Making a Comeback with
Locally Grown Food
Food has changed. It’s as simple as
that. It seems almost impossible that something as fundamental as food could
have changed at a very basic level, but it has. Imagine walking into the local
grocery store, seeing all of the different products showcased in even lines
along the shelves. Each box or jar with some bright color or design to catch
the eye, none of the actual food out for people to see. Today people don’t buy
food when they go to the grocery store. They buy the shiny thing that it’s
wrapped in or the promise of an abundance of vitamins and nutrients. No longer
is the value of the product determined by the consumer, but rather by the
marketing team that is telling you how healthy it is. This is a trend that I
had never really noticed as it took over my own life. It seemed perfectly
normal for food to come in square, cardboard boxes, hiding from the consumer
what the food actually looked like. Today I go through the produce aisle and
it’s becoming difficult for me to pick out the freshest items because I’m used
to just being able to look at the expiration date. I remember the days where I
could go out to my grandma’s garden and pick cherries right off the trees as
snacks seeing and feeling that they were ripe and ready for eating. My own food
culture has changed in a very unhealthy way and this is why I am going to try
to introduce fresher, more locally-grown food in my diet.
One of the main concerns in buying
fresh and packaged food at the grocery store is how the food was processed.
Food has to be shipped all across the country every day because there are very
few places in the country where a variety of food is produced. For example in
his book “Tomatoland” Estabrook discusses the life of your average Florida
tomato. He discusses how a tomato is changed chemically so that it can endure
the long trek across the country. The tomatoes are also designed to be the
perfect shade of red and the perfect round shape. While this genetic altering
may cause the tomato to look more appealing once it’s out on display at the
local super market, it is a great mask for the lack of taste that awaits the
consumer. With all of the changes to the tomato, it loses its flavor with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture stating that most consumers consider
commercially grown fresh tomatoes to be tasteless compared to tomatoes grown in
their own back yards (Estabrook 1).
Many other types of produce see the
same treatment so that they do not lose their visual appeal once they arrive at
their destination. This process, while unhealthy and not in the best interests
of the consumers, is not as unnerving as the variety of “extras” that are put
into packaged food items to preserve their color or taste from factory to super
market. Looking at the ingredients list of almost any popular shelf product can
be disconcerting with food additives that sound like they would be more in
place in a plastics factory then in my Campbell’s Soup with names such as
xanthum gum, gelatin, ethanol, and benzoic acid. These additives provide no
nutrients or taste to the product. The first two are used as thickening agents
and the second two are used as food preservatives. While many of these products
are not directly harmful to the body, why do we need them if their only benefit
is that companies can sell more food?
With all of these different issues
that surround highly processed food, buying food locally or growing your own
food seems like the obvious solution. While in the not too distant past buying
locally grown food or only organic may have seemed unusual or unnecessary today
it is a growing industry. According to research done by Arnab Basu, a professor
of economics at the College of William and Mary, studies have found the number
of consumers all across the world that are focusing more on the health and quality
of the food is increasing. Consumers also tend to buy food that detail how and
where it was grown, stating whether it’s organic, locally grown, or fair trade
(Basu).
With people paying more attention to
where their food comes from it follows that according to Kathyrn Onken, a
member of the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of
Delaware, local foods have seen a dramatic increase in availability and demand
(Onken). One of the main ways that this increase is seen is in farmers markets.
Farmer’s markets were the original grocery store, being the primary supplier of
produce and other goods to the public. Then with the advent of more advanced
technology and the need for greater efficiency, the farmer’s market steadily
grew into the enterprising food culture that we see today. Few remember its
humble beginnings. However, with the addition of the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct
Marketing Act of 1976 to the law which reestablished the right for farmers to
sell their produce directly to the consumers, the popularity of farmer’s
markets has grown (Hamilton). These small stands run by local farmers provide
what many consumers crave with their food—control. Consumers know where their
products are coming from and, because there is no corporate middle man, are
able to get a fair price for them. Farmers markets are also a lot more common
in big cities now to fulfill the need that many people have for fresh produce.
The increase in farmers markets can clearly be seen in Onken’s article which
states that farmers’ markets witnessed a 201 percent increase from 1994 to 2009
(Onken). With this increase in farmers’ markets numbers and the sale of locally
grown food, it is slowly becoming easier to buy fresh products in America.
Living in a big city like St. Louis,
has been one of the main causes of my detachment from fresh food. It’s easy to
just buy the cheaper, processed food from the supermarket then to go out of my
way to buy locally grown food. One of the ways that I plan on enacting my eater’s
manifesto is to frequent Soulard Market. Soulard is a very old neighborhood in
the heart of the city of St. Louis. Brick houses line every street with an
interesting shop or pub on every corner. However, the main landmark of this
neighborhood is Soulard Market. It is a huge farmer’s market that people from
all around the city and the county frequent for fresh produce. Because it is a
fair distance away from my house it never seemed to be worth it to travel all
the way downtown just for a few vegetables. However, learning about how healthy
locally grown food is compared to processed food is changing my opinion of the worth
of the trip.
