Eat Smart...and Sustainably

This morning the glitter has faded from what was an exciting Redskins' win over the hated Dallas Cowboys. Wait a minute...that sounded so fine...Redskins' win over the hated Dallas Cowboys. I never get tired of hearing that! But after reading many posts at football sites that give the Skins no credit for the win, I will shrink back to another subject. Any subject will do...just something so a reader here won't think I'm a bitter Redskins fan in search of a glory long past, never to be regained. (The truth is so painful!)
     Actually I want to address the subtle changes that I see in our food industry. We have to be careful not to be too swayed by the 'organic' movement. Not that organic is bad...it's great. But now that organic is 'in' (which it never was until big business saw how lucrative it could be) we, as consumers, must grow along with it. Yes, organic produce has advantages, certain items more than others. And we still don't know what benefits an organic Bell pepper holds over one grown with pesticides. At the cellular level, there may be researchable traits yet undiscovered. But we have experienced exactly how the mere size of an industry can make bottom-line more important than benefits to consumers (Think AIG and Lehman, to name only a couple). Organic food was always a small niche market of hippies and flower children in the 60s and 70s. Whole Foods is now world-wide and raking in the profits. I don't begrudge anyone making money on a helpful product, but we've learned so much since the old days. After reading 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' and seeing first hand how the idea of small farms that operated on interconnected bio-diversity to eliminate the need for pesticides and antibiotic use have all but been eliminated, I feel we must refine what type of food industry we want to foster. Do we want mono-culture operations that foul the air, soil and groundwater like the CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations)? These entities have pushed the small sustainable farms nearly out of existence. Small farms like 'Polyface' in Virginia, which is mentioned in 'Dilemma', used to be the norm before 'big money' started looking for even 'bigger money'. It happens in all facets of life...farming, automobiles, medicine, banking, even music!
     If we want our food industry to follow a reliable trajectory it must include 'organic' but even more importantly, it must be consciously sustainable. It must include, and even lean heavily on 'bio-diversity' and 'local'. Why doesn't Whole Foods have a huge local aisle, full of fresh produce and meats produced regionally and delivered to the stores in the same manner as CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) have been doing in recent years?
    The real costs, in energy and environmental damage, of our current conventional food production is clearly unsustainable. We need to learn why and move toward a better model for the future.