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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Small farmers profit from buy-local interest
  • Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 16:45:10 -0600




Posted on Mon, May. 26, 2008
Small farmers profit from buy-local interest
BY SUSAN SALISBURY
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/546093.html

Rising food prices along with concerns over food safety and the environment
are fueling growth in old-fashioned, local agriculture, and South Florida's
small farmers are profiting.


James White has a farm where he raises chickens, ducks and geese. He sells
the birds and the eggs to people who want to avoid foods from factory farms.

It's something he has done every day for 60 years.

''This is like giving ice cream to kids,'' White says, throwing handfuls of
corn feed to several dozen honking, hissing geese crowding around him on a
recent morning.

Because White, 80, runs White Enterprises, a farm off Old Dixie Highway in
the middle of a residential neighborhood in Lake Park, the casual observer
might think he's a quaint holdover from a time long past.

But looked at another way, he actually is the face of the future.

Long before the ''buy local'' movement started becoming trendy, White was
raising local food. And these days, he can't keep up with demand.

''People buy everything I've got,'' he said.

In the past year, the clamor for the eggs from his free-ranging chickens,
ducks and geese -- and for the birds themselves -- has reached deafening
proportions.

Goose eggs fetch $2.50 apiece, and brown chicken eggs are $2 a dozen. Live
birds can be had for $10.

ENDLESS DEMAND

''I can't raise enough of them,'' said White, who also donates dozens of eggs
to a local church each week.

``People know they are good eggs. They taste so much better.''

Nationwide, swiftly rising prices for food at the supermarket coupled with
worries about food safety and the environment are contributing to the growth
of the buy-local movement, local advocates say.

More people want to eat fresh, seasonal foods as part of a healthy diet and
to support small-scale growers, said T.A. Wyner, who operates green markets
in Palm Beach County and heads a local Slow Food chapter.

The number of Local Harvest members in Florida, which includes farmers
markets, family farms and other sources of local foods, has jumped to 250
this year from 68 in 2004, said Guillermo Payet, founder and president of
Local Harvest, which is based in Santa Cruz, Calif.

More than 14 are in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to the
organization's searchable online database.

U.S. membership is more than 13,740, almost triple the 5,412 members in 2004.

RIPE MOMENT

''I've been saying for years that the buy-local movement will really take off
when the price of agribusiness-produced and long-distance-transported foods
goes up substantially due to high energy prices,'' Payet said. ``That's
starting to happen.''

Oil prices are in the $125-a-barrel range, having doubled in the past 12
months.

''At what point does it get the upper hand? At $150 per barrel of oil?''
Payet said. ``Who knows? But I think we're close.''

FEWER CHOICES

Despite an enormous demand for locally-grown, organic produce in South
Florida, buyers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties don't have as many options
as people in other regions, said Cliff Middleton, owner of Three Sisters Farm
in South Miami-Dade.

''There are not a lot of little local farms because land costs $100,000 bucks
an acre,'' Middleton said, adding he gets calls and e-mails almost daily from
folks wanting to buy produce. On five acres, Middleton grows 260 fruit trees,
interspersed with crops of callaloo, cassava and other crops that appeal to
niche, ethic markets.

Three Sisters is member of a Redland-based group of some six farms that sells
subscriptions of organic, mostly-local produce delivered weekly to about 350
South Florida families.

Old-timers such as White, whose family moved from Belle Glade to West Palm
Beach in 1924 and raised vegetables near what is now known as Prosperity
Farms Road, say food produced and sold locally was once the norm.

In the days before agriculture became larger and more industrialized, just
about everybody had a small farm or backyard garden, or had a neighbor who
did, he said.

URBAN INTEREST

Now, what's actually nothing new is being reinvented, with more people
interested in producing food, even in urbanized areas such as South Florida.

Take the Shirley family of Jupiter Farms. The Shirley children's business,
Veggie Kids Farm, began three years ago as a way for the four children, now
ages 4 to 12, to learn about gardening.

They gave the overflow of green beans, lettuce, radishes and squash to
neighbors, and some of those people paid for the produce. Now the Shirley
children sell their vegetables to the community as well, such as in green
markets.

Veggie Kids Farm's vegetables range from 99 cents to $1.99 a pound. Iceberg
lettuce is $1 a head, and other lettuces are $2 a head. Eggs produced by
free-range chickens are $3 a dozen. Cantaloupes recently sold for $1 each.

HEALTHY RETURNS

''Growers who are wise are going to make good money. Our operation is an
example,'' said Steve Shirley, 48, the children's father. ``Many of the
products the kids sell are a bargain.''

Much of the more than $239 billion in crops and livestock the U.S. Department
of Agriculture says the nation's farms produce each year is trucked great
distances so that consumers can have what they want around the clock, any day
of the year.

Most U.S. produce is picked four to seven days before being placed on
supermarket shelves and is shipped an average of 1,500 miles, Local Harvest
says.

The industrialized farming model is adding to the cost of food and
contributing to air and water pollution, said Tony Corbo, legislative
representative for Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based advocacy group.

''With local foods, you are reducing transportation costs considerably,''
Corbo said. ``Setting up local supply chains may be the wave of the future.''

Food prices are up 5.3 percent in the last three months, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and staples such as milk are up 13 percent
in the past year, partly because of record fuel costs.

The renewed emphasis on local food and the economic crisis have brought one
farm family back into the business.

Mary Semple and her husband, Ruben Arias, raised herbs in Loxahatchee in the
early 1990s for about five years.

Now, they're taking another stab at it. In September, they founded a farm
called The Sweet Habanero.

BETTER USE OF LAND

Arias, a Realtor, figured that with the downturn in Florida's real estate
market, farming again made sense.

They're growing specialty herbs, such as several types of basil, on 1 ΒΌ acres
in The Acreage.

They deliver directly to wholesalers and restaurants, produce flavored
vinegars and plan to fashion some salsas.

Semple sees a definite increase in interest since the earlier venture.

''I think the buy-local movement is bigger now,'' she said.

In recent months, after she posted on the Local Harvest website, her business
has been inundated with e-mails, she added.

Other producers in the food chain have noticed, too.

Veteran chef George Mastroni founded Boca Organics in Boca Raton three years
ago.

He buys produce, milk and other products from farms such as Seabreeze
Organics in Fort Pierce, Glazer Organic Farms in Miami and Farm Fresh Direct
in Tampa, all of which have delivery routes to businesses.

It's a ''big movement,'' Mastroni said, and one that appears to be growing.

''Consumers are worried about our Earth,'' Mastroni said. ``They are starting
to get more green every day.''

Miami Herald business writer Monica Hatcher contributed to this report.






  • [Livingontheland] Small farmers profit from buy-local interest, Tradingpost, 05/26/2008

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