Why Buying Local Needs to Include Buying Organic

Via the Organic Consumers Association, a link to this article on Grist: Dispatches from the Fields: Whatever happened to organic?.

This thoughtful piece contains some really illuminating comments on why we need to continue to push for organic food, and has a lot of useful links within the article as well. The authors, both working on small farms, write: "a focus on buying locally avoids a critique of industrial agriculture from all perspectives except that of transportation." That may be going a bit far, since I think - or hope - that for most people there are also issues of fair wages and compensation, supporting the local economy, food that is just plain fresher and better, and at least a chance that small farmers will be more likely to embrace organic agriculture (and these reasons are all cited in the article). My investment in local food is closely tied to the idea of sustainability. But it's true that to focus solely on food miles pushes these other, equally important ideas to the rear.