If you are lucky enough to have local farms that are certified organic, you have the best of all worlds.  The best choice is buying in season and choosing local organic foods. 

If local farms are not certified, but you know them and trust them, and they assure you that they are a sustainable farm and do not use petroleum-based chemicals or pesticides, that is still a great option.

However, many of us live in places without local organic or local sustainable farms.  Many of us live in cities without local farms.  We live in places where we are quite limited in what fruits and vegetables can actually grow or where seasons only allow for a short life of a particular kind of fruit or vegetable.  But we still want to eat a certain fruit or vegetable even though the season or climate or soil where we live may not support that particular item.  We are not unusual; we are the new and growing norm.  We have chosen to live in places that are more comfortable for us but are not ideal for harvesting and farming.

We used to live in a community.  We shared meals and helped one another build homes and lives.  We played with the toys made by our grandparents.  We chose food grown locally by the people we knew, our friends.  We ate the food prepared by people who loved us, usually our mother or our family of motherly figures.  We cared locally.  We lived locally.  We ate locally.

Good or bad, the fact is that most of us don't live like this anymore.  Many of us don't even know our neighbors or don't want to know them.  As a society, and maybe each of us individually, we are disconnected.  Many of us are disconnected from our family, from our spouse or loved one, from our children.  We may be disconnected from our boss.  We may be disconnected from our job and the very mission of the company in which we work so many hours and causes us so much stress.  And we are certainly disconnected from our food, how it gets to our grocery store and into our home and in many cases, who prepares it.  We buy food in boxes packaged and created by machines.  We go to restaurants where nameless people feed us what we choose from a list. 

Yet, we are intelligent and we do understand that the choices we make in what we eat and buy impact ourselves, our loved ones, our community, and our world.  We strive to incorporate local purchases and support our local community and a better world globally.  We want to live globally and choose locally.  We search for the local connection to feed our soul and our family.  We get up early on a weekend to make it out to the closest farmer's market to show our resounding commitment.  We feel good about it because surely that's the right thing to do; it's easy to understand that an item grown closer to home travels less to get to our plates.

True, petroleum is used in transportation so something grown closer would logically use less petroleum.  But lets not forget that petroleum itself is used to create the very pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and chemicals used readily on that local conventional farm.   Many conventional farms use genetically modified seeds and those require more energy.  Energy is used to create the seeds, energy is expended to get those seeds to the farm because they are not the farm's own harvest.  The seeds then get special chemicals and fertilizers (made, just so happens, by the same company that makes the seeds, isn't that an ingenious business plan!)  Petroleum is used to transport the pesticides and chemicals to that farm.  Petroleum is used to disperse those seeds, fertilizers, and chemicals throughout the farm.  Finally energy is expended to clean up the toxins that leak into our waterways and ecosystems from the creation and use of these petroleum-based pesticides, fertilizers, and chemicals.

More petroleum and off-gassing occurs in a conventional farm then any organic farm. 

It's not just crops.  Conventionally raised animals, cows for example, create far more carbon emissions then pastured cows.  Conventional farms are really modern-day factories more than farms.  More energy is needed in the clean up the cow's output since conventional farming does not work with nature in a sustainable way, instead working against nature and always trying to clean up the mess while making big companies richer with their new products and chemicals.  But many farmers have tried this and see that the old way, the organic way is really the natural and best option and are turning to that for the sake of survival.  Ironic that organic was the conventional practice.  Now conventional means this fairly new-fangled way that was presented (or forced) upon farmers to help our food supply and their bottom line.  By purchasing organic products, we are supporting that farmer who has created a sustainable farm.  We are supporting his efforts for his family, our community, and our world.  Petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers make big companies, Monsanto and oil companies, richer while making our soil and farmers poorer.

The most common crops, including corn and soy, are genetically engineered.  Worse, corn and soy are used in almost every processed food product on the market today.  Read the label and you'll see, if it does not say organic or non-GMO then you can be assured you are feeding yourself and your family genetically modified crops.  In purchasing those products, our dollars are supporting conventional and genetically engineering farming practices. 

Organic produce, tomatoes for example, are more nutritious than their conventional pesticide-laden brethren as well so we get more nutritionally from making the organic choice.

