Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The shift from "organic" to "local"

This is a good article, recently published in the NY Times entitled In Oregon, Thinking Local...

This helps even more get to the nuances of our approach to food.  It's not even about straight "organic"...

SIX years ago "organic" was the next big thing in grocery shopping, but ... it has been co-opted by agribusiness, which has succeeded in watering down the restrictions of the definition. Today "local" and "sustainable" are the new culinary buzzwords.

We're talking revolution here, people!

"I think there is a gathering sense that organic and local are not the same," said Michael Pollan, the author of a forthcoming book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine. "Buying national organic products does very little for the local economy. Local food chains are very, very important. Organic has important values having to do with pesticides and how land is treated, but now that it is industrialized, buying organic doesn't necessarily support living in a place that still has farmers consuming less energy."

He added: "Moving organic food across the country uses just as much energy as conventional. I think this is becoming more important."

And the article highlights a chain in the Portland, OR area called New Seasons that focuses on locally grown foods.  The benefits are clear and broad...

The opportunity to sell locally has kept some area ranchers from going out of business in Oregon and nearby states. Doc and Connie Hatfield, who founded the Country Natural Beef cooperative in 1986, ... [were] pleased about an unexpected byproduct of selling locally: the bond forged between rural and urban residents.

"Most of the ranchers are rural, religious, conservative Republicans," Mr. Hatfield said. "And most of the customers are urban, secular, liberal Democrats. When it comes to healthy land, healthy food, healthy people and healthy diets, those tags mean nothing. Urbanites are just as concerned about open spaces and healthy rural communities as people who live there. When ranchers get to the city, they realize rural areas don't have a corner on values. I think that's what we are most excited about."


Bon appetit!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Robert--thanks for the alert to this article--I think it is right on. You've got a great blog!