Food, food, food.

Food is always a difficult one for me.  I'm already a vegatarian so, theoretically, my carbon footprint is almost half that of meat eaters, but the question is..where do I get my vegetables?  One of the biggest decisions is organic vs local.  Both of them have good and bad points.

Organic is healthier to eat as it doesn't get sprayed with as much pesticide and herbicide, has been shown to be less damaging to the environment, and more wildlife friendly.  However, a large number of the organic vegetables we get in Britain is from abroad, and you have to wonder about the environmental implications of that, and not all 'organic' farms are actually as organic as we're lead to believe (the policy can be a bit vague on this, so it depends on who certifies them).

Local food means that it has travelled less distance, meaning that less carbon dioxide is produced, and means that you're supporting local farmers and growers.  The problem here is on how the products are grown.  There's still research being done on the affects of herbicide and pesticides on humans when digested (and no amount of washing can completely remove all of these products), and these, with the fertiliser added to the soil, all have a negative impact on the environment.  Many of the processes on non-organic farms can also be very wildlife unfriendly.  Of course, this isn't true for all farms, and many without the organic certificate still look after the environment around them but can't necessarily afford to pay for the organic certification.

As with most things, a little but of research is important.  Local and organic is always best, though it can be a little bit pricey, but when both is not possible, for me, the best solution is to buy local but to pick farms that try to be as environmentally friendly as possible even if they're not organic.

I'm looking at trying out vegetable boxes as they are usually made up of local produce and reduce the amount of packaging use, another big issue connected with food.  I've gone for the Balirgowrie Farm Shop Small Produce Box and ordered it this week.  While they do have some local organic produce (and all there meat is organic so they're definitely worth supporting for that), almost all the produced are sourced either from local growers.  I'll need to test it for a few weeks before I can be sure on how I feel about it though.