The summer before last my interest in local foods began. As I have mentioned before, the 100-mile diet really altered my life. As someone who questions everything, this new food experiment posed greater and deeper questions, ideas that I had not before considered. The notion of food miles was new to me but became commonplace in our household. (Food miles refers to the distance a food item travels from the farm to the plate.) I understood the term ‘organic’ and I tried to buy certain food items under this label from time to time. But what really affected me was the challenge of finding individual farmers to provide our home with sustenance. Over time we developed our network of local food producers, which included meat, dairy, eggs, wheat, cornmeal, honey, maple syrup, wild rice and seasonal produce. We had 2 CSAs and our own substantial garden. Before too long I was preaching the goodness of local foods, which I continue to advocate today.
Like many historic reform movements I believe that we, the consumers have to change the food system. Unlike voting for representatives, I believe that where we put our money will have real effect on the world we live in. Every couple of days or weeks I am reminded of this potential and the change it is creating. Today I discovered a new piece of evidence to further this hope in the food revolution. And surprise surprise, the happy news comes from the government, specifically the USDA.
On Sept. 17 the USDA launched “Know your farmer, know your food,” an initiative to connect consumers to the farmers that grow their food. The focus is on developing new and sustained local/regional food systems, and with this creating new jobs and stronger smaller economies. Imagine a day when it is commonplace for a local independent restaurant to offer meals that are completely sourced from local foods (and not just in Portland.) When the demand grows the supply will follow and the technology or subsidies to make these efforts feasible. When this happens we can finally move beyond the criticism that ‘organic’ or ‘grass-fed’ is a class issue. This is a huge obstacle for the food movement – that it is a rich person movement.
I do believe that rich and middle-income people have the numbers to greatly influence the market, think of the organic label as example. The big difference between an organic movement and a local movement is that the latter can have far more restrictions. Unlike ‘organic’ which as a label has been destroyed by corporate food producers, local means locally produced (read this as an example.) I do think organic is an ideal but I do not support the certification that now goes along with it. It is a now-known fact that the “USDA certified organic” label is itself classist and systematically discriminatory (thanks to industrial ag.) For example, if a small family farm raising pasture-raised chickens wants to be certified organic, this small farm has to meet the same guidelines as Purdue. How can there even be competition? In my opinion, buying organic, certified organic does not carry the meaning it once had. Buying local and organic is far more powerful than buying organic from one of the handful of corporate organic food producers.
And yet, pushing my cynicism aside, let us be happy for the USDA. Let us be happy about this new initiative that provides millions of dollars towards creating more local and organic farms. For all the criticism of the federal government and its oppressive food certifications, this is something to be excited about. Finally some really good news.
Related posts:
- The Dark Side of the Organic Food Movement
- USDA Destroys Local Economies
- Why “organic” isn’t good enough (or) the versatility of the tomato
- Critical Food Literacy and a Sustainable Food Movement
- The Oregon Sustainability Experience
Tags: Food Politics, local food movement, seasonal eating, USDA