Go green, eat local

By Felicia Kitzmiller
Edited by Sydney Smith
Posted April 2, 2008

"Green" products in the grocery store give consumers an endless array of options to detoxify their bodies and help clean up the environment - if only it were that easy.

The popularity of this "eco-friendly" way of life has skyrocketed, but many consumers may be mislead about the nutritional and environmental benefits of products.

"There's a market for it without a doubt, but I don't know that there are any health benefits," said Larry Boyleston, South Carolina's contact for the National Organic Program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture only regulates the term "organic," and there are no federal standards for companies that want to market their foods with labels like "natural" and "free-range."

An example is labeling on chicken, said Azeez Mustafa, who owns SFC Organic Farm in Sumter. He said farmers can advertise their chicken as free-range even if genetically altered and pumped full of chemicals. Free-range growing is considered to be a more natural way of raising chickens; however, because it is not regulated like the "organic" label, no standards exist for the "free-range" label.

In a recent trip to a Columbia supermarket, the Carolina Reporter compared ingredient labels on products advertised as "natural" to similar products that were not. In some cases differences between the natural product and its regular counterpart were noticable, but in the majority of cases there was almost no difference.

Labels might not be 100 percent accurate in all of their claims, but it is the best thing consumers have, said Lois Bradley, a certified nutritional consultant at About Your Health, a health education clinic in Columbia. Bradley said she encourages her clients to eat as organically as possible.

Organic food is better for you because of the lack of contamination, said Bradley. The fewer toxins someone puts into their body, the less the body has to take out and the less work the liver has to do, she said.

Even when farms meet federal standards for organic, their products are still not the wonder foods many expect.

"You can eat all organic and still eat unhealthy," said Bradley. "Look at it as part of a health plan for yourself ... It's like baking an apple pie. So much goes in to it. You can't bake a pie without the apples, but you can't do it without the other stuff, either."

The organic label does not necessarily guarantee health and environmental benefits. Eleven of the 53 USDA-accredited organic certifying institutions in the country in 2005 were in California because the arid climate allows more organic farming on the West Coast, said Brad Stancil, who heads the organic certifying program at Clemson University. As a result, much organic food must be preserved and travel across the country.

"You can't say just ‘organic,' " said Walker Miller, a board member of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. "You've got to say organic and local. ... If that organic food comes from California it has traveled, what about 3,000 miles, and it has a humongous carbon footprint."

Clemson University is the only organic certifying institution in South Carolina.

Growing food organically in South Carolina can be challenging. The warm, wet climate produces an abundance of weeds and pests that are a nuisance to organic farmers who do not use harsh pesticides, Boyleston said.

Mustafa said he doesn't think the effort that goes into organic farming is much different from traditional farming methods.

"Personally, myself I don't think you should put poison or insecticide on things, because if it's going to hurt or damage or kill the bugs, how do you know it's not going to do something to you?" Mustafa said.

"We have a lot of farmers that use organic practices but aren't certified because they don't need to. They have the customers," said Geoffrey Zehnder, coordinator of the sustainable agriculture program at Clemson University.

Miller agreed and also pointed out that the process and time it takes to become certified as organic is prohibitive to some growers.

Many consumers choose local produce instead of organic food to help the environment and their health. While not federally regulated like the term "organic," buying local produce allows consumers to know the origin of the produce and the conditions in which it was grown.

Mary Johnson from Winnsboro visits the state farmers market about once a month to buy locally grown produce.

"The prices are better and the fruit is fresher," Johnson said as she scanned the offerings of a local produce stand. "I only buy selected things out of the grocery store, like canned goods and things, but for the fresh things, fruits and vegetables and such, I like to come out here to the market."

Barry LaFavor, who owns a produce market in Myrtle Beach, visits the farmers market between one and three times a week to replenish his stock of fresh fruits and vegetables. He said the fresh produce always sells better at his business.

Many stores are starting to put up signs that identify which products were produced locally. Zehnder said the best way to eat healthy and protect the environment is to look for these signs.

Miller takes it one step further. "You should know your grower. Know your vegetable grower, know your fruit grower."