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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Buy Local, Eat BetterIt finally seems like the eating public is catching on to the benefits of "eating local." In past years when I wrote about this topic, it didn't seem as pertinent when I mentioned the benefits generated when you didn't transport your food so far. Boy, has that issue moved up in the "reasons to eat local list." Today you can't watch a news program or read a newspaper without an article praising the benefits of local foods. Last week a number of people took advantage of Open Farm Days to visit one or more of the 100 farms statewide that were open to the public for part of July 20. The primary arguments made in favor eating locally are fresher food, food safety and knowing where your food comes from. While I've always been as interested in how much energy is needed to get us our food this issue has become a much larger factor. A local orchard operator talks about how many gallons of gasoline it takes to get a bushel of California apples to your store instead of the ones from her orchard. The food on our dinner plate has traveled an average of 1,800 miles in order to finally get to our plate. That's a lot of hydrocarbons used to get our food to the table. The carbon footprint generated is not usually figured into the price. It seems inconsistent that our food must travel such a distance to get to us when we may be able to purchase it from our neighbor and know exactly how it got to our plate. Like so much of our free market economy, there are a number of subsidies that we don't recognize. The fact that federal agriculture policy provides a number of subsidies to major commodities like corn isn't figured into your food shopping cost. Those foods based on corn — cereals, corn syrup additives, or the meat produced in large feeder lots are all subsidized by our tax dollar. We do pay for it, just not at the grocery store check out. Those same subsidies are seldom available to locally produced foods. Local producers need to exercise capitalism the old fashioned way — "profits need to cover the costs." They don't get to figure in a subsidy payment. Over the past year a number of books have documented people's efforts to "eat locally." It is sometimes referred to as being a "localvore." (Check out the website of the Mad River Valley Localvore Project to see how a Vermont system helps people eat locally.) In most cases the people found that they could prepare a variety of excellent foods throughout the year. Naturally the summer months provided more choices, but even the winter months were bearable. With more local farmers using greenhouses, even here in Maine, we have more local choices throughout the year, but you need to plan your menus around what is available not what you may be craving at the moment. It doesn't mean a total ban on your favorites. Even the Romans were willing to pay the price for their treats. Getting the ice from the mountains didn't burn as many hydrocarbons as we use, but it must have seemed like quite a price to pay for something they called "ice cream." Just re-think some of your choices and give preference to foods that were grown or produced within 100 miles. There are far more choices than you may realize. The Kennebec 2008 edition of the Kennebec County Ag Map is out. Look for a copy to find local farm stands and Farmers' Markets and start eating food that was grown locally. Do your part to support local food production and all of its benefits. For information about any of our conservation projects please contact Dale Finseth at | ||