Also, by expanding the organic market, we may be well quota local farmers. The USDA surveyed farmers ' markets and start up that about a question of farmers selling direct were organic - - local and organic, that is. In comparison, dependable one percent of all American farms practice organic agriculture. So for smaller - scale farmers selling direct, organic food has become a key component of their ego. By bringing more people into the organic fold, through whatever gateway they happened to choose, the pool of consumers considering local food would likely increase notably.
That ' s at head what Jim Crawford, a farmer from south central Pennsylvania believed. His 25 - acre operation, New Morning Farm, works two farmers markets in Washington, D. C., and Jim played a key role in the growth of local foods in the region, having started out as an organic farmer in the 1970s. He told me he worried when Whole Foods opened a supermarket near his farmers ' market location in Washington because he thought he would lose customers. But over time, he noticed, sales kept rising. He thought the supermarket, which stocked a lot of organic produce from California, was actually converting customers to organic food and they in turn were finding their way to his market.
But what about companies that have pursued the organic marketplace without any concern for local food? What about, say, Earthbound Farm, which has grown into the third largest organic brand and the largest organic produce company in the nation, with its bagged salad mixes in three - quarters of all supermarkets? The company fiercely competed with other organic growers who later went out of business; its salad was grown organically but with industrial - scale agriculture; and the trucks that shipped the salad around the country burned through a lot of fossil fuel.
But Earthbound was competing with the likes of Dole, Fresh Express and ReadyPac in the mainstream market to offer consumers an organic choice. It did little for local food ( a saving grace, since it left the market to smaller players ). But Earthbound farmed on 26, 000 acres of certified organic land, which meant that 267, 000 pounds of pesticides and 8. 4 million pounds of chemical fertilizers were being removed from use annually, the company estimated. And as studies repeatedly show, organic farming also saves energy ( since the production of fertilizer and pesticides consumes one - third of the energy used in farming overall ). Earthbound ' s accomplishments should not be ignored - - even if they are anything but local.
Which brings me to a final point: How we shop. Venues like Whole Foods are not fully organic because people are often unwilling to spend more than a small portion of their grocery budget on organic foods. It ' s too expensive. This is one reason why organic food accounts for just two percent of food sales - - one percent if you include eating out. Similarly, local foods, though important, total 1 - 2 percent. So arguing over local or organic is a bit like two people in a room of 100 fighting over who has the more righteous alternative to what the other 98 people are doing. It doesn ' t really matter, because the bigger issue is swaying the majority.
