Organic Food, Not 100% Environmentally Friendly
Do you buy only organic foods, believing you’re doing the environment a favor since pesticides and other chemicals are not used? According to a new study, it looks like that school of thought has loopholes.
The study, conducted by a team of student researchers in the Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, showed that the greenhouse gas emitted when the produce is transported from great distances mitigates the environmental benefits of growing the food organically.
“If you’re buying ‘green’, you should consider the distance the food travels. If it’s travelling further, then some of the benefits of organic crops are cancelled out by extra environmental costs,” said researcher Vicki Burtt.
A better alternative? Buy locally grown produce!
Tags: ecology, environment, functional-food, health, health-food, Healthy Eating, nutraceuticals, nutrition, organic, organic-crops, organic-foodRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Food Talk, Organic Produce
6 opinions for Organic Food, Not 100% Environmentally Friendly
Ge
Jun 15, 2007 at 7:41 am
The title of this is misleading. While it’s true that local is better for the air, what about our own body? Are you saying the cost to the environment out weights the effects of pesticides on our bodies? Are you saying it’s better for my 4 year old to eat bug spray then it is for a truck to drive here? What if the produce trucks start using biodeisel? Saying organic is not environmentally friendly is highly misleading!
ROBERT KINDELAN
Jun 15, 2007 at 8:29 am
Unedited venomous comment
The fact that shipping itself causes problems not only in foods, but the emissions of the vehicle used to ship the goods. Of course, in a sane world rather than grass to mow we planted fruits and vegetables which are a lot less work than grass, the entire world would be a better place. Chemicals are killing us, industry is led by idiots, politician is another word for criminal, bees and birds are dying, still we increase the fiction called the economy, and for things we don’t need, that separate us (TV, etc.), we’re made to feel inferior if we don’t present an image designed by people who think they’re intelligent, but are actually feeding into the same killing protocol as nearly all of life. Send in the Western diet and dentists, horrid cancers, diabetes, heart disease, etc. are sure to follow. There are 75,000,000 mentally ill people according to an article in the 2005 Washington Post, 18,750,000 seriously mentally ill, personally I think the figures are wrong, I think it’s more like every adult and teenager in the country, I mean how can sanity exist when we buy crap that kills the species, that is, homo sapiens. The world will not die, stupidity will kill all of us. Kellogg is going to quit advertising junk, that means we won’t see their crap advertised, so they say, but then they qualify it and say they’ll continue to sell junk but won’t advertise the junk that doesn’t meet ‘Their’ health criteria. Not one product they sell is healthy, in fact, every product they sell is harmful. What to do? Put them out of business. They don’t understand that great harm is done by the fact that their grains are pesticide treated, but that’s only the beginning. The wheat, oats, barley, rye, and soy all contain phytates, that is, a chemical that not only inhibits digestion but also leads to diseases Cows fed grains live 4-5 years max, grass fed cows on grass live 10-16 years and Bess, a cow who lived 48 years certainly didn’t live on grains. That concoction called pasteurized milk is deadly, it’s not high in calcium, it’s high in protein and calcium deficiencies that are not digestible. Cold milk is a plague but people believe the mustache ads, mercy, talk about sheep, and it’s sheep who will kill our world. One last thing: Growing up, nobody was funnier than my friends and the common man on the street. Then came sitcoms and TV, so now we sit alone, watching idiocy at work to keep out attention until a Viagra or Statin drug is shown as something that will take us to the promised land. I feel like telling the world to piss off, but it’s the kids who are getting the hit, they are so naive..
RK, On the brink of becoming a Nihilist, but then that’s what industry is doing to the world, so maybe it’s industry that I want to see destroyed. Ah, the chaos, wouldn’t it be something to behold, but it wouldn’t matter, people would soon be locked into self-interest and the insanity would start all over.
ruth
Jun 15, 2007 at 9:50 am
Ge, thanks for dropping by my blog and for leaving a note.
If you read the title again, or even the whole entry, nowhere does it say that conventional crops are better than organic produce. Nowhere did I advise against organic food. All I pointed out is that organic produce are not 100% environmentally friendly. Exactly like the title says. Which part of the title do you find misleading?
Oscar
Jun 20, 2007 at 12:43 am
That’s reasonable. Besides, locally grown food are better when they are freshly picked, compared to some that were exposed to intense heat and air during transportation.
Pat
Jun 20, 2007 at 4:37 pm
True. Locally produced fruits and vegetables are better than those which are transported in long distances considering the freshness of the food. However, i think sometimes transporting goods is inevitable if the supply of locally grown food is not enough.
Allergy Guy
Jul 14, 2007 at 7:19 pm
This is certainly a sensitive and emotionally charged issue - the comments left here show that well!
Emotion and sensitivity aside, it is also a complicated issue.
I think we can all agree that locally produced organic produce is the best you can get, and don’t we all wish we had access to it all year ’round!
If you must eat food that has been transported from far away, you are better off with organic once again.
After that, it is hard to tell. Are you better with local pesticide-laced food, or transported organic food? Is it really organic? How does the effect of transported food compare the the effects of transported everything else? What used more fuel, your share of a year’s worth of transported food, or the amount of fuel you use to drive to work?
One thing might be true: if you buy far-away food that is organic, it may encourage local farmers to start producing organic food. It just might.
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