Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>]

This column was printed in today's Daily Oklahoman in the editorial 
section.  Robert Waldrop, http://www.oklahomafood.org

http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1097047&TP=getarticle

POINT OF VIEW: The next big thing is local food
2003-10-15
By Robert Waldrop


DURING the Great Depression, my great uncle, Al Cassidy of Tillman 
County, decided that it was foolish to sell his cotton for the low 
prices he was offered. So he and his family turned that cotton into 
mattresses and sold those mattresses for a lot more money than they 
would have received for just the raw cotton. 

They used the resources they had at hand to add value to their product. 
We are blessed with fertile land, and our farmers are among the best 
in the world. Yet, when we go to the grocery store, most of the food 
we eat comes from somewhere else. We export raw farm commodities 
like cattle and wheat at generally low prices and then import processed,
value-added foods at much higher prices to feed our families. 

And so it comes to pass that a $3 bushel of wheat morphs into a $180 
bushel of cereal and $177 of that price goes elsewhere. Then we sit 
around and wonder why we are so poor and why so many farmers have 
to have a day job in town to support their farming habit. 

One way to create thousands of Oklahoma jobs is for more farmers 
to sell their products directly to urban customers and add value 
to them in the transaction. 

For this to happen we need customers who want good- tasting, high-
quality foods and are willing to buy direct from farmers and local 
processors. We need farmers willing to grow for the local market.
We need marketplaces where those rural producers can meet urban 
customers. We need sensible, science-based food regulations that 
protect the public health but that also respect the right of small 
farmers and small food processors to sell their products directly 
to the public. 

We need realistic bidding requirements so that local farms could 
supply local schools. If the big national food service companies 
that contract with Oklahoma institutions won't buy locally, then 
we need to find vendors with more loyalty to the local community.
Customers can tell restaurateurs and catering/event companies that 
they want Oklahoma foods and spend their dollars accordingly. 

Farmer-direct, value-added marketing is not a minor player in economic 
development. According to the government's own statistics, Oklahomans 
will spend $4 billion on food to eat at home -- including a billion 
dollars for meat, eggs, poultry and fish, and nearly $700 million 
on vegetables. Agriculture is our greatest state economic asset. 
We'd be foolish to not take advantage of the economic opportunities 
we have right here at home. 

Ask any chef: The next big thing in food is local food. People are 
hungry for the authentic, rich and varied tastes of local foods. 
Oklahoma is well- positioned to be a leader in creating new marketplaces 
that make it easy and convenient for urban customers to buy from 
rural producers. 
With vision, cooperation and smart work, we can build a secure foundation 
for a prosperous and sustainable future. 

Waldrop founded the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma 
City and serves on the board of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative Organizing 
Committee (www.oklahomafood.org).