Local vs Organic and Defining Sustainablity: COG Conference Part III

The topic of my last entry on the Canadian Organic Grower’s Conference is the idea of buying local versus buying organic. The main idea is that you shouldn’t have to pick between the two and that sound food choices should be made on sustainability.

The state of current food choices is a direct result of financial concerns becoming paramount about 50 years ago. Today, issues such as ecological balance, chemicals and GMO are taking precedence. I will start with the naysayers who suggest that the idea that “food miles” should be a factor in making food choices because of the environmental benefits may actually be a fallacy. This was reasoned as follows by Laura Telford, the COG Executive Director. In general, food accounts for 16-17% of energy expenditure in society. Of this, 20% is production (pesticides, fertilizers, basically all the inputs), 10% is transportation and another 25% is end point storage and prep (i.e. your fridge and cooking). The argument goes that it would be worthwhile focusing on refrigeration or the inputs before tackling the transportation. Another point she made was that local does not necessarily mean sustainable. However, she pointed out that it is very important for Canada to have food sovereignty because of the issues that happened with imports just after 9/11.

So what does sustainable mean? The people from Local Food Plus did a good job of this. Local Food Plus is an NPO that encourages buying local. Their argument is that with urban sprawl, we are losing precious farmland and we need to support local farmers. Sustainable operations should be:

1. Local 2. Financially viable 3. Have ecological integrity (i.e. organic) 4. Socially responsible 5. Respectful of other species

What was really interesting is that the University of Toronto is one of its biggest supporters, with 15% of food available on campus being LFP. You might see some of these labels and signs on campus.

Overall, what I took home from this was that it is good to buy local, but not crucial. If you want organic bananas from Chile, there isn’t a huge concern about the distance they have traveled. On the other hand, why buy pesticide ridden garlic from China when you can buy amazing, fresh, organic garlic from right here in Ontario. What matters most is how sustainable the methods used in the production of the food are.