From Jeff Cox

I’ve just finished reading four articles in The New York Times written by respected correspondents from around the world reporting on the effects of global warming on their environments. Their reports are scary—climatic interruptions that decimate crops, shrinking glaciers, melting ice sheets that will inundate coastal area, extinction of plant and animal species. But the most disturbing report for me comes from China, where the correspondent reports that the Chinese, inheritors of a farming system that has served them sustainably for forty centuries, is changing. The old system relied on recycling every scrap of organic matter into the soil so that seasonal crops would reliably grow cabbages in the winter, radishes in the spring, an abundance of vegetables in the summer, and even more vegetables in the fall. Meat was a small but important contribution to the Chinese diet.

But now, with newfound wealth, the Chinese are demanding more meat, fruits in winter, imported foods from around the world—just like North Americans and Europeans. This globalization of the food supply is exactly the direction that exacerbates global warming by homogenizing the fare in the markets—everything available at all times. Strawberries in winter, ripe melons in early spring, blueberries all year.

Along with reducing our “carbon footprint” by using renewable energy sources, every place on earth needs to be evaluated for its optimum system for producing locally-grown, seasonally correct, and nutritious food that’s suited to the locality’s climate, rainfall pattern, and heat-cold profile. Farmers need to be encouraged to produce environmentally sensible crops in their regions with price supports and tax breaks. People need to understand how important it is for the health of the planet and for their health personally to eat seasonally, locally, and organically.

It’s madness to think that everyone on earth can eat whatever they want at any time of the year. In that way, we eat ourselves toward ecological disaster, environmental destruction, and world hunger.

We can all start turning this agricultural ship around now by buying locally, seasonally, and organically as much as possible—and refusing the blueberries in January and the cauliflower in June.
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Please go to: A Tale of Two Tomatoes
Jeff Cox is author of The Organic Cook’s Bible and lives in Sonoma County, California.

Coming March 4th - The Organic Food Shopper’s Guide
Image Credit: EcoTrust.org
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