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Does Buying Local Organic Grown Foods Help the Environment?

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Does Buying Local Organic Grown Foods Help the Environment?
Does Buying Local Organic Grown Foods Help the Environment? Buying locally grown organic foods helps us have a cleaner and healthier environment. Getting local organic foods rather than conventional foods reduces the carbon footprint that conventional foods bring about. This means that your food travels a lot less distance than other foods would. It has been said, that on average, a fresh food item travels about 1,500 miles just to get to our plate. That is just one item; imagine how many miles it takes for a whole plate of food. When we buy these foods we support local organic farmers; this means that we support local businesses. Over time this greatly benefits our environment, especially since a majority of local organic farmers don’t use harmful pesticides. Today’s pesticides have been designed to kill living organisms; this is why the persistent ones can be very harmful to the environment and our health. These pesticides can even contaminate our food, air, and water. In addition, synthetic fertilizers require large amounts of fossil fuel to produce. They can even contribute to air quality, such as acid rain when pesticides evaporate, and soil degradation. Local organic grown foods typically have a lot less or even no pesticides compared to conventional foods. As a last resort, organic farmers may apply certain botanical or other non-synthetic pesticides, such as rotenone and pyrethrins which are both from plants (Parnes). This leads to many great influences to the environment, such as without the use of harmful pesticides, plants are able to reach their full potential and have a higher natural nutrient level. Some people even find that organic foods have a higher potential of tasting much better and lasting longer than conventional foods. The most important foods to buy organic have been termed, The Dirty Dozen. The Dirty Dozen consists of fruits and vegetables that are more fragile and more prone to bugs and rotting, therefore they require more


Cited: "How Does Eating Locally Grown Food Help the Environment?." About.com Environmental Issues.N.p.,.d.Web.http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/locally_grown.htm. Parnes, Robin Brett. "How Organic Food Works ." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, Inc, n.d. Web. 1 Oct 2011. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/organic-food6.htm. Shapley, Dan. "The New Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods to Eat Organic." The Daily Green. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods#fbIndex1. Watson, Molly . "Eight Reasons to Eat Local Foods." About.com Local Foods. N.p., n.d. Web. http://localfoods.about.com/od/finduselocalfoods/tp/5-Reasons-to-Eat-Local-Foods.htm. "What is Local." Sustainable Table serving up healty food choices. N.p., January 2009. Web. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/eatlocal/.
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