Additional Articles for May 2004 Issue
Maine's number
one economic opportunity: going local—with groceries!
Not long ago, Michael Shuman, author of Going Local spoke to a standing-room-only
chamber of commerce breakfast seminar at the Samoset. His impassioned
message was that strong local economies are built by substituting locally
produced goods and services for imported ones. Spending our money close
to home rather than sending it away keeps more money in local circulation,
enriching our community. The beating heart of economic improvement,
in Shuman’s parlance, is practicing “import substitution.” To
build our community, Shuman advocates figuring out what goods and services
come from away and then finding local sources for these.
Local Food is Key to Local Prosperity
According to Shuman, who backs his words up with the conclusions
of a study done in our fellow New England state, Vermont, the number
one opportunity we have for substituting home produced commodities
for imported ones is food. In Vermont a whopping $1.8 billion flew
right out of state for food. Food was the number one import, by far!
Food beat out the number two import, energy, by almost a billion
dollars. In Vermont becoming more self-reliant in food production
had the potential to free millions of dollars to recirculate in-state
rather than exit Vermont permanently. Because Maine and Vermont share
many demographic features, among them smallish populations hovering
around a million souls, predominantly rural character, similar resources,
etc., we might assume Maine’s opportunity for substituting
home produced food for imported is similar. The state of Vermont
has set of goal of substituting local products for just 10 percent
of its food imports; soon keeping $180 million more in state. This
is a powerfully effective economic development program by any measure
you choose! We can do the same thing here in Maine.
And we don’t need to wait for a state program to be created to
do this either. Every time we go grocery shopping we either vote to
enrich our neighborhood or vote to impoverish it. Every food dollar
we spend can either make us all better off or make us less so. It’s
that simple. Starting with your next trip to the store start buying
locally produced food.
But buying local food just isn’t as easy as it sounds, yet. If
you go to a supermarket you may be hard-pressed to find anything local,
even produce in season! The average grocery store item has traveled
1,500 miles to get to you. Worse, items labeled “Fresh, Native” can
be from anywhere within one day’s travel; that’s most of
the way down the Eastern seaboard!
Besides the money you are sending away when you buy Washington State
or Chinese apples think of the oil it took to get these fruits to your
plate. Think of the fleets of trucks that were necessary to get them
here. Think of the road maintenance. Wouldn’t you really rather
buy a local apple? Start asking for local apples in the grocery store.
Fill out those comment cards every time you shop. Talk to the produce
manager. Then, walk right out of the store and go to the local small
market. Look for local produce there. You’ll probably find the
same imported stuff with two important differences. First, because
the small market is locally owned, more of what you spend there stays
around our community. Second, produce they have, even if it’s
from far off Washington State will have been organically raised. Organic
production is proven to be more nutritious and is certainly more sustainable.
Buying organic produce from 1,500 miles away is certainly better than
buying conventional produce from 1,500 miles away. But buying local
produce is much, much better still. As a friend of mine is fond of
saying, “It’s more important to buy local, than to buy
organic.”
Here’s why. (The following is based on the oft-reprinted Ten
Reasons to Buy Local from Growing for Market newsletter, July 2001,
which can be found in its original form at www.geocities.com/yossarian70038/PIANOSA9/10_Reasons_to_Buy_Local_Food_GFM.html.
Words in italics are mine.)
Ten Reasons to Buy Local
1. Locally grown food tastes better. This
just makes sense. Fresh food tastes better. Local has every opportunity
to be fresher. And locally raised foods can actually be ripe! It’s just impossible for a
tomato harvested at full ripeness to lose out in the flavor race to
those tasteless things from the supermarket that are picked well before
maturity. Buy local produce and your children will learn to enjoy vegetables!
And what do you do if the corn you buy from Beth’s isn’t
sweet as advertised? Complain and Beth’s will make it right.
Local producers care, desperately, about the quality of what they produce.
(This is such an important principle that I’d give this a place
on the Ten Reasons if I were compiling them.)
2. Local produce is better for you. Recently
harvested food is more nutritious than food that’s spent days
in transit.
3. Local food products preserve genetic diversity. Diversity
is important because in diversity is survival. Monocultures, large
plantings of a single type of something are vulnerable to being wiped
out by disease—remember
Irish potatoes in the 19th century? Also, diversity preserves taste
richness and utility differences. Once upon a time apples that stored
soundly until summer were readily available. Today they aren’t.
4. Local food is GMO-free. Local food tends to be free from genetically
engineered ingredients. Most of us would choose to buy GMO-free foods
if we could find them. And we can. Most small food producers avoid
this dangerous technology.
5. Local food supports local farm families. Buy local and help a local
farm family make a living. More than 90 cents of any dollar you spend
on supermarket food goes to infrastructure, store overhead, distribution,
packaging, transportation; less than 10 cents to the farmer. Buy locally
and much more of the dollar you spend goes to the farmer. Buy direct
from the farmer through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or
a farm stand and be even more efficient with your money.
6. Local food builds community. You’ll
have a richer life for developing strong and valuable local relationships.
I guarantee this.
7. Local food preserves open space. Prosperous
farmscapes, and it’s
been years since we’ve had these in Maine, are beautiful things.
Far more beautiful than developments. Help farms be financially viable
and you’ll see more rural beauty.
And my favorite,
8. Local food keeps your taxes in check. This is because housing requires,
on average, $1.17 in services for every dollar it brings in in taxes
while farmland requires only 34 cents for every $1 it brings in. Development
takes more than it contributes. Farming contributes more than it takes.
9. Local food supports a clean environment and
supports wildlife. Eating
local foods benefits wildlife. Farmland is habitat for many kinds of
creatures.
10. Local food is about the future. Buying locally raised foods insures
greater food security in the future than depending on distant producers.
Buying locally produced food is getting easier again. The least likely
place to find locally grown food is the supermarket. Instead try locally
owned small markets like Fresh Off the Farm, the Belfast Coop and the
Good Term Coop. These smaller markets often carry local products and
will hear your requests for more local food availability. Larger stores
are deaf to such pleas. Better yet, go right to the source. Many, many
local farms feature farm stands in season. But even here, ask to make
sure what you are buying is really locally produced. Some large farm
stands augment their offerings with produce purchased from away.
In addition, spring is the time to sign up for a CSA program. By joining
a CSA, you help cover a farm’s yearly production expenses by
purchasing a share (or shares) of that farm’s expected harvest.
There are many local CSAs, some new, some experienced. To find a CSA
program that suits your family’s food needs go to the following
web site maintained by the Maine Department of Agriculture. www.getrealmaine.com/buy/csa_farms.html
And of course, you can always grow your own. This is the ultimate form
of going local and not only does this method fill your plate, but it
also provides months of healthy entertainment and hours of weekly exercise.
Lettuces and tomatoes are a good first crop. Once you taste how vibrantly
delicious your own salad tastes you’ll never settle again!
Kristina King is a market grower of authentically raised
fruits, vegetables and heirloom plants and is the leader of Slow
Food
International in
Maine. She consults on a range of seemingly unrelated issues,
such as visual
merchandising, space planning, landscaping and market development.
You may reach her by email at <onemorninginmaine@yahoo.com>,
or by calling 596.0248.