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stoneman said: We get most of our food from a local CSA (community supported agriculture), which I suppose is a kind of co-op. We pay a flat fee twice a year and then pick up a share of food each week. The CSA also lets members buy individual items as needed.

Besides helping members get biodynamic and organic food at affordable prices, it also helps producers get reasonable prices, and it helps them with their planning.

I’ve been meaning to blog about this. Have bookmarked your site and will get back as soon as I can.

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Food2gro said: First question: Yes I have shopped, contributed and worked at co-ops. I think they really are an incentive to support local growers for produce, dairy, honey etc.

Second question: Yes, it is very important where you buy your organic foods. Organic food is not necessarily safe food. My blog deals with organic growing, farmers markets, organic foods, alternative diets etc. It is important to buy local if you don’t grow your food. If you go to a farmer’s market you can always find out about conditions so that you can find out about E.Coli and other dangers. Good questions to ask are; Is the produce grown near cattle? Do you use animal fertilizer when you grow your food? If an organic grower uses animal fertilizer, there are very strict regiments that involve this. Ask the farmer about what type of safety measures and records they keep. My next post will talk about this as well. I’ve left you answers on your polls, joined your neighborhood, following you, added you as a friend and subscribed to your blog. Best of luck and keep on the green path!

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Houseonahill said: I have shopped at co-ops, but have recently begun supporting http://www.freshpicks.com
to get my fresh veggies and fruits. I also shop at Trader Joe’s and Whole Food but try to only purchase items from local farms. Living in the Mid-West, I especially leave the California, Chile, Argentina items out.

I also try to buy organic but in the winter, I have attempted to eat mainly grains, nuts and lettuces.

I will check out your site. Great topic and great responses!

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Kinichiriver said: I would love to shop at a co-op. Unfortunately, there are none around here that I have been able to find. I try to buy organic as often as I can at the grocery store and I’m so pleased that their organic section is growing. Sometimes i have to compromise due to finances, but we have been making many more organic choices lately.

It matters a little to me where I buy my organic products. If given the choice, I’d rather buy from a local seller, or at a farmers market than the chain grocery store here. However, I have not found those options in this area. So, grocery store it is.

I have shopped at a co-op when I lived in New York City.. There’s plenty.. However there’s none where I currently live. There’s a farmers market that opens in the summer and going to go check it out and see if they offer Organic option.

I would buy from a co-op or health food store and have shopped at both but will not pay 3x more for a product even if it’s Organic. I am pretty much limited to my grocery store and even Wal-Mart (yes I know.. bad.. boo.. hiss) but I am just happy that they have Organic period.

I always buy Organic meat, egg, and milk.. fruits and veggies.. depends on the price and try to buy Organic bath and body products. But I don’t have a fortune so it’s a compromise at times.

I hope you do start a co-op and best of luck!!!

It’s difficult (maybe impossible) for anyone to grasp the full implications of their purchase decisions; it doesn’t excuse them from learning as much as they can about the impact of their decisions.

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley
http://www.environmentastic.com

And you are exactly right about the dairy example. I think many people want to know how their food is produced. It is not enough to just meet the technical terms of organic certification if your cows are sick and crowded into an unhealthy environment.

This is why I am championing the use of the phrase “Ethical Food” and plan to put up a series of posts detailing what it is and why it is important. I did not think up the term and in fact at the beginning resisted it, thinking that organic food had to be by definition, “ethically produced”. Eventually I realized that was not the case at all.

When I began using the description myself seven months ago, a Google search turned up only a few hundred web sites with the term. Today the same search returns 33,600 results. Progress, but still a small number by Google standards and way smaller than a search for “organic food”. (Over 6 million results.)

-Will

It is extremely satisfying to find and support farmers and other food producers who really do care about the land and their animals. Some farmers opt out of organic certification because of cost, yet they go far beyond organic production standards. I most prefer to buy from them. We have lost too many small farms over the years.

There are huge corporations that sell “organic” foods many of your readers would find unacceptable. Two well-known “organic” dairies have had complaints filed against them for confining massive numbers of cows into feedlots. I see their “organic” products in the larger chain stores, including Whole Foods, which gives me added incentive to shop locally, including subscribing to a local CSA (community supported agriculture).

I appreciate your article, and vision.

Linda Prout