If you are interested in living a more sustainable lifestyle then buying your food, particularly fresh fruit and veg, can have some ethical aspects to it. Is it locally produced? Organic or at least chemical free? Packaging free? From a small independent retailer? Which you can walk to? Yes, I know, on the face of it the answer is easy – grow your own organically! But what if you lack the time, skills and/or space to grow it?
We don’t have the space to grow everything we want so we do have to buy some fruit and vegetables and lately I have been wrestling with the options we have available to us. To break things down for a simple man like myself, I have chosen sweet corn as a symbol for the choices we have to make in our efforts to live and buy more sustainably.
It turns out we have five options if we want to munch on fresh corn with our tea.
Option 1. Buy from a Fruit and Vegetable shop in our local shopping centre -
Our local shopping centre is within walking distance, it only takes me about 10 minutes to walk there, so I do that most days and we don’t use any petrol for that trip, and it is also very convenient. They are open from 8:00pm to 7:00pm or later 7 days a week. While they are not exactly an independent retailer, there are quite a few by the same people around NSW and Sydney in particular, they are not a national chain like Woolworths or Coles either. The corn they sell is industrially farmed and provided on a polystyrene tray and wrapped in plastic with the husk removed. The corn is produced in Australia but could be trucked in from anywhere, adding to the carbon footprint.
I approached the owner (I assume) and asked about providing the corn unpackaged in just the husk. He said that the customers make too much mess husking the corn, but he would be happy to provide me with unpackaged corn on request. He considered that the market for organic did not justify keeping it. I suspect he is correct there, we have a chicken shop who would sell free range chicken but they stopped due to lack of demand. So I suppose that is sort of a win, but doesn’t solve the packaging problem if you are not prepared (or don’t know) to ask.
Option 2. Buy from a national chain in our local shopping centre -
As for option 1 above, this option is also walkable, meaning no carbon emitted from driving and it is very convenient, they are open 7:00am to 11:00pm 7 days a week. They also can provide Macro branded corn which is certified organic. Unfortunately, also similarly to option 1, the corn has been husked and packed in plastic. The organic corn is not always available, although the industrially farmed stuff (which is sometimes provided unpackaged in the husk) seems to be. They are not a locally owned shop and the corn, while Australian produce, can still come from anywhere within Aus.
I did email their head office to ask if it was possible to provide the organic corn to be provided in the husk packaging free. Their response was (once the crap was removed) “Organic produce is in plastic packaging to protect the integrity of the Organic certified product, however we are working on more environmentally friendly solutions in the near future.” Make of that what you will, but they supply organic sweet potato with just a bit of tape around it, sooooo……
Option 3. Buy from Fruit and vegetable shop 15 drive minutes away -
There is a locally owned fruit and vegetable business which takes me about 15 minutes to drive to, they are open from 7:30am to 5:45pm 7 days a week so they are convenient to shop at. They provide unpackaged corn in the original husk, but it is industrially farmed and could come from anywhere within Australia. I have not talked to them about supplying organic corn but I suspect I would get the same response as option 1.
Driving to and from the fruit and veg shop (in our car) consumes 1.3 litres of fuel and it is less convenient than options 1 or 2. The amount of petrol per product bought could be reduced by buying a greater range of products as well as the corn, for which the expedition was made.
Option 4. Buy from organic shop 30 minutes’ drive away
A friend of ours runs an organic shop about 30 minutes’ drive away and they supply organic corn which is unhusked and unpackaged and they are a locally owned business. The round trip consumes a bit over 4 litres in our car and the corn is not always available and not necessarily sourced locally. Taking somewhat longer to get to, this one is lower on the convenience scale but they do open 9:00am to 6:00pm on week days and 9:00am to 4:00pm on Saturdays, closed Sunday.
Option 5. Buy from a small farmers market almost 30 minutes’ drive away
We have a small farmers marked about 30 minutes’ drive away. While the produce may not be certified organic, it is from ‘chemical free’ local farms and you can buy from, and talk to, the people who grow the fruit and veg. On the down side, the farmers market is 30 minutes’ drive away (consuming almost 4 litres of fuel for the round trip) and only open on a Saturday morning.
Notes: All corn is Australian produce but (with the exception of the farmer’s market) no indication of where in Australia it is produced. I have not factored price into the equation, it is a given that more will be paid for organic produce.
To make things even simpler for myself I put together a bit of a summary of what I have discovered so far and this is what it looked like -
|
Summary of Options |
Organic or chemical free |
Local produce |
Independent retailer |
Walkable |
Packaging free |
Total ‘Yes’ points |
|
Option 1 |
No |
No |
Partial |
Yes |
Partial |
2 |
|
Option 2 |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
2 |
|
Option 3 |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
2 |
|
Option 4 |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
3 |
|
Option 5 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
4 |
On the face of it, the Farmer’s Market (Option 5) is the winner, followed closely by the organic shop.
The wild card in all of this is – Convenience! Which option is the most convenient? If that is taken into account the organic shop would be a better bet because it is open more often. The trip to either the market or the organic shop will have an increased convenience factor if we need to head in that direction anyway, and can build the visit into an already programmed trip. Obviously this will be easier to do with the organic shop, again due to its longer opening hours.
The point of all this was to help me make some decisions around where we buy fresh produce (which we are unable to produce ourselves) from. This approach helps me think through the options and come to the best decision for us and the environment.
