Active Users:1177 Time:22/11/2024 04:34:02 PM
Good points - Edit 1

Before modification by kHz1000 at 12/09/2012 09:35:36 AM

Buying "organic" veggies that are from very large scale farms and come from the other side of the continent, are stored for transportation and at the distribution centers at a temperature suitable to lenghten shelf life rather than at the proper temperature to preserve taste and quality, which are finally set to rippen at the distribution facilities at the arrival point so they're ready to hit the shelves on just the right day makes absolutely no sense for the gourmet or for health (not to mention that environmentally, it's rather moot). Several veggies or fruits support cold very badly (tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries etc.) but need to be stored quite beneath the optimal temp. for transportation. E.g. Fresh California strawberries or cucumbers from Mexico or Chili sold in eastern Canada are tasteless, their texture is sub-par, whether they're organic or not, and often non organic mass products are even of better quality. I'm sure they're all good on their local markets, it's exportation to get fresh veggies from the other side of the world, out of season, that's a really dubious practice. Frozen products are an alternative of much better quality, for taste, for cost (they're much cheaper to transport and store than fresh products) and healthwise.

I agree with all this but I also feel like adding that food transportation has actually a minimal effect on the overall carbon footprint (perhaps because the quantities are so large, or something). It's more ecological to ship tomatoes from Spain to Sweden in the winter than to grow them in a glasshouse in Sweden. Of course, if people would eat canned tomatoes (which probably taste better than the exported ones) there'd be even less of a problem.

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