Ethical Food

This week's Economist has an interesting leader and special report on ethical food. Per usual, they take a contrarian view, arguing that you're not actually helping the planet buy purchasing organic or local food. The basic logic against organic food goes something like this. Growing organic food is more land intensive so the benefits you gain by growing organic produce are offset by less efficient land use and greater degradation of soil. Obviously I've simplified this quite a bit, but hopefully you get the point. I can't say I know enough about this stuff to feel like I have an informed opinion, but it's worth a read (and worth learning more about).