The idea of supporting more chemicals in our world and more poisons in our bodies over supporting organic farms that are outside of our locality does not make sense.  We should choose organic over local, especially for certain conventional items with the most amount of pesticides and for those items that are fair trade and supporting global economics.  Despite the petroleum used to transport the organic produce to us, organic farms add less toxins to our world and our bodies.  Carbon emissions and an unsustainable harvesting outweighs the transportation argument of supporting organic practices.  Plus, the more we support organic farms, the more organic farmers will take notice.  The best option will be a reality: to support local organic farms first.

Choosing organic helps sustain organic practices.  If we only bought local, then some local farms would go out of business.  How so? 

Lets take the local farmer who has acres of strawberries and only a small local market to sell.  Without us buying outside her locality, many of those scrumptious organic berries will go bad before their time.  Clearly that would not be a good option for for the farmer nor for us consumers. 

Let's take an extreme example, the Columbian coffee farmer.  He could never sell all his coffee beans locally.  By choosing fair trade organic options, we are connected to our community, we are connecting to his community, we support lives.  We offer that farmer a fair wage and therefore impact the lives of the farmer, the farm workers, their community, and their children to help create a better life for them.  If we choose local over organic or fair trade, those farmers will still be living impoverished lives, those farms still employ slave labor, and our choices are minimized.

By buying organic foods, we support an otherwise 'local' farmer that cannot sell all she has harvested that season to her local community.  We support the organic movement and the mission behind it.  We show we care about a cleaner healthier world by choosing organic.  It's not just small farmers now in the organic business.  Choosing organic supports bigger farms that care enough to make the extra effort to farm organically instead of adding more toxins to our planet and our bodies.

By supporting Organic and sustainable practices, we are actually supporting small local farms.  Nowadays it's hard for farms to survive amidst the mass marketing of conventional foods.  Small towns can only consume so much.  Many organic farms that are flourishing are doing so thanks to us that buy their products and don't live in their town.  The need for organics is creating job security and finally a decent living for small organic farmers and their families.

Making a choice to purchase and eat organic foods makes a statement that the only sustainable choice for our planet is to harvest intelligently and creatively instead of using man-made chemicals and pesticides.

Lets really have an impact and shop as local as possible for our nonfood purchases!  If we shop at Walmart, notorious for insisting that companies have the product made in China, we are doing far more harm then searching out a local tomato.  Dollar for dollar, we spend more on nonessentials that are shipped, trucked, flown and moved to our locale than any dollar we spend on produce.  Lets make steps in the right direction where it truly impacts our environment.

Made in where?
In our home we've been making an effort to buy items made in the USA.  Not an easy task.  With each commercial the kids request a new toy and we have to explain that those things are not what we strive to support right now.  Together we looked at the toys we've accumulated over the years noticing the "made in" tag on the bottom.  They noticed that many of them were stamped "Made in China?"  I explained how we ship raw product from our country all the way to China to have them make toys and other things.  I explained how they are then packaged and shipped all the way back to us and then trucked out to stores where we can buy them.  "That doesn't make sense."  I explained that it was actually cheaper to do that so people could buy more toys that way.  They were perplexed how shipping things in big freighters across the ocean would be cheaper than just paying someone here to make the items.  They asked about other things they enjoyed - their computer, our car, our furniture.  Then the middle child announced, "Let's not get any toys made in China anymore."  He paused.  "Unless it's a really really really really really cool toy!"  That's understandable since that's how many of us adults feel too.  Later that day at the park he ran to me jumping with glee  "Hey, Mommy, this swing is "Made in the USA" it says so right here!"

Local has got to be Cheaper since it travels less.
Clearly that is not a true statement or we would have nothing made in China.  The same holds true for produce.  Local is does not always cost less.  Some things are actually more money since it may be more difficult in some areas to grow certain things.  Many of us are on a budget but still want to eat nutritious fresh foods.  Fair trade allows the market to compete for the best quality at the best price.  That principle should still hold true for the organic versus local debate. 

Local has got to be fresher and more nutritious since it travels less.
The smells, the chatter, the information, the charm, the food, and fun, that is a true farmer's market where you can find locally grown seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables just harvested by the farmer's hands as well as homemade breads, fresh poultry, and other handmade items from local vendors.  If you know your farmer and know her farm, then you assured of quality and honesty.  According to the USDA, a farmer's market is where local farmers (people who have grown, caught, or harvested the product) gather to sell direct to the consumer.  But sadly, where there is money to be made, greed rears it's ugly head; there are "farmers" that may not be farmers at all.  There is limited to no licensing for selling produce as a weekend market in most cities.

