Mother Jones on Buying Local and Organic Labelling
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 05.12.06
The May/June 2006 issue of Mother Jones magazine has (as usual) some intriguing articles. There is the tale of two apples. Both Red Delicious. Originally first harvested in the US State of Iowa, they now come from Washington State. Mojo undertook some life cycle assessment on the apples and concluded “Shipping a pound of Washington apples to Iowa requires 30 times more fuel and releases 30 times more CO2 than shipping a pound of Iowa apples to a local market.” See the stats here. Then they have an excerpt from the book, The Ominvore’s Dilemma, in which the author meets Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, an advocate of buy (and sell) local: ‘This man was serious. He went on to explain that Polyface does not ship long distance, does not sell to supermarkets, and does not wholesale its food. All of the meat and eggs that Polyface produces is eaten within a few dozen miles or, at the most, half a day’s drive of the farm—within the farm’s “foodshed.” ’ And to complete this food ménage à troi, a story on how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have a loophole in their definition of ‘organic’, as it applies to milk production, which allows for dairy feedlots to claim the much sought after moniker. Tsk tsk. ::Mother Jones.
See also: Eat Local and the 100 Mile Diet.
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The Horizon/Aurora (so-called organic dairies) thing has been covered in depth over at http://organicconsumers.org -- many of us have joined a boycott (http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb2.htm), though my own contribution is minimal since I don't really buy that much dairy, anyway.
You should also check out a really good interview with the author of "Omnivore's Dilemma" from my local NPR station this morning:
http://kuow.org/weekday.asp?Archive=05-12
Interesting article in the Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/business/12organic.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=69f7a2faQ2FQ3FnQ7DuQ3FkVQ5CF.VVQ5BYQ3FYNNQ24Q3FN)Q3FCYQ3FuDFU7Q7DFFQ3FCYV.qR7UQ5CQ25SQ5BQ3Cx
You mentioned that WalMart already sells organic milk. You mentioned that the rules on organic milk allow feedlots. There is a connection (sorry I don't have the link). Horizon is a large dairy in Idaho; it would not let NPR visit its dairy for a story on organic milk rules. Organic Valley used to supply WalMart with organic milk, but returned to its smaller vendors, so it could maintain its quality standards and not feel the pressure to produce quantity.
Once again Walmarts wholesale practises come into light..