SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Whether you're a vegetarian or just prefer organic food, eating healthier comes with a cost. Because of its remote location Yellowknife groceries are often more expensive comparably to communities down south. Residents who prefer organic products over the regular brands pay an additional premium on top of this.

Katherine Mackenzie, left, PJ Partington and Christophe Moni are all smiles after rooting out a giant radish grown in the Yellowknife Community Garden on Kam Lake Road last summer. - photo provided by the Yellowknife Garden Collective

"A big deterrent to greater consumption of organic foods is price," said Terri Bug, who was part of a group of people hoping to form a organic natural food cooperative in the city. "In Yellowknife though there is not a large selection."

The idea for an organic natural food cooperative was formed on Facebook in 2007.

One of the advocates for the group was city councillor Paul Falvo.

"There was a group of us looking at starting a cooperative," said Falvo. "Then more stores increased the amount of their organic foods."

During the last five years organic foods have become more popular with consumers and stores are catching onto the trend.

Stores like Sutherlands, the Co-op, Extra Foods and Shoppers Drug Mart are adding organic products to their shelves.

"Local retailers are receptive," said Falvo. "They are willing to try and if people buy it they'll keep on getting it."

Even though there are more options in the city, more than a dozen people in Yellowknife are placing bulk orders from natural food distributors in Burnaby, BC.

Isabel Gauthier is one of those residents who orders her food from down south.

"It's counterproductive," said Gauthier of the organic products on local shelves. She agrees that there are more organic products available in the city but they are more expensive and produce more packaging.

Shannon Ripley is another resident who has organic food shipped up.

"I get some staple things in like rolled oats, beans and other fair trade products," she said. "I buy those things in bulk because it's cheaper."

Ripley is also a board member of the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective. Formed in 1995, the collective produces locally grown vegetables and herbs in the summer without the use of pesticides.

Most consumers are buying organic foods because there is a guarantee that no pesticides are being used or harmful additives.

Falvo used the example that one quarter of a cost of a banana is the amount of pesticides that are used on it.

"But we don't eat the pesticides," said Falvo. "What's left is on the peel, on the worker and in the ground."

Vegetarians and organic eaters make their choices not entirely because it's a healthy alternative but because of environmental concerns. Certified fair trade or organic products do not use synthetic chemical inputs and are grown on farmland that have been free from chemicals for a number of years.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease," said Falvo. "If people want more organic products they need to ask for them."