Localvore: Local Food Logic
By George Schenk
 Think of a farm and what image comes to mind? A house
and barn surrounded by fields and woods. A few chickens
in the yard, a big garden, a pen of pigs and a small
herd of cows in the pasture. This, or something similar
is what most of us think of because for about as long as
we can remember this is what farms looked like. They
called them family farms and they functioned within the
content of nature and their communities. Although far
from perfect and often difficult, at a fundamental level
family farming produced both delicious and nutritious
foods, conserved open space and were a durable
foundation upon which democracy and civil society
flourished.
That was food’s past. Today very little of our food
comes from such places.
Beginning after the First World War and accelerating
after the Second, small family farms gave way to large
corporate organizations that to the greatest extent
possible stripped the messy complexity of nature and
humanity out of farming and replaced them with a
streamlined industrial process. Petroleum based
synthetic fertilizers took the place of on-farm manures
and allowed for nutrient intensive hybrid seeds;
pesticides supported monoculture cropping patterns; the
routine use of antibiotics and growth hormones promoted
high density feedlots and confinement rearing of
animals; machines replaced people. More recently G.M.O.s,
synthetic hormones and irradiation have further
distanced food from its natural origins.
Food became a commodity: cheap, abundant, and seasonless.
Flavor and nutritional integrity were sacrificed on the
altar of price, appearance and convenience. In a mad
scramble to survive, neighbors valued each other’s land
more than their friendships. The significant
environmental costs of this new system were discounted.
The social costs were hardly considered. Farming lost
its innocence.
The industrial transformation of the American food
supply was not an evil solely of faceless self-serving
corporations but was done with the encouragement and
support of the federal and state governments and with
the acquiescence of a disengaged public who saw food as
little more than fuel and valued cheap, unblemished
seasonless variety over all else. In a way, business and
government gave us exactly the food we asked for. If we
now find ourselves with a kind of thoughtless food it is
because we have been thoughtless – and careless – about
it.
Like so many systems of human design, industrial food
swung past its point of equilibrium which gave rise to a
counter response that came to be known as the organic
food movement. Born in idealism, organic food began as
small and personal expressions of a more sustainable and
nurturing food production model. For many years the
model existed at the margins of the national food
supply. Starting about twenty years ago, however,
organic food gained more public acceptance and began a
steady rise to prominence. Today organic food is the
fastest growing sector of the food industry – a fact
that has not been lost on “Big Food” – the large, often
multi-national corporations that control a great deal of
what the world eats.
Ironically, though perhaps not surprisingly, organic’s
success is now compromising its future. Now in the big
time, organic’s production, processing, and distribution
systems are mimicking its non-organic conventional
counterparts.
Organic food is being industrialized
Large fields are all but mono-cultured; “Free-Range”
poultry range on barn floors shared by 20,000 birds;
labor conditions on vast irrigated fields in the
American southwest echo those of conventional food.
Hundreds of miles separate field from plate (the average
piece of food in America travels 1500 miles). Over
packaging and market hype are common. I think commercial
organic food is better than its conventional
counterpart, but it is only somewhat better.
American food is at a new crossroads. The industrial
food model, be it conventional or organic, is failing
us. With its long distances from farm to plate, it is
failing our environment. With its reliance on
some-place-else it is failing local and regional land
bases. With its emphasis on “cheap at all costs” it is
failing our farmers. With its concentrated processing
plants, it is failing our safety. With its ever more
exotic chemicals and processes exempt from labeling it
is failing to be transparent. And with its problematic
residues and narrow views of soil fertility it is
failing our nutritional needs.
Food is important. What we eat and how it is grown
intimately affects our health and the well being of the
world. Good, nutritious food is not a luxury. It is
essential, and related to all that we hold dear.
What is needed, in my view, is a more local and regional
perspective on food. “Localvore” as this cuisine has
been called is based on the logic of eating locally.
I think the best food you can eat comes from your own
garden. Following this would be food that is grown and
raised on small farms in your area or region. CSA’s,
farm stands, and farmers markets are great sources of
these foods.
One of the peculiarities of food is that it does not
scale well, that is it is hard to maintain food quality
and integrity with ever increasing volumes.
