Kspitz’s Weblog

As people throughout the United States become more concerned over global warming and other environmental issues, the next logical step is to make the connection to locally grown foods. Local food – what does that mean, exactly? How does buying locally grown food affect the global environment?  

To piece these issues together, it helps to think of the food on your plate as one part of a food system. A food system includes the way food is grown or raised, how it is processed and transported, and even how it is cooked. Our current food system is an “industrial food system” because it has come about largely as a result of the industrial revolution. 

Beginning with the milling of grains in the early part of the 20^th century, food preparation formerly done by hand was transformed into mechanized food “processing”. Mechanized food processing advanced alongside mechanized farming, which was not entirely a bad thing, but as time passed things began to go awry. Shortly after World War II, chemicals formerly used in warfare (like Agent Orange) were converted into pesticides and herbicides to be sprayed on farm fields. These chemicals were touted as the answer to weed and bug infestations, but they have led to other problems. Bugs and weeds eventually develop resistance to the poisons which means they must be sprayed more often or in a more concentrated form. When it rains, the chemicals are washed from the fields into nearby streams poisoning fish and other animals that drink the water (including humans). This toxic runoff has created “dead zones” in the oceans where aquatic life cannot survive.  

As industrial farming progressed, tractors got bigger and more powerful, paved roads allowed for the transport of foods to far away markets, and women cooking at home were encouraged to switch to prepackaged, precooked convenience foods. What began as a sincere effort to produce more food for a growing nation has metastasized into a complicated far-reaching system that is now totally dependent on the heavy use of fossil fuels and chemical inputs. The current industrial food system, with its emphasis on high production channeled into quick profits, is also highly unsustainable. The soil is not capable of producing record harvests of the same crop year after year without becoming depleted of nutrients, and the continued use of heavy machinery and row-cropping techniques leads to massive topsoil erosion. Industrial farming techniques can totally destroy a fertile field – rendering it almost useless for growing food – in as little as one decade.

There is also the economic equation to consider. In the United States we have mass quantities of cheap food. But the highly processed foods filling our grocery store shelves are anything but cheap when you factor in the above mentioned environmental costs. And who owns all this cheap food? Approximately 80% of the food products available for sale in grocery stores come from 6-8 large food corporations. That means when you buy these products your money leaves the local community and goes to these corporations and their shareholders. Yes, these corporations do pay some local taxes and fees, but the vast majority of the $350 billion dollars a year taken in by the industrial food system does not go to support local infrastructures, especially in small town America.

The results of a only a half century of “industrial food” can be seen all around us; steadily rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and food allergies among both adults and children; escalating use of fossil fuels even when the supply is on the decline; the continued disappearance of small family farms; growing rates of poverty while corporate profits soar; and increasing rates of hunger worldwide even in the midst of huge food surpluses.

Is this the kind of food system we want to pass on to our children? Many people are already answering with a resounding no! The number of farmer’s markets across the nation has tripled in the past decade and the sales of organic produce have been growing by 20% each year. These numbers send a powerful message to the food corporations and to our government officials; consumers want locally grown, untainted food! It is now time for government to do its part. 

Several states, including Nebraska and South Dakota, have written anti-corporate farming laws into their state constitutions. Kansas allows individual counties to vote on the issue of corporate farming. These measures help to ensure that smaller, local farms can share in the market, thus increasing their income and enabling them to retain their land. Other regions have established food policy councils to develop and promote local food systems.

It is possible to bring the food system back into a more balanced state, but consumers and government must be willing to work together. Here are some specific things you can do:

·         Buy from local farmers. Visit the local farmers market as often as you can during the growing season. If there is no market, investigate the possibility of starting one. 

·         Ask about it. Ask your grocery store manager to carry more locally produced foods. Ask friends and co-workers if they know of any area farmers who sell directly to customers.  

·         Rethink your food budget. Cheaper is NOT always better. Be willing to pay slightly more for quality food. If you make an effort to eat more local, in-season items, the prices will usually be very reasonable. 

·         Grow some of your own. The back yard garden is making a huge comeback, as are community gardens and community supported agriculture programs. If you have a back yard, but choose not to garden yourself, offer that space to someone who wants to garden but has no space. Share the bounty!

·         Educate yourself and others. Continue to read about these important issues. Visit these websites: www.localharvest.org, www.organicconsumers.org, www.communitygarden.org, and www.eatwild.com

·         Contact your local government representatives. Let them know you are concerned about these issues and you would like to work towards a more balanced system in which small, local farms are given more opportunities to share in the food market.     

·         Change a flawed system. Stop giving your money (and thus, your support) to an industrial food system which is undermining our health while wasting and polluting our natural resources.

We do not have to give up all imports and special treats, but if a larger percentage of food were purchased from local sources, then the entire system would become healthier, stronger and more balanced. Creating a healthier food system begins with your next trip to the grocery store. Better yet, visit the local farmer’s market. There you can smile and say “thank you” to the person who grew your food.