Farmers Markets: Think Local as Well as Organic
We often think that farmers markets are a product of our times as they
spring up in cities and small towns across the country. Truth is, farmers
markets are the traditional way of selling agricultural produce around the
world.
The really nice aspect of this transaction is that the farmer receives just
compensation for his product and the eater can be assured the product is
fresh, local and grown in a manner that is acceptable to all. If these
criteria are not met, the consumer can look for another farmer whose
products better suit his or her needs.
After the industrialization of agriculture, farmers still sold at farmers
markets, but it was just a matter of time before supermarkets were developed
and farmers started selling to large companies that moved food all over the
world; many Americans stopped planting gardens because it was so much easier
to get "everything" at the store.
We certainly have gained something through the globalized food system: more
variety, foods we cannot grow in cold climates and, of course, cheap food
that is mass-produced by underpaid farmers and farm workers. Some good news,
some bad. I certainly like coffee and chocolate, but I want to know the
growers and workers were paid a fair wage and that it was grown in an
environmentally- responsible manner. I would like to be sure all the food I
need to buy meets those same standards, whether imported or locally grown.
So, we come back to farmers marketsĀ local, fair, green and affordable. I
am, as you can tell, a big fan of farmers markets and it's not just because
we are vendors at the farmers market in Madison, Wisconsin. I, too, can get
vegetables that don't grow well in our garden, as well as pork, eggs, fruit,
chicken and lamb. I know all the growers personally, where they live, their
children, and we get to enjoy each others' company every Saturday morning.
True, getting up at 3:30am to get to the market isn't always so much fun,
nor are those occasional cold or rainy Saturdays when few customers show up.
Understandably, not everyone is all about farmers markets. One of our
customers, who we see very infrequently, showed up with his wife the other
day and said going to the market involved three of his least favorite
things: getting up early, shopping and crowds. Well, to each his own.
While the supermarket may eliminate getting up early, it still involves
shopping and crowds and has little to offer in the way of fresh, local or
fair food. Affordable, yes, but we know the affordability of mainstream food
relies on low-wage farmers, and industrial farming practices that in turn
rely on heavy use of chemicals, large-scale animal production and hidden
costs to the environment.
We also know that the nutritional content of that supermarket food has been
in steady decline for decades. We know most of our winter vegetables are
imported and possibly grown in a manner that is not healthy, fair or green.
Even the USDA, which touts our food as the safest in the world, (despite
dramatically increasing numbers of food poisoning incidents) is critical of
the declining nutritional content.
According to the USDA, Americans are increasingly deficient in calcium,
potassium, magnesium and vitamins A, C, D and E. This lack of vitamins and
minerals in our diet is indicative of depleted soils world wide, caused by
industrial farming practices. A comparison of today's soil mineral content
across the world with that of 100 years ago shows an average decline of
mineral levels of roughly 80%. No wonder supermarket food is lacking in
nutrition!
Another statistic from the USDA's Economic Research Service indicates that
if all Americans were to eat in accordance with the dietary guidelines
establish by USDA, we would need an additional 14.1 million acres for fruit
and vegetable production and would be short 111 billion pounds of milk per
year. Granted, Americans will never eat according to the USDA guidelines,
which are probably too heavy on milk and meat and way too short on vegetable
consumption. Still, even the USDA concedes we are a food deficit nation;
globalization is apparently not working, for we depend on the rest of the
world to feed us while many of them are starving.
While the practices of the industrial "Green Revolution" did increase food
production, it appears it did little for food quality. Industrial production
of the cheap food that fills our supermarkets is slowly starving us. It all
sort of adds up: food safety scares, declining food quality, the world food
crisis, all these abysmal failures of food production and marketing will
eventually bring food production back to the local level. Local producers
quickly learn that caring for the soil and making it healthy again produces
healthy, nutrient dense food for both people and animals.
Could we be entering a renaissance in food production and eating? Many think
we are, for many small reasons that together add up to the overwhelming
conclusion that we can no longer ship our food 1,500 miles or more from farm
to table; industrial farming has crested the hill and is on the downhill
slide.
Oil will never be cheap again and climate change has made world food
production very uncertain. Developing countries can produce more food that
is more appropriate to their cultures if they are allowed to use traditional
production practices as opposed to industrial farming practices. Local
producers world-wide know that hands on farming affords a better way to care
for the soil and produce healthy food.
Woody Allen's 1973 movie /Sleeper /speculated on what the future and the
future of food might look like, from giant chickens to hose-fed, genetically
engineered bananas the size of a cruise missile. I know, it's just a movie,
but Monsanto may be working on it. Forget the movies. The future of food is
local.
When one farms locally, or supports local agriculture, he or she may, at
first, miss the convenience of the old cheap, globalized food system. Change
for the better is seldom easy, but always worth it. There will still be
getting up early, shopping and crowds, but in the end, I think, local
farmers and eaters have more fun and live better for it.
Jim Goodman, Organic farmer in Wisconsin and Policy Board Member of the
Organic Consumers Association
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