Healthy Choices Made Easier

By ARIELLE REICH

Gas prices don’t only affect our wallets at the gas station. With oil prices on the rise, we feel the pinch when purchasing any product that needs to be shipped across the country, and that includes food.  When we go to the grocery store in Connecticut and buy a summer peach that was grown in California, we not only pay for its cross country truck ride, but we pay for the petroleum based pesticide and fertilizers that corporate farms use, and they are getting more expensive each day.

The people who make the effort to avoid artificial pesticides by buying organic local fruits and vegetables have long complained that they are paying more for their produce. However, with the price of oil having a dramatic impact at the grocery store, this argument no longer holds much water.  Small, family run Connecticut farms are increasingly gaining a competitive advantage since they aren’t as reliant on oil in the harvest and shipment of their bounty.

In fact, a recent New York Times editorial claimed that small farms are much more productive, netting $1,400 per acre compared to $39 an acre net for an average U.S. corporate farm that grows genetically engineered crops. While large farms have historically compensated for their inefficiency by mass-producing their products, it is becoming less and less efficient to transport food across the country.

I encourage you to support local farmland by shopping at local farmers markets and joining your local CSA, Community Supported Agriculture organization. More and more, the dollar difference between local organic and big business conventional food is shrinking, yet the quality and health value remains incomparable.