In the same way there is a difference between a batch of
Grandma’s homemade cookies and cookies that are churned
out 10,000 an hour in some distant factory. There is
also a difference between vegetables from a five-acre
plot and those from a 5,000-acre corporate farm. And
there is a difference between milk and milk products
that come from a small herd of animals who pasture
outdoors and are called in by name and a 3,000 head herd
confined 24/7 to a concrete barn.
If we are to have better food, the kind we truly need,
we need better farming. The solution is not a few mega
farms; it is many small successful farms. Many farms
imply many farmers. Currently less than 1% of Americans
make their living in agriculture. Never before have so
few tried to feed so many. How did this happen? It’s
simple really: People stopped farming because farming
stopped paying.
And this is where you and I come in. There are people willing to farm if only they felt
confident there would be buyers of their work. We are their customers.
If we truly want to have better, cleaner food, if we
want to help conserve open areas and agricultural land
bases, if we want to lessen the environmental footprint
of our food supply, if we care about the dignity of our
neighbors who farm –
BUY THEIR FOOD!
By getting more money into local farmers pockets we will
make local farming more viable. And while we’re at it… Give ‘em a wave and smile and say thanks
Don’t quibble about the price – good local food is
always worth it
Advocate for public institutions to buy Vermont food
Ask your favorite markets and restaurants to carry more
local foods
Join a CSA. Take seriously the farmers markets and farm
stands.
And finally, ask your elected officials to review
policies and regulations that do not protect organic
farmers from G.M.O. pollen drift and that restrict or
prohibit farmer’s rights to sell directly to the public.
To this last point there are many regulations that
restrict Farm-Gate (farmer to public) sales. Most of
these regulations revolve around animal products (raw
milk and meat) and are couched in the language of public
health and safety. Upon closer inspection however these
concerns are antiquated, not scientifically based and
inconsistent. The rules are slanted against small
farmers and they are more properly understood as
crutches for the industrial food model.
Farming is a tremendously hard way to make a living and
it is shameful that small farmers are yoked to such
burdensome rules. Although there are ways around the
rules they all ultimately are illegal and therefore
criminalize the very people who are responsible for some
of the most interesting, flavorful, nutritious and
sustainable food produced in Vermont. This is
fundamentally wrong. Far from being criminal, the work
of our farmers is noble and deserving of our highest
praise and respect.
Over the past several years’ well-intentioned and
reasonable citizens have petitioned state government for
Farm-Gate relief without success. Further, with
disregard for the will of the Vermont Senate and House,
the Governor has vetoed the Farmer Protection Act which
would have held responsible the corporate manufacturers
of G.M.O. seeds for any damage or trespass G.M.O. pollen
might inflict on non-G.M.O. fields – for these reasons,
and at risk to our financial security personal liberty,
American Flatbread will openly and publicly serve
chicken raised and farm processed by our neighbor and
friend Hadley Gaylord. The “Chicken Event” will be a
special bake on Friday June 16, 2006. During the evening
two short films will be shown at The Inn at Lareau Farm
and at 7:30 noted Vermont farmer Doug Flack will speak.
All are welcome.
American Flatbread is committed to the rule of law and
to responsible citizenship. When government promulgates
laws that do not serve the public interest it is the
obligation and responsibility of the citizens to promote
constructive change. The purpose of this public act of
civil disobedience in support of local agriculture is to
support our neighbor, to offer the most sustainably
produced food to our customers we are able, and to
stimulate a conversation in our community and across our
state about our food stories: Where did it come from?
How was it grown, and by whom? How was it stored or
processed? What’s in it? What’s not? And maybe most
importantly, what of the future of our food?
For more information about how to support or access
local foods go to
www.vermontlocalvore.org or join the
Mad River Valley Localvore chapter.
This letter was written with the encouragement of many
though I alone am responsible for its content. I know
that there are some who worry for the well being of
Flatbread or for their own reputations. Please know I
worry too. I fear regulatory sanctions, public ridicule,
and/or financial ruin (though I think all of these
possibilities are remote). But more than these I fear a
thoughtless acceptance of a food system that is not
serving us well and surely will not well serve our
children. Thank you.
George Schenk is the founder and President of American
Flatbread.
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Lansing
Area Localvores