Think Carefully (Organic Food in general)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Organic Food in general
Date:	30/04/03 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can be more environmentaly friendly, often tastes better

Disadvantages: misleading information

I'm very much in favour of healthy eating, responsible consumerism and trying to minimize the impact we have on the environment. Obviously then, Organic food is something I have an interest in. However, I am concerned by the way in which the word 'organic' is bandied about, perhaps giving people more reason to think well of it than is justified.

Organic food is grown with minimal chemical use - in this country, farmers who want to be designated as organic have to apply to the Soil Assocation, which is fairly rigourous. While any efforts to reduce spraying, and thus reduce harm to wildlife trying to live alongside crops, is excellent, you have to be aware that there are chemicals used in the production of this food, it isn't 'pure' or 'prefectly natural' by any stretch of the imagiantion. Furthermore, Organic crops can be contaminated from residues in the soil or from neighbouring farmers - there's been a lot of concern about contamination from GM crops for example.

Most of the organic food to be had in the supermarkets does not come from the UK. Other countries may have different defentions to us for 'Organic' - there isn't really a formal international standard as yet, and there needs to be because the wooliness of the term is very easy to exploit. If a food comes from abroad, then it has acrued food miles - the further it has travelled to reach you, the more fuel has been expended and the less environmentally friendly it is. Equally, the more locally sourced your food, the shorter a distance it has travelled, the better condition it will be in - not having been chilled for days on end, and the less fuel consumption it will have prompted. If you want your Organic purchases to actually be eco friendly, you have to source them close to home.

I've had expereince of home grown organic products - lovely strawberries fresh from the garden, apples and cherries from the trees, goosberrys, rhubar
b, fresh herbs, peas, beans, tomatoes etc. The first thing you learn growing organically at home is that you lose a lot to slugs and snails, the second thing you learn is it tastes so much better than anything else. Both the absence of chemicals and the total freshness of the produce makes a huge difference. I've also bought organic products from Sainsburys. Now, here the impact varies. the cost is high - up to three times the cost of non organic in the case of pasta. The milk does taste better, the pasta tastes the same as non-organic, there's nothing in it for the flour, and on it goes - not that impressive. I also buy fresh local produce from local shops and farmers markets. This often works out cheaper than buying from the supermarket. I can ask at my butchers or fruit and veg stall is I want to know where the eggs have come from - free range, but in a barn, they tell me, and they tend to label local produce as such, and indicate how far other items have travelled. I'l pick a Cornish potato over a Spanish one any day.

I know the produce from my local stall is more often not sprayed to excess. I know this not because they tell me, but because I have first hand evidence - every so often, I'll get something home and find it has a resident. I figure if the cabbage hasn't killed the slug, it's probably safe to eat. Did you just wince? Does the thought of 'livestock' in your food make you uncomfortable? But that is what truly organic means, not killing the bugs. It means you have to ckeck things over, wash them, examine them, remove any visitors and accept now and then that the insects have eaten your lunch and there's nothing you can do about it.

The trouble is, we live so far from the production of food, so conceptually removed from it that we don't know how to cope with that sort of reality - most people would have a fit I suspect if they found a slug in their supermarket lettice. If you want unsprayed, env
ironmentally friendly food, you're just going to have to spot being squeamish and get used to sharing it with the bugs!

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