations, funerals and other events will be missed.
Sometimes the workers don’t even make it home. In 2010, Jamaican migrants Paul Roach and Ralston White died while working on an apple farm in Ontario. Roach was trying to fix a pump in a tank used for apple cider vinegar production when the fumes caused him to collapse; White came in after him but also passed away by asphyxiation from the fumes. Both had families in their home countries. This isn’t an isolated case, either; a study completed by the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that from 2001 to 2011, 787 migrant workers in Canada were sent home prematurely due to illness or injury; the number of deaths were not reported because the country failed to keep count. This shows just how little these workers’ lives were valued.
Visiting the farms you are buying food from can help mitigate this problem. Demanding ethical care of the workers and supporting farms that do practice social responsibility with its workers will ensure a sustainable, safe food industry. Purchasing foods from farmers markets can introduce you to these amazing people who are working to supply your community with fresh food. The one in my city is starting up in just over a month and I couldn’t be more excited. Especially with summer just around the corner, I encourage you to reach out to your community to find the nearest farmers market. Go there, talk to the vendors and get engaged with your community!
Summary of local foods
All in all, with local food you’re really paying for quality products. By doing a little bit of research, you can find some great services right in your own town or city. The farmers take pride in what they create and will be known in the community for their exceptional services.
Final Thoughts
In the end, there are many factors to consider when trying to decide what is the “best” way to purchase your foods. What do you define as “better”? Personally, I used to think that buying organic was the way to go until I realized many of the foods are coming from halfway across the world and therefore have a considerably large ecological footprint. Distance to me is a very critical factor because of how conscious I am of my footprint; buying local not only reduces this footprint, but it engages me with my community more and provides economic, environmental and social security to my city. I’m not saying the organic is bad (like I said, my household still buys plenty of organic produce), but I try to buy local whenever I can.
Whatever you do, it does make a difference. Small changes in your everyday life will add up; you eat food every day, so imagine the benefits you will be creating when you change the types of foods you bring into your house! The more people who invest in local and organic products, the cheaper they will become and the more widely available they will be. Imagine a world without hunger, with safe, quality foods that support the producers and consumers alike; initiatives like buying organic and local can help push us toward this sustainable future.
If you enjoyed this post on organic versus local foods, I encourage you to check out these ones too:
- The truth about farmers markets
- How to eat sustainably in the winter
- 5 easy, healthy and sustainable ways to eat well on a student budget
- What’s the deal with almond milk?
As always, thank you so much for reading! I hope you learned a thing or two from this post, and maybe you will start making changes to your daily habits today.
Until next time!
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