Hot Topics: Critics Misunderstand the Local Food Movement

By now everyone knows about the local food movement and its premise of eating closer to home in an effort to reduce production and transportation costs and fuel as well as eating more locally and/or organically grown food. With options like farmers’ markets, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms, backyard vegetable gardens, and local food Co-ops, it hasn’t been easier to eat closer to your own home. Yet there are still a number of skeptics and critics who like to degrade this movement, and I don’t understand why.

It makes perfect sense to me that eating food that is grown closer to home is better for the environment and the economy. For me in Chicago, this includes local suburban and urban farmers’ markets as well as bigger CSAs and Co-ops in neighboring states. I can understand the economics behind reduced shipping costs and less fuel waste. I can also appreciate the fresh taste of food that is harvested, produced, and eaten closer to home. Also, locally grown food can have nutritional advantages; according to the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, “healthier crop varieties, richer sustainable soil, riper harvesting, shorter vine to fork times and less handling can give local sustainable produce "distinct advantages" in nutrition over conventionally grown produce shipped long distances.”

I read an article last month in the Chicago Tribune that discussed eating locally versus eating conventionally, and I was surprised to see that there are many who are opposed to it. As quoted in the article, many view this movement as “naive and elitist at best and dangerous to the livelihood of conventional commodity farmers at worst.” The article also mentions Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Pat Roberts of Kansas and a letter that they wrote to the Dept. of Agriculture, disagreeing with allocated funds to local farmers movements that should have been given to conventional farmers.

There are also historians, economists, mathematicians, writers, and other politicians who praise the conventional food system and claim that local eating is “a misleading fad” that poses a threat to food affordability and availability, especially among developing countries. Really? I find this hard to believe, especially having worked at food banks in and around Chicago that work to fight hunger both nationally and internationally, and who depend on food from various sources, not solely local or conventional. In fact, one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time was a large vegetable garden in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, whose produce was used to feed those at local homeless shelters.

Furthermore, who said that we have to choose either conventional or local? Many people probably inadvertently use a little of both; unless you are a die-hard “100-mile radius” eater and only eat things grown in your area. I think there is a place for locally grown food in our current system right alongside conventional food, and I don’t think either one is necessarily interfering. The bottom line is that critics like Sens. McCain, et. al. greatly misunderstand many of the reasons why people chose to eat locally. It isn’t because we’re elitist or because we dislike conventional farmers or because we want to destroy the availability of cheaply produced food in this country. It’s because we care about where our food comes from, what we put into our bodies, what has or hasn’t been genetically modified, and how the whole process affects the earth and the economy. At least I care about those things, though I can’t speak for everyone.

Access to healthy foods is a huge problem in our country, and I fully support local farmers’ markets, backyard gardens, and becoming involved in a CSA since these are great ways to get healthy foods and to support the movement. A friend of mine operates her own CSA in Minnesota, and I love reading about what wonderful produce she has available for her community each week.  And most recently, food stamps are being accepted at farmers’ markets, and I think this is a great step toward getting everyone to eat healthier. When healthy food is more accessible and convenient to purchase, it becomes more of a habit.

I also think that the food grown locally at CSAs and sold in farmers’ markets is much more likely to be organic, safe, and not exposed to genetic modification or whatever tricks Monsanto has up their sleeve this week. But that is just my own personal opinion; if you’d like to eat food grown over 10,000 miles away, that is your own perogative, as it is mine to grow my own tomatoes and browse the farmers’ market every Saturday.