Think Globally - The Paradox of Buying from the Small Farmer

Most people are familiar with the slogan "think globally, act locally" but too few realize how easily they can "act locally" every time they grocery shop.

Locally grown food, once standard, is a largely unnoticed casualty of both modern expectations and the global economy. Our grandmothers canned tomatoes and beans, and stored apples and potatoes in root cellars. Citrus fruit was a rare enough winter treat that it found its way into Christmas stockings. Now we think nothing of eating a peach in January, a pineapple in February, anything that strikes our fancy no matter the season of the year.

Free trade sounds benign enough on the face of it. After all, what's wrong with buying the best product at the best price? Lots. As we know from revelations about working conditions in shoe factories in Indonesia, or carpet mills in Pakistan, the "best price" often comes at a high human cost. However, the goods themselves are often equivalent or better than local products. As long as manufacturing conditions are humane, one can make a case for buying cars from Japan or leather jackets from Italy. But in the case of food, imported items are generally inferior. Food spoils a lot faster than cars or clothes, so imported foods are often worse the wear for their travels: picked before they are ripe, drenched in preservatives, the antithesis of a fresh from the garden summer tomato. To be sure, there are foodstuffs that don't grow in the temperate climate of the United States. Goods such as vanilla, coffee, and spices have been traded for thousands of years. But a strawberry grows just beautifully in Oregon, and no strawberry shipped from Chile will ever hold a candle to a strawberry freshly picked from a local farm. What strawberries from Chile are, given current trade regulations (or lack thereof) is plentiful and cheap.

The global economy pushes inexorably toward ever-larger economies of scale. The consequences to local economies rarely cross their radar screens; after all, multinational corporations by definition transcend national boundaries. One of the consequences has been the slow destruction of family farming as a viable vocation. Large supermarket chains desiring a consistent, year-round source of produce, now import most of their fruit and vegetables. Even when locally grown products are abundant, such as tomatoes in late summer or pears in the fall, you won't find them on the shelves at your local supermarket. Many farmers, unable to get a decent price for their crop, are switching to non-food crops such as Christmas trees or sod, or getting out of farming altogether.

In their wake, food processing plants close, farm workers lose their jobs, and our epidemic of rural poverty deepens.

There's another hidden cost to foods shipped from far away: fossil fuel. Think of all the energy it takes to operate the refrigerated trucks, planes and warehouses needed. Foods shipped long distances require more packaging, often in plastic (fossil fuel again). In order to survive the journey, produce is treated with pesticides and preservatives. Glossy supermarket apples, coated with fungicide-saturated wax, are an excellent example. Also, many foreign countries use pesticides banned in the U.S. (though often exported by the U.S., thanks to the wonders of global trade).

Fortunately, we aren't totally dependent on the economic decisions of giant grocery corporations. By buying locally grown and produced foods we keep the tradition of family farming alive. Safeway may not sell these foods, but farmer's markets, smaller groceries, and natural food stores such as Wedge Co-op do. In the Pacific Northwest, where I live, we are especially fortunate. Our temperate climate and abundant rain allow for a wide variety of crops, and our land use policies have saved valuable farmland from development. We are also lucky enough to border California, which is warm enough to grow summer crops such as tomatoes year-round, as well as semi-tropical crops like oranges, lemons, and grapefruits. Minnesota, with its long and severe winters, presents more of a challenge. In the middle of the winter, you will probably find most fresh organic produce is shipped in from California (with an attendant high cost). If you're desperate for fresh citrus or tomatoes, I'd stretch your concept of local to include that warmer part of the country. Mexico also has some reliable organic producers and is a good source of tomatoes and bananas midwinter. However, you can also give in to the season and build your winter meals around root vegetables (potatoes, leeks, parsnips, rutabagas, beets) and greens such as collards that store well through the winter and even grow in frosty weather. (I've unearthed kale and hearty greens from under heavy snow). Frozen vegetables from suppliers like Cascadian farms (or your own garden) are also a good alternative. Local meat and dairy, of course, know no season.

If you aren't accustomed to buying locally, you will soon discover that local food is far tastier. Large corporations breed their produce for ease of shipping and handling, not for flavor. That's why the potatoes are so mealy, the pears rock-hard, and the oranges watery. Local growers aren't catering to a bland common denominator taste, so you can find unusual treats such as designer goat cheeses and heirloom tomatoes. Locally grown food is also safer. While bacterial contamination can occur anywhere, it is much more likely to grow out of control when food is processed in large batches and handled by many people. Salmonella, for instance, is largely a problem in Eastern and midwestern factory poultry farms. Buy free-range eggs from a local farmer, and you need not worry about tossing a raw one into your Caesar salad.

Locally grown foods tend to be more expensive than a crate of corporate apples from a warehouse mart, because so much of the cost of those apples is not passed on directly to the consumer. However, by buying seasonally, you can cut down your grocery bill substantially. Buying seasonally also keeps you in touch with the rhythms of the year and the beautiful place we live in. Why not savor luscious tomatoes in august and flavorful squashes in November? They will taste that much better eaten with the knowledge that a farmer near you grew them with care.

Buying locally also uses your considerable power as a consumer to influence the actions of business. If supermarkets find that their customers are no longer satisfied with rock hard peaches, mealy apples, and pizzas with ingredients from eighteen different countries, then they in turn will alter their buying decisions, placing pressure on the corporations that supply them and the governmental organizations that regulate trade.