What is more important: orgnically or locally grown produce?

Question

This is rather a difficult question: I know the benefits of organic produce to our health, but so much of it is imported that I wonder if it does more harm to the environment than good. Is is more important to buy locally- supporting my local economy, small family farms, and reduce the resources used in transporting the produce? Or is it more important to buy organics, that reduce the amount of toxins in the environment but are often shipped thousands of miles causing other forms of pollution and waste? Ideally I would buy LOCAL ORGANICS, but that is not always an option. What is your take on it?

Serious answers, please.

Answer 1

In the long run locally grown is normally better for the environment. Because the organics have to be shipped across the country with vehicles that produce mass amounts of carbon emissions. The only damage locally grown will give is pesticides and weed control in a small area around the field if any. Most farmers do a good job of only spraying their crops. That is why they wait for the wind to die down before they spray. Rarely do run offs or does wind do any damage with pesticides anyway.

Answer 2

I would encourage you to support your local economy rather than demand "organic" products.  There are no real advantages to organically grown produce.  Anybody who is interested in this topic should research what it means when they buy food that is "organic".  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_cer...

Organic produce generically means no "artificial" fertilizer was used and no antibiotics or "artificial" pesticides were used.  These restrictions usually mean a much lower crop yield per acre of land  which has led some people to calculate that if all food was grown "organically" there would not be enough food to feed the entire country.  Also, the lack of effective pesticides can actually increase the risk of food-borne illnesses and this further diminishes the yield per acre of land.  Also organic certification is easy to get, and many of the so called natural substitutes used to fertilize and control pests can be more toxic than their artificial counterparts.  

People often attest to the higher quality of organic produce, but this can be explained psychologically, similar to the well studied placebo effect.  When you expect something to be of higher quality, you will trick yourself into believing that the taste and other attributes really are different.  However, in controlled studies where people didn't know which product was organic and which was was not, taste tests and subjective measures of quality actually prefered the industrially grown produce.  

Buy local and don't waste your money on organic products.