For the past year, I have been reading about the organic and local food movements. Most recently, I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007). Aside from reading nineteenth century farm diaries, Kingsolver's book gives probably the best account of what it means to rely upon locally grown and raised food. From my reading,* I think I am able to identify some issues regarding local food, which I will discuss in a series of articles.
Let's start with definitions, some conveniently provided in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. First, this note. There is no legal or state regulatory definition. "Local food" is not a regulated label by the US Department of Agriculture. So what is "local" is a matter of ideological definition. (The following are definitions from the point of view of consumers and retailers, not producers.)
- Kingsolver defines local food as food raised or grown within the county in which she lives (southwestern Virginia).
- Another definition (from Kingsolver), provided by a Vermont restaurant that served only local food is, produced within an hour's drive (of the restaurant).
- Appalachian Harvest, a regional packer of organic vegetables and fruit, supports farmers in a ten-county region of southwestern Virginia and nearby Tennessee (this probably constitutes defining local as a two or three hour truck drive). (From Kingsolver.)
- Fresh (unprocessed) food purchased at the farm gate or a farmer's market.
- Food produced within 100 miles of point of consumption (or 120 miles for dairy; or 250 miles for the geographical expansive American Southwest). (From Kingsolver.)
- Whole Foods Markets defines local as produced within seven hours drive from producer to store.
Farmers Market, Riverside, California, 2007
There are other considerations regarding the quality of local food that are mentioned by all sources the books I have read.
- Food should be fresh, not frozen, not industrially processed, not industrially prepared (as in restaurant meals)
- Some sources exempt from this definition dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) and other farm-based or local processed foods, such as dried fruit and vegetables, apple cider, pickled preserves, wine, and whiskey.
- What purists want is that processing should be artisanal, farm-based when possible, and not utilize artificial preservatives or chemical accelerators or processors (as in making cheese) or involve chemical ripening
- Food should be organic (a USDA regulated label)
- Food should be naturally grown and/or raised
- For instance, free-range chickens, no feed lot cattle, no feeding of animal waste and animal parts to other animals
- USDA labeling of "natural" proposed and being reviewed
- Heritage and heirloom crops and animals should replace industrial varieties
- Slaughter should be humane
- Food should not be genetically modified
- Food plants and animals should not be cloned
- Food should be grown, raised, or produced on small farms
- Food should be acquired by "fair trade"
These definitions strike me as mixing different kinds of criteria.
- The most important criterion is dietary. Local food enthusiasts want foods that have the maximum nutritional content, which usually requires that foods be consumed shortly after harvest or slaughter. For this definition, mileage definitions of local seem appropriate. Mileage provides a rough practical measure of freshness. Vegetables and fruits have minimal wilt and spoilage if they are not harvested until fully grown or ripe and they are consumed within a day or two.
- Associated with dietary concerns are aesthetic issues. Most advocates of organic food state that it tastes better (and colors are brighter and aromas stronger) than non-local "fresh" foods.
- Slaughter methods impact food quality, too. Inhumane slaughter methods lead to animal stress, which impacts tenderness and taste of meats.
- Diet does not directly account for the concern that food should be organic. In this case, the criterion is health. Health food advocates fear that pesticides in raw foods, preservatives in long-distance transported foods (such as micro wax films and anti-fungal washes on California fruit shipped out of state), and additives in processed foods and processed frozen meals cause health problems for consumers. The organic criterion eliminates such foods.
- Raising heirloom crops and animals would maximize consumer diet and health. Plants and animals bred for factory farming and factory processing have bland flavors. Some analysts believe they also are nutritionally less valuable than heirloom varieties.
- Most health food advocates also believe that genetically modified foods raise issues of health for consumers, despite the readiness of state agencies in the US and Europe to certify GM as safe.
- Genetically modified foods also impact the rural environment. It is impossible to prevent GM crops and animals from escaping farm confinement, which leads to interbreeding with wild plants and animals, that is, leads to dispersal of GM genes into the wild gene pools. Genetic corruption of wild populations reduces their fitness in the wild, ultimately reducing the pool of species from which to obtain food plants and animals.
- Cloning of farm crops and animals raises the same concerns of restricting the gene pool and fitness of domesticated plants and animals, thus harming the long-term interests of a robust agriculture
- The small farm and fair trade criteria address life-style and political issues. Small farm advocates believe that industrialized agriculture, relying upon large corporate farms, factory processing and packing, and national and global food markets, requires the de-naturing and artificialization of food (so to speak), primarily so that food does not spoil before getting to market. Nutritional content of even "fresh" industrial foods is greatly reduced.
- Additionally, industrial, corporate agriculture** also adversely impacts the rural life-style. Small farms are driven out of business and rural areas are depopulated (see Wendell Berry's essays). A healthy, wholesome life-style and ideology of respect for nature and the environment, family based living, and practical communities based on shared enterprise and fate are lost. In addition, the rural environment is corrupted by soil erosion and soil poisoning.
- Finally, corporate farming has political lobbying clout. Using this clout, larger farmers get subsidizes and USDA protection of their position in industrial farming.
- Global food markets come in for a lot of criticism. Shipping foods across national boundaries and oceans requires in greater intensity the use of preservatives and additives to make food attractive on market shelves. Big international growers are often accused of exploiting their laborers. Corporate processors are accused of not providing adequate compensation from their growers based outside the US.
Finally, social and economic issues affect the political consideration of local food.
- Local foods are often more expensive than non-local foods, especially if purchased in markets
- A local food diet eliminates nonlocal, out-of-season fruits and vegetables that bring year-round nutritional quality to families of modest means
- Local foods require knowledge of diet, health, and meal preparation that many lower class consumers do not possess
- Consumer health quality would be maximized by home food preservation and meal preparation utilizing heritage canning and preservation methods and slow cooking
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*My reading, besides Kingsolver, includes essays of Wendell Berry, especially The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977) and The Art of the Commonplace (2002), Scott Chaskey, This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm (2005), Philip Conford, The Origins of the Organic Movement (2001), Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), Nichola Smith with Photographs by Geoff Hansen, Harvest: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm (2004).
**Corporate refers to a legal form of property ownership. Many small farms are corporately owned. Critics of "corporate" agriculture are referring instead to factory farming and factory processing, which require greater capital investment than small farmes can make.
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Contents
Local Food
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