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  • From: "Steve Sando" <steve AT mrlucky.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] NY Times: Set That Apricot Free
  • Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:33:06 -0700

April 24, 2004
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Set That Apricot Free
By PATRICK MARTINS

Shoppers at farmers markets in cities around the country might feel virtuous
because they're filling their baskets with eggs and chard and apples offered
by farmers within driving distance. Same goes for the city subscribers in
community supported agriculture programs, who buy shares in the production
of a nearby farm. And they're justified: they are helping change American
agriculture by supporting local farmers instead of agribusiness. Small
family farms are essential to guaranteeing the diversity and safety of our
food supply.
But markets and community supported agriculture programs, wonderful as they
are, can't by themselves save American agriculture. To do that, we have to
look beyond the "eat local" slogans at the farmers markets in New York, San
Francisco and Chicago and think of how to give American consumers across the
country access to regional products that might disappear unless they are
raised in much larger numbers. In some cases the answer is to think
locally - but to ship nationally.
This idea is anathema to local-food purists, but the situation is dire. Many
heirloom varieties of American cattle, goats, pigs, sheep and poultry are on
the brink of extinction because there are no longer buyers for them in an
agribusiness-dominated market that's interested only in the pig breed that
grows the fastest or the chicken variety with the most white meat. What's
more, the last few representatives of many of these breeds are on farms that
are far from urban areas and markets, in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.
These animals, known as heritage breeds, are part of the cultural identity
of this country; many are the same breeds that sustained our ancestors. They
reflect a taste and variety that we are at risk of losing, never to be
replaced. And they are an important part of our survival. As the Irish
potato famine demonstrated - and as future outbreaks of avian flu or mystery
viruses may demonstrate again - depending on one variety of livestock or
produce can be disastrous.
Until the destiny of the nation's varieties becomes more secure, the
distinctions the local food movement makes among regional and national
should be meaningless. We should not flinch at mail order and the
long-distance transport of meat from Red Wattle pigs and Cotswold sheep.
After all, this is not a substitute for buying locally, but a means to
bringing these increasingly rare animals back into the marketplace. Once
they're back, and demand increases, they can be raised and distributed
locally. Increased availability of these products would also combat the
elitist reputation of heirloom foods. These foods should not exist just for
fine restaurants and rich urbanites.
There are limits to this. We should not be shipping lettuce, which can be
grown practically everywhere, cross-country. While rare heritage breeds can
and should be distributed more widely, many greenmarket fruits and
vegetables are best kept (and sold) close to home and in their season.
Still, there is some produce that thrives in only one place; these
vegetables should be allowed to travel. After all, the United States boasts
a rich variety of climates and soils that combine to bring us unique foods.
The French have a word, terroir, to describe an agricultural area that
produces food with a distinct taste, and the United States has the potential
to remake itself into a land of terroirs.
For that to happen, however, terroir-dependent produce needs to get national
recognition and national distribution. With widespread availability, we
could develop internationally recognized food appellations to rival the
French (who have Brie and Puy lentils, for example) and the Italians (with
their prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano-Reggiano).
Of course, there are already some American products that are synonymous with
a region, like the cherries of Michigan and the grapes of Napa Valley. But
think how much more could be done to make regional products well known and
available. The French have Roquefort; why can't we have Smoky Mountain Blue?
Blenheim apricots and Gravenstein apples from California, peppers from the
Sonoran Desert, and sorghum syrup and persimmons from northern Kentucky
deserve to have catchy, place-specific names and a broad market. In a land
where mass production dominates and the celebration of regional differences
takes a back seat to standardization, policy makers and farmers need to
create appellations that would differentiate their products and create a
market for them.
Global trade and mass communication tend to erase cultural and biological
diversity, but as the writer Michael Pollan argues, we can turn them into
powerful tools for rescuing this diversity.
We can support companies that are working with farmers to preserve
endangered foods, whether they are restaurants, Internet mail-order
businesses or markets. If community supported agriculture supports local
food production, then national community supported agriculture could support
breeds that are near extinction and terroir- and climate-dependent produce.
Farmers markets, too, should be more open to meat and produce raised by
small farmers who live far from cities: if the closest breeders of
Saddleback pigs are in Kansas, they should get a chance to sell in New York
City. After all, if the demand is there, pretty soon they'll be raised in
the neighborhood.
Patrick Martins is the director of Slow Food U.S.A.

Steve Sando
www.ranchogordo.com
New World Specialty Food

Steve Sando
www.ranchogordo.com
New World Specialty Food





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