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  • From: "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster AT globalcircle.net>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Buying food local is better than global, say leaders in the field
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 14:19:54 -0600






Buying food local is better than global, say leaders in the field

Kim Severson, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, October 13, 2002

Now that organics have gone mainstream, what's next?

Hang around some of the elite chefs and farmers on the cutting edge of
Northern California food politics and before long they're talking about
"food miles" and the "foodshed" -- that is, the notion that food grown
closest to where one lives is best.

And if you know something about the farmer who grew your lettuce or the
rancher who raised your steak, all the better.

"The cultural aspect is now coming back. People are kind of turned off by
conglomerates and globalization," said Bolinas farmer Warren Weber, who was
considered a visionary when he started farming organically in the early
1970s.

"The smaller growers are now looking at how to educate consumers about what
they are doing and where the food comes from and how they grow it. We need
to make a connection with the regionality of our food. That's really what's
next."

To understand why "food miles" matter, consider Horizon Organics milk, a
company whose stock is traded on the NASDAQ and which controls about 70
percent of the organic milk market in the country.

The dancing cow on the cartons and the word "organic" conjures romantic
notions of the local dairy, but in reality the milk comes from a 4,000-acre
organic dairy farm in Idaho, a 445-acre organic dairy farm in Maryland or
any of 200 other smaller farms across the country.

Horizon milk is also "ultra-pasteurized," a process that makes the milk
stay fresh longer and allows the company to ship it all over the country.
But the process can kill enzymes and vitamins. Milk from a small,
environmentally sensitive dairy within your "foodshed" -- say, Marin County
for Bay Area residents -- is a healthier alternative both for the people
who drink it and cows that produce it, people like Weber argue.

They also point out that buying that local milk supports a culture of local
farm families and helps build a stronger community.

To that end, Weber and a group of other Marin County producers, including
the women who run Cowgirl Creamery, have formed a new group that is all
about "food miles." Think of it as organic plus.

They want to set a standard much higher than the national organic laws for
all food grown in Marin County -- almost branding Marin organics as a
super- elite organic producer.

In their perfect world, all of the food grown in Marin County would be
grown not only organically, but also with an eye toward fair labor
practices, good soil conservation and watershed protection as well as the
relationships between the consumer and the farmer.

"Where is your food coming from? It's a simple, simple question," Weber
said. "Not that you have to become entirely political about the whole thing
-- like I want my food from no more than 2 feet away from me -- but it is
good to know where the farm is."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/10/13/MN6776.DTL







  • Buying food local is better than global, say leaders in the field, GlobalCirclenet, 10/16/2002

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