WASHINGTON (Map, News) - In an age when you can walk into a cafeteria and ask for the “low-carbon meal” special, eating green is no longer just the dream of hemp-wearing bohos in Northern California. It is a reality. It is mainstream. And the industry around it has gone from blooming to booming in less than 10 years.

With growth, however, comes complication. Now that climate change, water pollution and other environmental issues are all being addressed, the most eco-responsible choice is not always obvious. The apples at the farmer’s stand could be conventionally grown, while the organic Galas at the grocery store are from halfway around the world. That local farmer could be an hour’s drive out of your way. Those pesticide-free apples might come in nonrecyclable plastic packaging.

“It is confusing when these different values are in conflict,” says Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food.” “It can be a real dilemma when they’re equally defensible.” What’s an Earth-loving eater to do? First and foremost, keep asking questions. Where does your food come from? How was it grown or raised? What exactly is the advantage of being grass-fed? “It’s because we stopped wanting to know these things that we can have a situation as disastrous as cows being fed to cows and causing mad cow disease,” says Joan Gussow, professor emerita of nutrition and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Plus, the more you know, the easier it’ll be to make the trickier judgment calls. To help you start sorting things out, here, from leading experts, are the some good food choices you can make.

BUY LOCAL

If you change only one thing about the way you shop, experts agree, hands down, you should go to the farmers market when you can. You’ll be decreasing the distance, an average 1,500 miles, that your food will have traveled to reach your plate, so fewer greenhouse gases will have been released into the air in order to feed you.

What’s more, by supporting your local farmer, you’re keeping him or her in business, which is to say you are helping farmland stay in the hands of people who are likely to use Earth-friendly, sustainable methods, Pollan says. (Nearly 300,000 mid-size farms disappeared between 1982 and 1997, about 25 percent of such farms in the country.)

BE PICKY ABOUT ORGANIC

While some foods, such as packaged organic tomatoes and refrigerated soy milk, cost only a little more than their conventionally grown counterparts (14 percent and 21 percent, respectively), the price of other organic items, such as eggs and packaged fresh spinach, can be almost triple.

“Future price changes depend on supply and demand, though prices for organic products are likely to decline as more appear in the market,” says Dr. Carolyn Dimitri, of the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If you’re concerned about toxic pesticides and fertilizers, one way to manage the expense is to limit your organic purchases to fruits and vegetables that have the highest chemical load when conventionally grown. The dirty dozen, so called by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization (starting with the worst): peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, pears, spinach and potatoes. (For the complete list of produce rankings, visit foodnews.org.)

– FITNESS magazine