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LEFRANC Ronel
Joined: Jun 29, 2011
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Country: Haiti
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Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Aug 28, 2011
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Among many issues raised in this discussion board, I think, food related issues is of great
importance nowadays if we consider all the problems bound up with food production (agriculture).
Thus, being aware of the situation, and with the strict necessity to maintain a good living
environment for the future generations, everyone needs to play a role and be more reasonable in our
daily activities like transportation, hobbies, energy use, and more importantly in our food choices
as eating is one of the most commons behaviors that anyone can bypass.
It's important to be reasonable in your food choices. Eat organic and more importantly local
because you know by buying your food from the local farmers market and farm-stand,you support your
community while you help protecting the environment by avoiding long distance traveling foods and
your foods are healthier because they are fresh.
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Charles Daphnee
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 12, 2011
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Thank you Ronel for your wonderful post. Unfortunately in some places eating organic foods are quite
expensive. How great will it be if our leaders could use in a wiser manner the financial resources
to allow peoples to have an easier access to better foods.
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LEFRANC Ronel
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 12, 2011
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Thank you Prieten for your comments. I am glad that you are aware of the situation and start to act
positively.
I think this is exactly what we need nowadays "acting"instead of being pessimism that organic
farming cannot feed the world as many people think it. While the population is growing larger and
larger, we cannot keep degrading the natural environment and harming the natural ecosystems because
we need to keep a living environment for the future generation and as you mention it, we have to
remember that the fossil fuel we are using is not renewable.
Haiti is for sure very small compared to the population of the world but even so, bad governance
does that we still cannot feed our population and despite the presence of thousands of NGOs, you
don't really see a positive trend toward a self reliance and food security in the country.
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Ronel Lefranc
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LEFRANC Ronel
Joined: Jun 29, 2011
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 12, 2011
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CharlesDaphnee wrote:
Thank you Ronel for your wonderful post.
Unfortunately in some places eating organic foods are quite expensive. How great will it be if our
leaders could use in a wiser manner the financial resources to allow peoples to have an easier
access to better foods.</s
You're right Daphnee, it's true that lot of people are living in abject poverty and cannot even
afford a meal a day. But, I think if they wanted to do their own garden even in their back yard, it
would be good for them to have a way to access healthy food by growing their crops organically which
would be easier for them considering that they don't have money to buy synthetic fertilizers that
are already not good for the natural ecosystem.
And also, governments should think about subsidize some crops for their farmers and promote organic
farming as it is an easy way to grow healthy crops. They can also assist the most impoverished
people to afford healthy food by finding a compromise with the farmers (organic farmers) to lower
the prices for people who don't have enough money. They have a program like this in the USA and many
farmers accept to do that because it's a way for them to help others and the government reduces in
their taxes for that.
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Ronel Lefranc
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prieten47
Joined: Oct 26, 2006
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Province/State: Hokkaido
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices
Sep 13, 2011
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Hi Ronel and Charles,
It is ironic that store bought organic vegetables are more expensive than "factory farmed"
vegetables. My garden is organic in that I only use homemade compost. I add nothing else to the
soil. The green items that go into my compost are the many weeds that I have pulled in and around my
garden. The browns are fallen leaves I collect in a nearby forest. I also throw in food scraps from
the kitchen.
The time I spend in my garden averages about one and a half hours each day. The gardening tools I
got from a friend for free. The only thing I have bought were some hoops and netting to protect my
tomatoes from the birds. Even the land where I am gardening was loaned to me because I have no land
around my own house.
Today, I returned from my garden with a bucketful of potatoes, zucchinis, tomatoes and kohlrabi. It
was so heavy, I had to keep switching it from my right to my left arm and back. My wife immediately
sent as a gift two kohlrabis to her friend in another city.
I am reluctant to always look to government for solutions. If I can grow organic vegetables, anyone
can. We can share gardening tools, we can share seeds and we can share the vegetables we grow. I
can't think of a better way to make our communities stronger. And we will be ready when the oil runs
out!
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Star Anise
Joined: Sep 16, 2011
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 16, 2011
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Yes, I believe that we should all try to be environmental,buying organic and local. However, I
noticed that it is rare to find BOTH organic and local food in the markets. Some organic foods are
imported from a far-away country, which boosts up our carbon footprint. Also, some local produce are
treated with pesticides and fungicides to chemically make them survive in inappropriate weather
conditions.
I do wish there was variety of both organic and local food. It would be greatly sustainable. I hope
more and more people realize the significance of agricultural impacts on the environment! 
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LEFRANC Ronel
Joined: Jun 29, 2011
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 18, 2011
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I completely agree with you Prieten. People tend to rely on government for everything while they
don't do any efforts. Last year I did a research for a class, I had to compare the prices of the
products in the farmer's market with those in the Co-Ops. My results proved me that it is better to
buy in the farmer's market because the products were cheaper and at this time, you by fresh
healthier food and encourage local production. But, I know in some places, organic products are more
expensive than the others, that's quite weird to me. I think people can spend less money to grow
organically even though they require more labor sometimes.
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Ronel Lefranc
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LEFRANC Ronel
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 18, 2011
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I agree with you Anise. It's pretty difficult nowadays to choose what you are eating and as I
mentioned in my blog, we need to be curious even when we are eating organic and local. We need to
question their origin because lot of products are imported from far away and they burn lot of fossil
fuel to bring them to the final destination and depending on the amount of time they spend in the
way, they are no more fresh and less healthy. For the local foods, we need to get to know our local
farmers, the way they grow their crops because you can buy local but not organic. The best thing is
buy "Local organic foods".
Lots of people are not aware about the impacts of agriculture on the environment but it's getting
more and more serious and we really need to act in turn.
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Ronel Lefranc
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prieten47
Joined: Oct 26, 2006
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Re: Be reasonable in your food choices and eating patterns
Sep 18, 2011
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Dear Star and Lefranc,
Buying organic food is indeed tricky. Yes, there are big supermarkets like Whole Foods in the USA
that claim to sell only organic food. That food distribution system doesn't seem to be any different
from the usual grocery stores: lots of driving the food around to get from the organic farmers to
the grocery store.
The organicness of the food is also questionable. Mysteriously, there are certain agricultural
chemicals which are classified as organic and yet are very toxic if they accumulate on plants or in
the soil. Nicotine sulfate (from the tobacco plant), pyrethrum, rotenone, sabadilla, and sulfur are
all allowed as "natural" pesticides and fungicides because they are derived from natural sources,
but all are more or less toxic and some selfproclaimed "true" organic farmers try to avoid them.
Another consideration: some vegetarians and vegans are shocked to find out blood meal and bone meal
are often used as organic fertilizers. Biodynamic organic farming uses animal products like
intestines and horns from cows.
Farmers markets were growing in America when I last lived there. I don't know where that trend went.
It was more fun to go to these markets and have the produce weighed for you. Talking to the sellers
was also fun. They often had literature available about their farm and would invite consumers to
come visit.
The community supported farm (CSF) concept is also gaining traction. City dwellers can subscribe to
a weekly delivery of a fixed amount of fresh vegetables from a local farmer. Our CSA delivers the
vegetables to a central point in our city, and we have to go there to pick out and weigh our own
produce. I often go to the farm to volunteer. I am paid in a small amount of cow manure for my
labor!
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