Is Organic Always Better for the Environment?

Last week, as I bounced through the halls of Whole Foods with a $25 gift certificate in hand (thanks to the boy’s efforts — he drove a Subaru Forrester as part of a marketing gimmick to win the certificate), my mind turned to an article in Wired I had read recently about organic foods.

According to the piece, organic farming sometimes results in lower yields that conventionally farmed produce, resulting in more land needed for agriculture. Environment loses.

Plus, when organic produce is flown around the world so that Whole Foods can stock organic tomatoes from New Zealand next to organic butternut squash from Israel, lots and lots of fuel is consumed in the process.

So what’s a greenie to do? Is it a lose-lose situation or can you be green and eat pesticide-free food?

It is, as always, not an easy solution. The best thing, without a doubt, is to buy local. Shop at the farmer’s market and buy local produce — even if it is not organic.

Don’t turn down genetically engineered foods — GE foods often raise yields, meaning less land has to be used for farming.

And eat seasonally. If you’re buying tomatoes in the dead of winter, whether they are organic or not, they are likely being grown in either a greenhouse or halfway around the world.

Cut down on dairy and meat. Cows are big emitters of greenhouse gases (methane, anyone?).

 

Stick it to me: Stickers on Produce

Ever come across those tiny stickers on an apple or peach just as you’re about to bite down on the peel? Turns out those little stickers are used for much more than just letting your supermarket clerk know how much to charge you. Those stickers reveal how the food was grown and whether it’s been genetically modified.

I’m not opposed to GMOs. I think the big hoopla about the monarch butterflies was based on incorrect science data (and after a quarter of Plant Genetic Engineering at Stanford, where we carefully dissected the research, I can tell you a lot more about that if you’d like) and I believe that GMOs have a place in modern agriculture — with more research, of course.

That being said, I do think people need to know what they are eating. Fortunately the food companies are giving consumers a (subtle) clue if they care to know. According to Vegetarian Times magazine…

• Stickers with 5 digits starting with an “8” show that produce was genetically modified.
• Stickers with 5 digits starting with a “9” show that the fruits and veggies were organically grown.
• Stickers with 4 digits show that fruits and veggies are just plain ol’ conventional.