Despite the growing popularity of
farmer’s markets in America, there is always the possibility that it may not be
an option in certain areas. Because of this people need to find alternatives to
get locally grown food. One example is the CSA, or the community supported
agriculture. A CSA is a system in which a person may purchase a share of a
farm, and this farm will send a box of fresh food to them each week. This
system has many benefits to both the farmer and the consumer, such as early
payment and better marketing for the farmer and fresh, healthy food for the
consumer. These CSA’s are growing throughout the country with tens of thousands
of families using this practice (Community Supported Agriculture). This system does provide some risk to the
consumer because they do not always know what produce they are going to get if
they get any at all. Because of this one of the easiest ways to get locally
grown food is to grow it yourself. In most cases it’s a simple matter of buying
seeds and watching them grow. From my own experience I know that tomatoes are
the easiest, practically growing like weeds. My family has always seemed to have
some type of produce growing in the backyard from cherry tomatoes and green
beans to mint leaves and chives. This form of eating locally grown food is one
that I have always had and one that I hope to continue on when I live on my
own.
Now, many people might say that
eating organic and locally grown food does not necessarily mean that you will be
eating healthier food then could be found at the grocery store. “Locally grown”
is a difficult concept to define. Local may mean just down the street to one
person, while another could take local to mean from anywhere within the state.
This lack of definition for locally grown food does provide some concern for
where the food is coming from. However, most food that is labeled as locally
grown will also give details as to which farm it came from. This provides the
consumer with enough information to make their own decision as to whether it is
locally grown or not. Another concern with locally grown food is that it might
contain bacteria and other harmful things that would otherwise be eradicated in
a food processing plant. Many of these ideas are unfounded and some have been
shown to be exact opposite. In the critically acclaimed documentary Food, Inc.
Joel Salatin, owner of the self-sustainable Polyface Farms, discusses how a
university tested its chicken against a government-inspected chicken. The test
found that the government-inspected chicken averaged 10 times more bacteria
than the chicken from Polyface Farms (Kenner, Taylor). This shows that many of
the direct-to-consumer farm products that are not inspected by the government
can often be healthier than those that have been inspected by the government.
Along with the studies done at
Polyface Farms, a study done by Ramona Robinson-O’Brien showed the health
benefits of eating locally grown food. In her study, the dietary habits of
males and females between the ages of 15 and 23 who ate either locally grown,
organic food or processed food were studied. Her results found that adolescents
who valued eating food that was either locally grown, organic, non-genetically
engineered, or non-processed were more likely to have a healthy dietary pattern
of fruit, vegetable, and fat intake (Robinson-O’Brien). This study shows that
people, especially teenagers, who value where their food comes from and how it
is grown, are more likely to have an overall healthy diet. With a diet that
focuses more on eating locally grown food, you are more likely to make wise
food choices overall.
Gaining all of this insight on the
growing industry and benefits of locally grown food has caused me to reevaluate
my food choices. I look back on some of my favorite meals over the year and
many of them involve me helping my grandparents harvest the vegetables out of
their garden in their backyard to make a delicious stew or emptying my
grandmother’s gooseberry bush so that she could make us gooseberry pie. These
meals were amazing because I was able to eat food right out of my backyard.
Even though I was too small to have been able to consider how good it was for
my health and how much better for the environment it was, I think that I could tell
its benefits extended past the taste. There’s something about eating a fresh cherry
right off the tree that no company will ever be able to manufacture or put into
a shiny box with pretty labels. Because of this desire to return to fresh food I
am going to eat more locally grown food. This is important to me because it is
an idea that I lived as a small child, but grew apart from as I grew older. Because
of this I am going to return to having more locally grown food in my diet,
whether it is from Soulard market in downtown St. Louis or from my own
backyard.
Works Cited
Basu, A.K., and R.L. Hicks.
2008. "Label Performance and Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Coffee: A
Cross-National Perspective." Discussion Papers on Development Policy 125,
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“Community Supported Agriculture.” LocalHarvest.com
2012: LocalHarvest, Inc. <http://www.localharvest.org/csa/>
Estabrook, Barry. “Tomatoland: How
Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.” 07 June 2009:
Andrews McMeel Publishing. Introduction
Hamilton, Lisa M. “The American
Farmers Market.” Gastronomica: The
Journal of Food and Culture. Summer 2002; 2, 3, Research Library p.76. <http://0-proquest.umi.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/pqdlink?index=null&did=552149481&SrchMode=5&Fmt=10&retrieveGroup=0&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1337664137&clientId=48347>
Kenner, Robert; Pearce, Richard; Schlosser,
Eric. “Food Inc.” 2009: Magnolia Home Entertainment. DVD.
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Grown, and State Marketing Program Promoted Foods in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” Agricultural
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Robinson-O’Brien, Ramona; Larson, Nicole.
“Characteristics and Dietary Patterns of Adolescents Who Value Eating Locally
Grown, Organic Nongenetically Engineered, Nonprocessed Food.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior;
Volume 41, Issue 1, January-February 2009, pp.11-18. <http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/science/article/pii/S1499404608000882>
Taylor DA 2008. Does One Size Fit All?: Small
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