Organic vs Fairtrade vs Local?

martinpike

I've got mixed views on the taste front. The two items where is a huge difference, in my opinion, is carrots and tomotoes. The rest, I have to say, are quite marginal.

For me, organic is about my health, and the impacts that Lynzpower has identified. Mostly, taste is an occasional benefit.

I know that's probably heresy, but that's my view!

SusanCarter

My drive at the moment with food is to cut down food miles. The main way I'm doing it is by trying to buy British as much as possible. I'm trying to gradually check all the things I buy so that they are all produced closer to where I am. I do buy fruit and veg from further afield but it depends on what it is. I would buy stuff from Europe if there are no British options or it's on the reduced section. I don't buy non-British apples as I figure I can manage without if they don't have them. Also didn't buy soft fruit from Spain because they have droughts. I just waited for the British crop. I buy bananas but they come buy boat rather than air. I might buy the occasional pineapple or similar if it's reduced but not as a regular thing. I refuse to buy reduced organic runner beans from Kenya as it seems (in my opinion - I'm not criticising others) crazy to have them when they can be grown so easily in this country. We are growing them in the back yard in old plastic milk bottles.

There are some "staple" foods (as opposed to occasional treat foods) I buy from further afield (such as tea and sugar) and I usually try to buy Fairtrade with these as I figure at least I am not ripping off third world workers if I do that. Otherwise I try to read up about the manufacturer to make a judgment on how ethical I think they are.

With regard to Organic foods, I tend not to go for them as the prices are a bit prohibitive. I do buy organic if it's reduced but the reason we have non organic food is thatthis is how we get to have enough food to feed everyone. If every farm in the world went organic, we would have a famine on our hands. (Please note this is merely my reasoning and I am not trying to start a debate about this.) Having said that, modern farming methods can have an adverse effect on wildlife. Bigger fields and spraying right up to the edges mean there are less habitats for wildlife to flourish. Nevertheless, farmers can be non organic and still be considerate to the environment. You could get a non organic farmer who maintains his hedges and does not spray up to the edge of the field so whilst I agree there are advantages to organic, it is not the case that non organic farming per se is bad for the environment - more that some modern farming practices can be.

little_miss_thrifty

To help establish which companies are better than others for ethics etc in providing food, get THE GOOD SHOPPING GUIDE from the library...is a very good read, and although i did do somethings already stated in there, it certainly helped, as well as in other aspects of everyday living.

martinpike

I think it's now available online?

https://www.gooshing.co.uk

amboy

misskool wrote:

If organic food any better? Well, your grandparents probably ate only organic food and didn't live in a completely polluted environment as you do now, but their life expectancy would have been about 20-30 years less than yours. QUOTE]

To this point I would say that modern science and medicine has a big say on life expectancies.

i am a firm believer in going back to how our forefathers did things, not having access to ready meals, eating meat as a weekly meal etc etc.

i choose organic first due to the chemical and pesticides used nowadays, IMO the produce tastes better also, however i choose not to buy organic from supermarkets as they generally pre pack their produce and sell it more expensive, also i kinda like scrubbing the mud of the carrots etc dont know if it psycologically makes me think it tastes more natural

As for local V organic, I would like to choose local as long as they have not been sprayed, it doesnt matter to me if they are not classed as organic as a lot of growers cannot afford to be classed as organic.

Debt_Free_Chick

Just a word about Organic and use of pesticides & other "chemicals".

Organic accreditation does NOT mean that NO chemicals or pesticides have been used at all. The Organic standard DOES permit use of certain approved pesticides, but these should be as a last resort. There's some information here. There's also an insecticidal "soap" which is permitted made from potassium or plant fatty acids which is allowed for use as a pesticide e.g to fight blackfly on broad beans.

Depending on your point of view, some of the controls that are permitted by Organic standards might be considered to be "chemicals" (potassium soap, anyone?).

Of course, this is not the same as frequent liberal dosings of synthetic pesticides etc but - again - be sure you know what you're buying, if you want to buy organic.

One final thing ... many people who grow their own veg will suggest you dilute washing up liquid to use as an insecticidal spray. Given the list of ingredients in the average bottle of w/up liquid, I'm not sure I'd agree that this is an acceptable "home-organic" product :eek:

Hereward

SusanCarter wrote:

My drive at the moment with food is to cut down food miles. The main way I'm doing it is by trying to buy British as much as possible. I'm trying to gradually check all the things I buy so that they are all produced closer to where I am. I do buy fruit and veg from further afield but it depends on what it is...

There are some "staple" foods (as opposed to occasional treat foods) I buy from further afield (such as tea and sugar)...

Why do you buy your sugar from further field, I assume you mean abroad? Were ever possible I try to by Silver Spoon, from British Sugar, as I know that the food miles are low (I have an advantage as British Sugar have a lot of Factories near me and the local farmers provide the sugar beet). If this is not available I try to by fairtrade sugar, but as this is imported it has food miles and tends to be made from sugar cane, which I believe is more harmful to the environment than sugar beet.

rubix_76

This may seem off toppic, but please bear with me, it will all become clear eventually.

At work we had a parcel that was urgent that was coming from the USA. It left the USA on Saturday, flew to east-midlands airport in the UK, arriving on Sunday. Bear in mind that I work less than an hours drive from this airport. This parcell then flew to Heathrow in London on Sunday, then left heathrow on Monday morning, drove to Maidstone in kent. On Monday night it then left kent, went back to Heathrow, and then arrived Tuesday morning back in east-midlands airport. So in two days it has travelled a total of 0 miles (well actually approx 400 miles). We then got this parcell Tuesday Morning.

We could have had this parcel Monday Morning, and all that aviation fuel and diesel wouldn't have been wasted. Now I know this wasn't the only item on this flight, but why did it need to backtrack ?????

My point is, much of the "organic" produce you see in the supermarkets is in may case from abroad, so IT'S carbon footprint far outweighs it's environmental saving as it was grown organically. Comapnies play on peoples consience and the increased cost didn't need to be paid if supermarkets bought produce from local farms.

I would like to buy organic, but also local, as if we are trying to be "green" surely the miles an item has travelled should be considered as well as how it is grown.

OK, I'm 'orf me high 'orse now :-)

martinpike

Thanks, that's a good clarification of what 'local' really means in this context.

Voyager2002

Hereward wrote:

Why do you buy your sugar from further field, I assume you mean abroad? Were ever possible I try to by Silver Spoon, from British Sugar, as I know that the food miles are low (I have an advantage as British Sugar have a lot of Factories near me and the local farmers provide the sugar beet). If this is not available I try to by fairtrade sugar, but as this is imported it has food miles and tends to be made from sugar cane, which I believe is more harmful to the environment than sugar beet.

I don't see the logic for this.

Sugar beet requires large quantities of pesticides, and arguably is a crop that would not be grown at all if we had any respect for our environment. Sugar cane is generally grown in ways that are far less harmful to the environment.

Furthermore, (cane) sugar production is an important way for rural people in developing countries to earn much-needed incomes. I object to the way that we in the UK subsidise the unsustainable production of sugar-beet, thus depriving them of an important market.