The Organic vs. Local Debate: Eating Sustainably Without Labels

I'll be the first to admit that I have often relied too heavily on labels to guide my food choices. Before I became more deeply involved in sustainable food, I was stubbornly focused on the words "organic" or "free-range," and just seeing them on a label or sign were enough to satisfy my questions and concerns.

In the grand scheme of things, there's nothing wrong with that. The purpose of any sort of labeling is to provide us with a quick reference point when we don't have the time to look deeper. But in some cases, those words I so fervently clung to have become marketing tools, purged of the true meaning they were intended to have.

I know for many concerned about how their food is produced, navigating the produce aisles of Whole Foods or Mrs. Green's Natural Market can trigger a seemingly endless internal debate — when forced to make a choice, is it better to buy organic or local?

By any measure, Northern Westchester is far ahead in the sustainable food movement. Unlike many other places, we have an array of farms, markets, and restaurants that are genuinely concerned about issues of food and environment. Just having the option of organic or local (or both) is fantastic in its own right.

I work as the Assistant Farm Manager at Amawalk Farm in Katonah, a certified organic farm. The certification process, I have been told, was not fraught with the crippling costs and burdensome paperwork that some farmers cite as an impediment to organic certification.

We were lucky in that respect, and because of our ability to label our produce as organic (it is illegal to do so without certification), our sales are probably higher than they would be otherwise. However, if we were not certified organic, do I think we would manage our crops any less sustainably? Absolutely not.

There are many small-scale family farmers — here in Northern Westchester, and across the country — that are also producing food in environmentally sustainable ways that do not have the organic certification label. They choose not to become certified either because of cost, the fear of too much paperwork, or in order to make a statement about organic standards or the involvement of government in the local food movement. Regardless, their food is good for us and good for the environment, and certainly more sustainable than many of the massive organic farms (particularly in California) that sell to stores around the country.

It is probably a relic of the early days of organic farming — when almost all food produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers was sold locally — that consumers assume purchasing food labeled as organic supports small-scale farmers. Unfortunately, that's not quite the case.

According to the Organic Trade Association, 92 percent of organic food sold worldwide last year was through a mass market retailer, mainstream supermarket, warehouse store, or other retailer. Very few family farmers have enough product volume to sell through those channels. As such, only about 8 percent of worldwide organic sales came from farmer's markets, CSAs, or specialty stores — the primary direct-to-consumer markets on which family farmers rely.

I can personally attest that there are local farms in our area that are certified organic and very much live up to the ideal of the sustainable family farmer. I am not in any way suggesting that organic is bad — quite the opposite. It is important, however, to not let a label, or lack thereof, discourage you from discovering some of the other sustainable, delicious food being grown right nearby.

If you really want to contribute to the sustainable food movement, take some time to get to know the farms in our area, and don't get hung up on how they label their products. If its good food, produced responsibly, you won't need a label to tell you.