By ROB PETERSON

As an organic farmer on Vashon, I feel a great appreciation for our customers. By buying the food we grow, you make our livelihood possible. Buying locally and organically grown food is good for you, for your farmers and also for our larger community. One benefit of a local organic food connection that is sometimes overlooked is that it can save energy and shrink agriculture’s carbon footprint.

At its heart, farming is about the miracle of photosynthesis. Plants directly use the sun’s energy to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water and nutrients from the soil to produce the food energy that feeds all life on earth. In an intact natural ecosystem, plants absorb enough energy not only to feed all the animals in the ecosystem, but also to build up carbon stores in plant biomass and in the soil.

The craft of farming involves managing the collection of solar energy to produce food as well as fiber and other crops. How this craft is carried out makes a big difference for how efficiently the sun’s energy reaches us as food and for food’s carbon footprint.

My nephew, who rides an electric bike, recently told me of research demonstrating that riding an electric bicycle can have a smaller carbon footprint than riding a regular bicycle. Food provides the energy required to power a bike. Farming provides that food. Modern conventional agriculture consumes approximately 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food. Maybe we’d be better off if we could eat gasoline.

As currently practiced on a large scale, conventional agriculture contributes significantly to the emissions that cause global climate change. The production of synthetic fertilizers alone accounts for almost a third of agriculture’s energy cost and carbon footprint. Farm machinery and transportation combined account for another third. Farming practices that release carbon into the atmosphere that nature would store as soil organic matter are the heart of the problem.

We don’t need to continue farming in this manner. By using natural methods to build soil fertility, farming at a scale that requires less energy-intensive machinery and transporting food only short distances, local small farmers using organic farming methods greatly reduce the energy cost of the craft of farming. By using practices that build soil organic matter, organic farms can actually store or sequester atmospheric carbon.

In 1981, the Rodale Institute began what was to become the longest-running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming systems. Over 30 years into the trial, several findings are clear. After a few years’ transition, organic farming practices yield as much per acre as conventional practices. In years of drought, the organic systems yield up to 30 percent more. The organic systems outperform the conventional system when looked at through the lenses of soil health, yields, economic viability, energy use and ecosystem and human health.

We know that human activity is radically altering the climate. We know that the cost of fossil energy will increase significantly. We know that we can expect climate-induced bad weather to disrupt farming. It makes sense, from this perspective, to build our capacity to grow food organically, locally, using as little fossil fuel as possible, building soil as much as possible and looking to nature rather than industry for organizing principles.

Yet fossil fuels are still inexpensive compared to the amount of work they do. Fossil fuels allow the 2 percent of Americans who are farmers to produce a large amount of very inexpensive food. We now know that we are paying and will continue to pay a high cost for the environmental damage caused by growing that food. Woody Deryckx, a founder of the Tilth movement in Washington, once said, “When you pay organic prices for a potato, you are paying for a potato; when you pay conventional prices, your children are paying for your potato.”

As a community, Vashon has a vital interest in increasing the amount of food grown locally and organically. The Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) is committed to growing that capacity. With your support, several farms are thriving here. I believe we can support many more farms on Vashon. Though it is currently less expensive, we truly cannot afford to continue to eat carbon-guzzling food.

We encourage you to learn to grow more of your own food organically and to get as much food as you can from your local growers. Join VIGA in our efforts to build local agriculture. Then maybe when your neighbor zips by you on her electric bike, you can envy her ease and speed but feel good about the carbon footprint of your muscle-powered bike riding, fueled by local, organic food.

— Rob Peterson owns Plum Forest Farm with his family.

The Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) represents local farmers and those who eat and use their products. This column is the second in a series by VIGA members.