"There's a tragic loss of quality when fresh food travels halfway around the world."
- Molly Stevens, a food writer from Vermont.
Our food now travels an average of 1,500 miles before ending up on our plates. This globalization of the food supply has serious consequences for the environment, our health, our communities and our taste buds. Much of the food grown in the breadbasket surrounding us must be shipped across the country to distribution centers before it makes its way back to our supermarket shelves. Because uncounted costs of this long distance journey (air pollution and global warming, the ecological costs of large scale monoculture, the loss of family farms and local community dollars) are not paid for at the checkout counter, many of us do not think about them at all.
What is eaten by the great majority of North Americans comes from a global everywhere, yet from nowhere that we know in particular. How many of our children even know what a chicken eats or how an onion grows? The distance from which our food comes represents our separation from the knowledge of how and by whom what we consume is produced, processed, and transported. And yet, the quality of a food is derived not merely from its genes and the greens that fed it, but from how it is prepared and cared for all the way until it reaches our mouths. If the production, processing, and transport of what we eat is destructive of the land and of human community -- as it very often is -- how can we understand the implications of our own participation in the global food system when those processes are located elsewhere and so are obscured from us? How can we act responsibly and effectively for change if we do not understand how the food system works and our own role within it?
Enter the 'eat local' movement...
The informal movement has sprouted in the past five years in response to a food supply that has become increasingly global and sprawling. It's now possible for supermarkets to stock almost any food from anywhere at any time.
Of course, traditional studies show that shoppers generally snap up whatever appeals to them, no matter where it's from. But champions of the "buy local" cause, many of whom are passionate about good, wholesome food, say not so fast. They insist that the taste of fresh, locally grown carrots, for example, is far superior to carrots that have been hauled from another coast or continent.
The decision to buy local is not only about pleasing the palate or contributing to a cleaner environment. There are also more basic issues, such as the vulnerability of the food system.
According to Mr. Halweil of Worldwatch Institute, many US cities have a limited supply of food on hand. "That makes those cities highly vulnerable to anything that suddenly restricts transportation, such as oil shortages or acts of terrorism," he writes in his book "Home Grown."
Food writer Deborah Madison, whose latest cookbook "Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating From America's Farmers' Markets" just won a prestigious James Beard Award, cites other reasons for buying local foods: This choice puts dollars directly into the local economy, she says. It also supports endangered family farms, helps to preserve the beauty of the natural landscape, and allows consumers to have a direct connection with growers.
Such face-to-face contact, she says, is key. It allows the consumer to ask questions - for instance, about a farmers' philosophy, whether pesticides were used and to what extent, or if cows were given growth hormones and antibiotics.
Willowgrove Farms is an active supporter of the Eat Local movement - as is the premiere supplier of locally grown produce for the greater Douglas county and south metro Denver areas.