Without the certificates, there's little guarantee that a vendor here isn't simply buying someone else's produce at a wholesale market--or even a Safeway--and reselling it as phony homegrown at a higher price. - Metro

Nowadays across the country, it's common to find open-air "farmer's market" where the produce was simply purchased from big wholesale distributors.  If you watch you may get a glimpse of the salesperson moving the produce from their refrigerated truck to restock them as their own.  You may actually be buying from a farmer who harvests one or two items but he is selling the bulk that he bought from wholesale distributors.  Some CSAs (community supported agriculture) harvest a few items and fill the box with produce purchased from wholesale distributors.  If you are buying from these "farmers" believing that you are buying local, that you are supporting a local farm, that you are getting fresher produce that they themselves harvested just the other day, then you are being deceived.

... up in arms over the infiltration into area farmers markets of vendors who are only pretending to be farmers and are reselling wholesale produce to unwitting consumers. -Truly Local

Worse, some label items as "local" or "just picked" when they really are not what you expect as local or just picked.  Scariest of all, we have even heard of some that list items as "organic" when they are not certified organic.  Sadly, it is a buyer beware market now in the organic industry.  Know your store, shop owner, produce buyer, or farmer and make sure you are indeed purchasing what you think you are buying and that you are not being deceived.

Farmers' markets often feature organic produce from nearby farms, but not everyone lives near a farmers' market--and most products at the markets aren't organic. "I've been to farmers' markets, and there's people hauling stuff from the truck that they got at a wholesaler," says Joseph Mendelson III, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, a liberal Washington group that supports strong organic standards. Mendelson prefers the "gold standard" of locally grown organics, but he is rather frightening on the subject of nonorganic food, whatever its origin. When I asked him whether I should favor local products, he replied, "I don't know what local means. Do they use local pesticides? Does that mean the food is better because they produce local cancers?"  Eating Better Than Organic, Time, March 2, 2007

As for freshness, with modern speed and efficiency, produce is transported quickly preserving freshness.  You can tell a fruit or vegetable is fresh from the look, feel, and color.  You can look at the ends but grocery stores have been known to trim ends to make things appear fresh when they are not.  You'll also notice that grocery stores mist produce regularly (ever wonder what kind of water is being misted on them?) or put them in water (sometimes to get heavier if they are sold per pound) to preserve freshness.  When produce is kept at optimal temperatures, it will remain fresher longer.  In south Florida we have found that produce sitting outside in the heat, especially after being transported under air conditioned truck, is not optimal.  Once the produce is picked, it should be sold immediately from the farmer that harvested it or kept under proper temperatures to preserve nutrition and flavor.

Lest we forget why we want to avoid pesticides:

Pesticides kill.  They are designed to do that.  They kill bugs that find themselves in that crop doing what they were designed to do, eat food.  When given an option, even monkeys will choose organic bananas over conventional.  Animals instinctively know something that we miss when we choose a conventional product.  Pesticides and chemicals can cause neurological and reproductive damage.  Many are carcinogenic.  Children, with an under developed immune system and a proportionately larger intake of certain foods are more at risk.

Growth hormones and antibiotics are rampant in the conventional dairy, poultry, eggs, and meat industry.  A local conventional dairy, chicken, or meat farm is not a better choice over organic dairy bought at the grocery store.

To me, this local versus organic controversy is something whipped up by conventional farmers to dampen the deeper issue, the health and sustainability of our future.  Just as we think globally about our environment and climate change, we must also choose globally the best options for our planet.  Our collective consciousness, our collective buying power, our collective choice makes an impact locally and globally.

There is an  environmental cost in every purchase we make.  There is the cost of our health and our sustainable future.  By supporting organic farmers, the conventional farmers have the incentive to switch to the creative genius and offer sustainability. 

We live in a marketplace which allows us choices.  We can choose to support businesses that share our vision or we can choose the cheapest price.  Many of our local mom and pops have gone away as big business has inched them out on prices and selection.  Most items available to us, however, are indeed made in China.  We ship the raw material out and have it come back as a toy or some other item we've got to have and that is actually cheaper than had we made it here in the United States.

