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| Buying Local Produce Makes Sense and Saves Cents - - - - - - - - - Eating fresh, locally grown organic foods is both nutritious and energy-conscious and now, with so many fresh vegetables available, is the season to purchase them at local farmer’s markets and food co-ops. Organic foods are produced without chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides. Buying foods that are organic is a preferred choice in my opinion. Why feed yourself and your family unwanted chemicals and antibiotics? We do not know their long-term dilatory effects yet. It makes sense to err on the side of caution. There is an additional consideration. Can you find out where the organic foods originated? Sometimes organic foods are imported from distant countries. Think about the extensive transportation materials and fuels which are wasted when bringing foreign organic foods to your table. In trying to understand the transportation process, I researched the process – and here it is: The farmer usually uses significant carbon-producing equipment to plow, plant, and harvest his yield. For the average crop, a tractor with a plow attachment drives up and down the length of the fields, plowing the earth under. Then a second trip over the field cultivates the dirt into a more seed-receptive consistency. A third trip over the field will be needed for planting seeds. Then the plants begin to grow. This is the time most non- organic farmers go over the field a fourth time and possibly a fifth time to treat with weed-killing chemicals and fertilizers. When it is time to harvest, farmers either pick their product by hand or drive a special harvesting vehicle over the field, such as a combine, to harvest the organic product. At this point, a farmer might be able to drive his produce directly to a local grocery store. He might use further equipment and utilities to pack the product in special containers to ensure its freshness. An organic farmer who farms overseas has to drive it to the distributor. An international distributor holds the product, has regulation officials drive over to inspect the product, repacks the product (usually using energy-consuming packing equipment and material), and drives it to customs with specific shipping orders. Then he has the produce packed in trains, planes, or trucks to be shipped to its next destination. When the produce comes to the United States, the product is stored in a customs waiting facility. Customs agents inspect the product and keep it at the warehouse for a required period of time (sometimes weeks for coffee beans and other similar products). Once it passes inspection, a distributor comes to pick up the product via truck and delivers the product to its own wholesale warehouses where it sometimes sits and awaits repacking before being distributed via more trucks out to specific retail stores. The product sits in special air- conditioned units to keep the product cool until the consumer buys it. The air-conditioned units most of us see at the grocery stores, which keep apples and other produce cool, typically have no “lid.” They are open air machines which must remain constantly “on” and pumping to maintain the produce at a certain temperature. This exerts a large expenditure of electricity. The grocers hope and pray that someone buys the product. If no one does, the produce is thrown out and all of that energy will have been wasted for no reason. This explains why produce costs so much. Grocers must pay for the enormous transportation fees and energy costs it takes to maintain the product. This long process also explains why a lot of produce from the grocery store, organic or not, has no taste. Remember the farmer? Certain types of produce have to be picked by the farmer when they are still unripe so they can survive the entire long distance shipping process to the end consumer. A tomato, picked when it is not fully ripe and fresh off the vine, will taste bland when it finally does ripen – unnaturally – by sitting on a shelf. That is why the best tasting and vitamin-rich tomatoes are at your grocery store mid-summer – it is the season for them. This is also why local organic farmers have an advantage. By cutting out all those middle people who are in shipping and distribution, the local farmer brings a fresher, riper, and tastier product filled with far more vitamins to your grocer’s door. The produce often costs less too. Do you see the outrageous amount of vehicles, gasoline and energy that it takes to send all types of produce material from other countries to your door? Buying local means more produce filled with vitamins and flavor for your family and more energy savings for the world. It makes better sense and also saves you cents. Buy local! Please send your questions for Shawna Coronado, The Casual Gardener to dearshawna@thecasualgardener. com or The Casual Gardener, P.O. Box 358, Warrenville, IL 60555 |
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