This week, Grist Magazine features an excerpt from Samuel Fromartz’s Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew.

Here’s a brief summary, as seen on their Daily Grist wrapup:

Chews Wisely: Is it better to buy organic or local?

Does locally grown food trump pesticide-free produce, or vice versa? Farmers’ markets and produce aisles are chock-full of earnest foodies agonizing over the green conundrum du jour. In a piece adapted from his book Organic, Inc., Samuel Fromartz addresses the local/organic dilemma — and his advice may surprise you.

Fromartz’s answer?

When I shop, visiting the Dupont Circle farmers’ market in Washington on Sunday morning and then going to the supermarket, I make choices too. I buy local, organic, and conventional foods too, because each meets a need. Is the local product better than the organic one? No. Both are good choices because they move the food market in a small way. In choosing them, I can insert my values into an equation that for too long has been determined only by volume, convenience, and price. While I have nothing against low prices and convenient shopping, the blind pursuit of these two values can wreak a lot of damage — damage that we ultimately pay for in water pollution, toxic pesticide exposure, unhealthy livestock, the quality of food, and the loss of small farms. The total bill may not show up at the cash register, but it’s one we pay nonetheless.

You can read the whole piece here.