festivore

I participated in a stimulating panel discussion at “Eat Local Now!” - an event sponsored by Sustainable Cascadia and BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, on 13 September 2008. These are just a few talking points. Feel free to contact us for further details.

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Here are some of the criticisms of local food that I have encountered while managing a consumer nonprofit and working inside the food & agriculture business for many years. Concerns come from industry, confused and cash-strapped consumers, and even environmentalists.

1.    Small, family farms are too resource intensive, too inefficient.
Discussion: The application of industrial principles to farming creates much greater efficiencies in growing, processing, storing, transporting, and distributed food than small, local farms… and these advantages are increasing as technology advances.
Answers:
(a) Read about Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia – using permaculture, he has created a tremendously efficient farm by harnessing the power of nature.
(b) Banding together as small businesses, we could create our own local economies of scale, with collective processing facilities, distribution systems, and supply chain software to connect farmers and buyers. Some of this is beginning to happen, but businesses need to step into this space.
(c) We need to relearn how to be efficient on the farm without synthetic chemicals, and use modern science to advance natural farming.

2.    Natural farming leads to a lot of food waste.
Discussion: Chemicals prevent insect damage, make foods look “perfect,” preserve them during transport. Packaging allows food to be stored without spoilage. The corporate motto of Tetra Pak, the world’s largest packager of liquid foods in cartons, is “We make food safe and available, everywhere.”
Answers:
(a) Let’s rethink waste. Food waste should be returned to the soil in homes, municipalities, and farms. “There is no waste in nature.”
(b) Also, let’s rethink food. If it’s not grown in living soil, if it’s tainted with hormones and pesticides, if it’s sterilized and chemically preserved in a package, it’s not food.

3.    It costs too much.
Discussion: There is a large disparity in cost between conventional and local/natural/organic food. This is unfair especially to lower income consumers. Local food is “elitist.”
Answers:
(a) Industrial food is cheap partly because we have subsidized it. If we, as a society, provided the same billions of dollars of research, farming subsidies, low-cost water rights, and political influence to local farming that we have given to industrial food systems, local farming could become much more efficient and prices would come down. It is a matter of setting public priorities.
(b) Work together to create our own economies of scale.
(c) Use technology to expand the market for local food.

4.    Eating locally is not much fun in January.
Discussion: How many of us would like to give up coffee, chocolate and bananas? We need variety in our diet to remain healthy, which means foods need to be imported, especially in the off-seasons.
Answers:
(a) Eating seasonally connects us with the land (“terroir”) and is probably healthy for us. Anticipating the next food to come in season is spiritually fulfilling.
(b) Instant gratification is not necessarily a societal value.
(c) It doesn’t take much technology to extend the seasons for many foods around here – e.g., greens all year.
(d) It also depends on your location – people have moved into places where humans are not supposed to be (Las Vegas, the fastest growing city).
(e) Our suggestion is that our food should be “mostly local” but not necessarily 100% local. Artisan foods (say, a lovely Basque sheep cheese) may make perfect sense on a menu as a complement to local produce and meats. Many of these exported hand-crafted products have supported families and communities for many generations, while bringing culinary pleasure to their customers.

5.    Shopping for local, natural foods is too hard.
Discussion: We don’t have much time, and supermarkets are so convenient. It’s very difficult / confusing to figure out what’s local & natural.
Answers:
(a) The food industry spends billions trying to keep us from knowing where our food comes from and how it’s made. Fight for labeling.
(b) Shop at trusted vendors and get to know them.
(c) Kill your TV. Use the extra time to reconnect with your food.
(d) Shop direct with farmers, CSA, Co-ops, family markets, etc.
(e) Keep a garden. This is a good solution to the cost problem, too.

6.    Local farming endangers animal habitat.
Discussion: Intensive agriculture is very land efficient – lots of calories per acre. On a global basis, this allows us to feed our people while preserving land for animal habitat. A switch to local farming would lead to encroachment upon wild areas.
Answers:
(a) Human habitat is endangered. We need to establish public policy for our own protection, too.
(b) The food industry should focus on efficiently growing natural food, mostly locally. Not just getting more calories per acre.
(c) Again, it’s a matter of public priorities. What do we want for our society?

7.    The economic model is unsustainable; local farms can’t compete.
Discussion: Americans spend only 9% of their income on food, compared with 20% in Japan and 17% in Europe. This is mainly because of the acceptance of industrialized and imported of foods. As free trade grows, small family farms are disappearing worldwide, unable to compete with efficient corporate farms.
Answers:
(a) “Don’t eat anything that your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” – Michael Pollan.
(b) Find ways to empower consumers to chose local food.
(c) Large corporations can begin to source more locally. Example: $400 million Wal-Mart program announced in summer 2008.
(d) Rethink free trade in food.
(e) As a society, increase our focus on local farming of real food and make it stronger, every day.

Further Information:

Subscribe to a wonderful weekly podcast produced by Jon Steinman from his base in rural British Columbia  - “Deconstructing Dinner.”  http://kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/