Been meaning to get this post on organic and locally-grown food from Cascadia Scorecard Weblog up for several days (WorldChanging beat me to it). It links to a BBC report that notes
Local food is usually more “green” than organic food, according to a report published in the journal Food Policy.
The authors say organic farming is also valuable, but people can help the environment even more by buying food from within a 20km (12-mile) radius.
They calculate that moving food long distances can cause more harm than non-organic farming methods.
This struck me particularly hard as my wife and I were shopping at Whole Foods yesterday… I noticed they were selling organic oranges grown in California. From this report, I had to gather that any environmental benefits of organic growth were, at the very least, negated by shipping it halfway across the country…