We live in a mobile society.  We can choose to live anywhere.  We may live where a tomato doesn't grow.  South Floridians who only eat locally would be forced to live on avocados, coconuts and mangos during some of the year.  North Florida offers more options including greens, squash, citrus, and a few other things.  If we truly lived locally, the foods available would not feed our bodies all the nutrients nor the variety we crave.  Thankfully we live in a society of choices.  Supporting organic farming practices, across the street and across the globe, enriches lives.  Supporting sustainable practices supports our environment.  Choosing organics over conventional supports our longer healthier life and the future of our planet through ecological harmony.

Therefore yes, certainly buy locally when those items meet your values.  Let's do our part to curb carbon emissions.  Support with our hearts and our dollars those companies and farms that support our vision for a healthy future including sustainable farming practices and offsetting carbon emissions.  Support local mom and pops businesses that share our vision over big chains even if the big store can offer the item cheaper because the mom and pop offers an option that is unique for our community or something that assists our lives.  We should not allow our vision to be clouded by semantics, we must cast our vote for a healthy future with our pocket books.  Choosing organic makes the statement and gives us a choice for a healthier future.

We should strive for living locally while being concerned locally throughout our purchasing life, not simply limited to the organic versus local debate.  Every purchase we make impacts lives here and elsewhere. 

How Delicious Organics compares:

At Delicious Organics we always choose local organically grown produce first.  We take a sense of pride in our community and our world and gladly showcase Florida grown first.  We go out of our way to purchase and even pick up from local organic farms.  By supporting Delicious Organics, you are supporting our greater mission as we buy in large quantities, and always closer to home first.

Since the produce we offer is Certified Organic, unless noted otherwise, we don't have the luxury of supporting local farms that are not certified.  You are entrusting us to feed your family.  We take that job very seriously so we only choose certified organic farms for our fresh produce or label the particular item otherwise.

We get in shipments daily of fresh produce and move things out as quickly as we get them in - that is why we may have something on the site the day you order it but sadly cannot get it in the day of your delivery but we do try our best to fulfill every order with quality fresh produce that arrives in for your delivery day.  We use only filtered water to clean our produce.  We are careful to pull and pack your fruits and vegetables under proper conditions.  Even when you shop at the grocery store you will add the produce and walk around a bit in the store and then drive home with your items out of proper refrigeration but we are more careful than that making sure your delivery is lovely and fresh.

We walk the walk and talk the talk.  We reduce, reuse, recycle.  We are working toward converting our vans or acquiring new ones that use biodiesel.  We balance our business carefully between people, profit and planet.  We are honored by those who entrust us to feed their families and we care for the people who work for us to make sure our customers needs are fulfilled.  We care deeply about each customer and each product and always look to support companies that offer sustainable practices and mirror our mission for a healthier tomorrow.  We do not call ourselves nor do we pretend we are farmers.  We are concerned consumers first and always view things as a consumer knowing that we can make a difference as a business to provide delicious organics to our neighbors in south Florida. 

We encourage support of local farms and real farmers who pay their employees fairly.  We support sustainable practices for food and for life.  We believe that we must live consciously.  We should urge a safer, cleaner form of fuel and energy be used for transportation and electricity.  Make sure the values of that business that made the product as well as the company selling the product to you match your values for our future.  It's our duty to make purposeful choices in what we buy and from whom or what company making sure that our values are supported in these decisions that we make for the health of our loved ones and our planet. 

• Does it Pay to Buy Organic?  Business Week
• Chews Wisely, Local or organic?  It's a false choice, Samuel Fromartz
• Top to Buy Organic
• Rattling the Food Chain, grist
• Samuel Fromartz & Organic, Inc.
• Local or Organic?  I'll Take Both, The Green Guide
• The Produce Riddle, Organic vs Local, Treehugger
• Eating Better Than Organic, Time
• Sustainable Table
• Eat Wild
• Local is the New Organic, emagazine
• Local is the New Organic, the humm
• Hucksters and Peddlers Are Evil. They Really Are, Truly Local
• Homegrown foods craze finds way into eateries, changes rules, Centre Daily
• Sustainable vs Industrial: a Comparison, Sustainable Table
• Local Versus Organic - Haves vs Have Nots, PSFK
• Underneath the folksy veneer of certified farmer's markets, there's a dirty battle over fraudulent farmers and phony homegrown, Metro
• The eco-diet...and it's not just about food miles, the guardian
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