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  • From: STEVE GILMAN <stevegilman AT verizon.net>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well
  • Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 09:38:18 -0400

Hi All,

Back in the last century, NJ -- The Garden State -- with its great growing conditions, and location, location, location used to provide the bulk of the produce consumed in the huge urban east -- NYC, Philly, even Boston. With the standardization of the rail gauges which made all RR tracks the same, food sources from further and further away started to take over local markets, especially when refrigerated transport for meat and then produce became a reality. The clincher was the offer local market outlets couldn't refuse: if you want our winter produce (from Fla, then CA) you HAVE to buy from us in the summer season too. The rest is history and the Garden State became a shadow of its former self, crop wise.

In terms of sourcing food locally vs. further away there's much to be said for the freshness and nutritional quality of local foods. Food miles is an important energy concept. It's time to integrate a Life Cycle approach into the equation, however, and count ALL the inputs -- and externalities. Such as fertilizer sourcing, for example. N is especially vulnerable to price dislocations because it's manufactured from natural gas. It turns out that U.S. capacity is already maxed out (see <www.farmgate.uiuc.edu/archive/2007/08/ as_you_book_you.html> ) and Canada is in the same boat. Ammonia imports have skyrocketed and we're now dependent on an international market -- like the old days of the guano and Chilean Nitrate trade.

Conventional local ag is just as dependent, of course, maybe more so because the big producers in the Midwest have the purchasing power to lock in their supply. Overall, Agri-petro chemicals have a major sustainability problem, folks -- energy-wise, environmentally and climate change-wise. The writing's on the wall -- for even short term food security it's time to go Organic...

Steve
Ruckytucks Farm
On Aug 9, 2007, at 8:43 AM, market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

Message: 7
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 07:16:04 -0500
From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <008801c7da7f$1275a4b0$28088b3f@STCHARLES>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Robert

I'm sure you've watched produce decline during your long career as a grower.
Most of these long-distance shippers are masters at post-harvest handling
practices that preserve their product. They cool their product immediately,
clean it up, sort it, package it, ship it in reefers. It's ready for a
beauty contest, and I think the shippers are more seduced than anyone. They
think it's perfect. But it was picked before peak ripeness to survive the
trip. It's culinary and nutritional quality were compromised for the sake of
shipping it. Then it has to survive thousands of miles of travel, several
handlers, and presentation in the market. You and I both know that the
big-box stores don't train and retain their produce personnel like they used
too. The product really has no one taking care of it in the market. Though
the grower does their job very well, the market doesn't know how to preserve
the product. Because it's picked early, it does hold up better,...at first.
But once it starts to go down, and no one in the system understands it, it
just deteriorates.

You may have a somewhat biased perspective in New Jersey because you have so
many good growers out there who ship into big markets nearby. The product
can be picked more mature, the grower still does a great job, the shipping
is minimal, and I think many of the markets are better at handling the
product there. I'm near Chicago and I'm disgusted at produce quality in most
stores, even ones with a reputation for high quality. Even if it looks good
(the primary criteria, by the way), it lacks real culinary quality.

Bottom line, I think the shipping industry is so enamored of it's
post-harvest handling practices it loses sight of the end game. They push it
too far and the product implodes in the market. I wonder how many consumers
would be buying more than 5-servings-a-day if they could get farm- fresh
quality routinely and conveniently?

Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center





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