Local > Organic

Producing your own food (or some of your own food) is one of the best things you can do for the environment and, by default, for yourself.

It’s the time of year to hike (or bike) to your local community garden — you’ll be able to find one in Bloomington, no problem — and start planting. Or, at the very least, start planning what your summer garden is going to look like.

Why bother going to the trouble of planting a food garden? First of all, it’s not too terribly difficult. What’s more, the way that agriculture in the United States works today is extremely harmful to the health of plants, animals, soil and humans — even if you might not realize it.

According to the EPA, 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic.

The most obvious questions all of us need to ask are these: Why is something as basic and natural as food causing cancer, and why should we stand for it?

These chemicals are harmful not only to humans but to the ecosystems where they are used and the organisms within them, as pesticide-laced water flows into the life systems around industrial farms.

Pesticides are also hazardous to soil health, harming or killing the microbes and biota that call soil home and have a mutually beneficial relationship with plants growing in the soil.

Industrial farming also kills biodiversity in favor of monoculture. More plant diversity means greater genetic diversity, which translates into higher disease resistance and support of the complexity of natural ecosystems.

Monoculture goes against nature, killing the natural beauty and infinite genetic variety that is found in the natural world.

So, why not just buy organic food instead?

Buying food products labeled “organic” is not a viable solution to this problem. Just because something is labeled “organic” does not mean that it was grown sustainably or locally. In fact, the opposite is often true.

Food products labeled “USDA organic” have only been around since 2002, and this labeling is, more than anything else, a marketing strategy.

Although USDA organic standards are better than nothing, they are still a far cry from the revolution in farming that needs to happen.

For example, the standards do not require “organic” farms to replenish the soil with natural nutrients in the same proportion used in the growing process. Another example is that USDA standards require that animals have access to the outdoors but do not say for how long or under what conditions.

Moreover, any product can be labeled organic as long as it follows growing conditions, even if it’s being shipped from China to the U.S.

This summer, don’t shop at the grocery store, even if it’s in the organic aisle. Shop at the local farmer’s market, or better yet, take a few steps into your own backyard.

­— ccleahy@indiana.edu