Don't Buy the Hype! Eat Local for Less, Not More

This morning on WXPN I heard a portion of an interview with a Philadelphia local food champion. It was pleasant background chatter for the most part, sustainability blah blah green blah blah locally grown, until I heard the phrase "pay more" and really tuned in. I've spent a bit of time trying to hunt down a transcript of the session so I can give the segment its due - but WXPN's site only wants me to listen to their podcasts, not read their interviews. So I paraphrase the two bits of interest here into the message that I came away with: "people are willing to pay more for locally grown produce" and "people should invest in their local farmers."

Awesome! There's that wonderful word "should!" That always means that someone is trying to sell something by cloaking it in altruistic intentions. And "willing to pay more," that's a great one. Where do I sign up? I want to let the world know that I am "willing to pay more." Do you think they have a canvas bag I can buy, maybe something that bugles "I Recycle" or "I Heart Green?"

Let's think back to 2006 when Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" came out. That wasn't the start of the local food movement, but arguably the point at which it started gaining steam. At the time, sources promoting locally grown food proclaimed that it was the answer to expensive organic produce from halfway across the world. It made sense. Go directly to your local farmer and buy in-season produce at prices significantly lower than those in the supermarket. Small farmers charge less because they have less overhead than supermarkets. It's more expensive to buy goods redistributed through buyers than to get it at the source because every time a product changes hands, you are paying for profit markup. So, buying locally grown produce makes good fiscal sense. Right?

Not anymore. Apparently, now I am supposed to be willing to pay more in recognition of the idea that it's important to support local farmers. I can see where this is going now - "eat local" is about to join "eat organic" in slogan hell. If we're really lucky, maybe the government will step in and develop a "certified locally grown" set of standards to go along with the organic ones. Because, you know, those organic ones work so well. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is attempting to pat its head and rub its stomach at the same time with a set of city initiatives to promote locally grown food. When people start talking about food stamp programs for farmers' markets, my eye starts to twitch. Excuse me, but isn't the city in massive debt? How does that work? Shouldn't Philadelphia figure out how to make its existing neighborhood revitalization plans work first?

There is plenty that is right about the idea of promoting locally grown food. It decentralizes food supply. If one farm happens to get wiped out by weather, pests, or disease then it doesn't cripple an entire area. It's friendly. I'd much rather visit my local farm and build a relationship with them than the bored teenage cashiers at Super Wal-Mart. Not that I have anything against Wal-Mart, but when I'm busy stroking strawberries and pinching peppers, I want to feel like I'm in an atmosphere that cares. It's frugal. I can get two bags per week of succulent produce - not "certified" organic, mind you, but grown without chemicals nonetheless - for around $20. It does take an upfront investment of cash to pay for a CSA share, but that balances out in the long term. Last but not least, it brings me one step closer to the earth. In eating locally grown produce, I'm forced to think creatively with the fruits and veggies I'm given every week. I find myself enjoying cookbooks more often, rather than just slamming protein-starch-veggie on the table for my family. And I like that my son sees where the food is coming from. I can teach him about growing things, how certain foods go with certain seasons, how those tractors he likes so much help to grow the food he eats. He's more likely to eat vegetables if he's been to the market with me, helped me pick them out, and watched or helped me prepare them. At the very least, it's a little weekly adventure for him to visit the farm and see the animals. That's more fun than some yearly event when the farm is mobbed with families dragging their kids through pumpkin patches.

But promoting locally grown food through government programs is wrong, wrong, wrong. So is selling the concept of paying more as part of some sort of community investment. They want me to invest in my community? Fine, I'll volunteer. Or I'll make it my mission to contact people and set up some farm markets in areas that could use them. I'm sick of people stringing together buzzwords in some vaguely grandiose vision of sustainability and community reinvestment, and ruining it in the process. Less talk and more action, please. They "should" save their rhetoric for the manure pile.