Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - [Livingontheland] The localization of agriculture

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The localization of agriculture
  • Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:26:18 -0700


The localization of agriculture
1 Dec 2009 3:28 PM by Lester Brown
http://www.grist.org/article/the-localization-of-agriculture

In the United States, there has been a surge of interest in eating fresh
local foods, corresponding with mounting concerns about the climate effects
of consuming food from distant places and about the obesity and other health
problems associated with junk food diets. This is reflected in the rise in
urban gardening, school gardening, and farmers’ markets.

Highpoint organic garden. With the fast-growing local foods movement, diets
are becoming more locally shaped and more seasonal. In a typical supermarket
in an industrial country today it is often difficult to tell what season it
is because the store tries to make everything available on a year-round
basis. As oil prices rise, this will become less common. In essence, a
reduction in the use of oil to transport food over long distances—whether by
plane, truck, or ship—will also localize the food economy.

This trend toward localization is reflected in the recent rise in the number
of farms in the United States, which may be the reversal of a century-long
trend of farm consolidation. Between the agricultural census of 2002 and that
of 2007, the number of farms in the United States increased by 4 percent to
roughly 2.2 million. The new farms were mostly small, many of them operated
by women, whose numbers in farming jumped from 238,000 in 2002 to 306,000 in
2007, a rise of nearly 30 percent.

Many of the new farms cater to local markets. Some produce fresh fruits and
vegetables exclusively for farmers’ markets or for their own roadside stands.
Others produce specialized products, such as the goat farms that produce
milk, cheese, and meat or the farms that grow flowers or wood for fireplaces.
Others specialize in organic food. The number of organic farms in the United
States jumped from 12,000 in 2002 to 18,200 in 2007, increasing by half in
five years.

Gardening was given a big boost in the spring of 2009 when U.S. First Lady
Michelle Obama worked with children from a local school to dig up a piece of
lawn by the White House to start a vegetable garden. There was a precedent.
Eleanor Roosevelt planted a White House victory garden during World War II.
Her initiative encouraged millions of victory gardens that eventually grew 40
percent of the nation’s fresh produce.

Although it was much easier to expand home gardening during World War II,
when the United States was largely a rural society, there is still a huge
gardening potential—given that the grass lawns surrounding U.S. residences
collectively cover some 18 million acres. Converting even a small share of
this to fresh vegetables and fruit trees could make an important contribution
to improving nutrition.

Many cities and small towns in the United States and England are creating
community gardens that can be used by those who would otherwise not have
access to land for gardening. Providing space for community gardens is seen
by many local governments as an essential service, like providing playgrounds
for children or tennis courts and other sport facilities.

Many market outlets are opening up for local produce. Perhaps the best known
of these are the farmers’ markets where local farmers bring their produce for
sale. In the United States, the number of these markets increased from 1,755
in 1994 to more than 4,700 in mid-2009, nearly tripling over 15 years.
Farmers’ markets reestablish personal ties between producers and consumers
that do not exist in the impersonal confines of the supermarket. Many
farmers’ markets also now take food stamps, giving low-income consumers
access to fresh produce that they might not otherwise be able to afford. With
so many trends now boosting interest in these markets, their numbers may grow
even faster in the future.

In school gardens, children learn how food is produced, a skill often lacking
in urban settings, and they may get their first taste of freshly picked peas
or vine-ripened tomatoes. School gardens also provide fresh produce for
school lunches. California, a leader in this area, has 6,000 school gardens.

Many schools and universities are now making a point of buying local food
because it is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious and it fits into new
campus greening programs. Some universities compost kitchen and cafeteria
food waste and make the compost available to the farmers who supply them with
fresh produce.

Supermarkets are increasingly contracting with local farmers during the
season when locally grown produce is available. Upscale restaurants emphasize
locally grown food on their menus. In some cases, year-round food markets are
evolving that market just locally produced foods, including not only fruit
and vegetables but also meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and other farm products.

Food from more distant locations boosts carbon emissions while losing flavor
and nutrition. A survey of food consumed in Iowa showed conventional produce
traveled on average 1,500 miles, not including food imported from other
countries. In contrast, locally grown produce traveled on average 56 miles—a
huge difference in fuel investment. And a study in Ontario, Canada, found
that 58 imported foods traveled an average of 2,800 miles. Simply put,
consumers are worried about food security in a long-distance food economy.
This trend has led to a new term: locavore, complementing the better known
terms herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore.

Concerns about the climate effects of consuming food transported from distant
locations has also led Tesco, the leading U.K. supermarket chain, to label
products with their carbon footprint—indicating the greenhouse gas
contribution of food items from the farm to supermarket shelf. Sweden is a
recent pioneer in labeling food with its carbon footprint along with
nutritional facts.

As agriculture localizes, livestock production will likely start to shift
away from mega-sized cattle, hog, and poultry feeding operations. The shift
from factory farm production of milk, meat, and eggs by returning to mixed
crop-livestock operations facilitates nutrient recycling as local farmers
return livestock manure to the land. The combination of high prices of
natural gas, which is used to make nitrogen fertilizer, and of phosphate, as
reserves are depleted, suggests a much greater future emphasis on nutrient
recycling—an area where small farmers producing for local markets have a
distinct advantage over massive feeding operations.

In combination with moving down the food chain to eat fewer livestock
products, reducing the food miles in our diets can dramatically reduce energy
use in the food economy. And as world food insecurity mounts, more and more
people will be looking to produce some of their own food in backyards, in
front yards, on rooftops, in community gardens, and elsewhere, further
contributing to the localization of agriculture.




  • [Livingontheland] The localization of agriculture, Tradingpost, 12/23/2009

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page