PERHAPS YOU didn't notice, but we're in the midst of arevolution. More than any other, this one shows that the personal is the political. Raise ye burlap sacks and join the organic, local food revolution. If we as a nation make this movement a true moral commitment, we can tangibly improve both our local economies and even significantly increase our energy security through growing independence from foreign oil. This is politics even the most apathetic can stomach.
The organic food movement is sweeping America. A May TIME magazine article reported that now a quarter of American homes consume organic food at least once a week -- a significant jump from only 17 percent in 2000. Nowhere is this trend more conspicuous than in Charlottesville. Sure, this city is one of the few liberal bastions in the Old Dominion, but even regular University students are catching on. For example, a few weekends ago, I went over to a friend's apartment and saw his roommate playing foosball and consuming not Natty Light, not Doritos, but a cup of organic yogurt. Behind this sort of dietary anomaly, I knew there must be a story.
Let's begin with a few definitions. Organically grown crops are grown without the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers or human waste. If a person buys organic meat, she can be sure that the animals were not subjected to antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic foods do tend to be more expensive, but switching to organic for a few staples such as milk and eggs will provide noticeable health benefits (and be better for still-maturing children) without posing too heavy a burden on the wallet. Let me assure you, your first sip of chilled organic milk will be life-changing.
To be fully eco-friendly, though, eating organically is not enough. It does not help the environment -- nor the local economy -- to buy organic chocolate flown in from Peru. Consider it a donation to Saudi Arabia for every extra mile your chocolate has to fly. . Instead, support the local agricultural community and buy their produce and meats whenever possible. This can mean saving literally thousands of gallons of gas?, and this thoughtfulness poses littlesacrifice to the consumer. Clearly, it is not too contestable to argue fruit fresh from the vine tastes significantly better than mealy, creepily bright red apples flown in from California.
"But I can't make it out to the farms -- I only make the pilgrimage down Emmett Street to Harris Teeter once a week!" you may retort. Do not despair--Charlottesville is brimming with opportunities to buy locally. Every Saturday residents flood the Farmer's Market in the parking lot outside the Downtown mall. Small groceries like Feast! and Integral Yoga Natural Foods also support local farmers. There is also a program in Charlottesville called Community Sustainable Agriculture (CSA's), in which hundreds of Charlottesville residents and students pay a certain flat sum for a share of a farm's organic produce every week, from July to the end of October.
Participating in programs such as this remind us that different crops grow at different times of the year. Natural foods should not be available year-round. American consumers want to buy bok choy at all times of the year, for example, but actually it should only be available during the summer. When you put it that way, modern capitalism allows us to live quite unnatural lives.
The local, organic food movement reminds us that all actions, however personal and regular, have political consequences. Simply by choosing to buy the organic, locally produced head of broccoli, the consumer sends a message that he wants this country to start living sustainably. That head of broccoli sends a national security message: We're not going to continue buying oil financed by totalitarian Middle Eastern governments. On the other hand, every time an American buys a "conventional" (euphemism for non-organic) coconut flown in from an island, she gives the proverbial middle finger to local farmers, the environment and to her own children, whom she continues to feed with pesticides and growth hormones. More than anything, organic food tastes better.
This movement puts in relief the truism "you are what you eat." Politics is not just about picketing and voting -- even a trip to the locally-owned organic grocery is a political statement. A couple of weeks ago, at an undisclosed location, I ate illegal organic goat cheese-- the European kind that is not pasteurized. If we are what we eat, I guess that makes me quite the rebel.
Marta Cook is a Cavalier Daily Associate Editor. She can be reached at mcook@cavalierdaily.com.
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