Next, I want to talk about organic and local food. Conventional food is sprayed with chemicals and pesticides, and organic food is grown naturally with no chemicals. The government argues that the nutritional content of conventional and organic food is the same, but many experts strongly disagree.
Organics is one of the fastest-growing categories in the food industry, despite the fact that it costs more than conventional. The goal in many countries has always been to make the price of food as low as possible so that as many people as possible can buy it. The organic movement started when a subset of people realized that a certain demographic cares a lot about the quality of their food and will pay more for it so they can avoid getting sick and having to pay high doctor’s bills down the road. Global organic sales are currently well over $63 billion1, and expected to exceed $100 billion2 this year.
The bottom line is that we should all try to eat organic as much as possible, but it’s more important to simply focus on whole foods like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Yes, organic is healthier, but conventional broccoli is better than no broccoli at all.
Today, organic food can be coming to you from China, Brazil, or anywhere in the world where it’s available. Given the environmental crisis, this is making a lot of people wonder whether importing organic food far distances is actually worth it. That’s where local food comes in—many people believe that local is more important than organic since when you eat locally, the food will be seasonal by default and support your body in your environment.
I don’t think that most people realize how far their food travels to get to them and all of the resources transportation involves. All of this travel causes food to lose its freshness, and it’s a waste of fuel.
It’s an ongoing process to make intelligent choices for yourself from day to day. For example, New York grows more apples than New York consumes, and yet, you can go to the store and the apples for sale are from Washington State.
Often, we try to do everything at once—go vegetarian, give up coffee, and ban sugar, and we end up overwhelmed. Start by simply eating more fruits and vegetables, ideally organic, but not necessarily all of the time. Take baby steps if necessary—buy canned vegetables and frozen vegetables, even if they’re not organic, and aim to get that food into your system; that’s a great place to start. Then, later, once you get used to this new style of eating, you can start to expand your knowledge and prioritize organic food in your life.