Super Wal-Mart or Farmers' Market? Part 1

I want my first postings to be an essay/paper/business plan that I wrote while I was in India. This first installment is basically just a glimpse at what is wrong with our current food system. I gleamed most of these thoughts and the basic terminology from The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - a powerful and timely book which, in my humble opinion, should be read by nearly everyone. I don't believe the following essay should be read by everyone, there are definitely worse ways to spend ten minutes of your time.

Why a New Retail Option is Needed to Make Sustainable, Organic, Local Food
Available and Convenient for the Consumer

Background

There are three overlapping terms which are commonly used to describe food production; organic, sustainable, and local. These three terms are often strung together, but they describe different aspects of food production and relate to separate and distinct public concerns about the possible harmful effects of food production methods. Since these terms are central to the following concepts, it is necessary to examine their individual meanings.

Organic

Of these three terms, organic is the most common and well-defined due to government regulations and the emergence of a large market for organic foods. Although the term is often associated with sustainable and local production, the label of “organic” only signifies that certain synthetic inputs were not used during cultivation; many foods which are certified as organic are neither local nor sustainably grown. The demand for organic food is fueled mainly by the threat that herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers pose to public and personal health.

Local

Local food appeals to consumers not because of health concerns, but for political, economic, environmental, and even spiritual reasons. The industrial food chain, which is exclusively controlled by a small number of large corporations, robs the consumer of the age-old connection to their food. The emergence of the industrial food chain has resulted in a plethora of negative consequences; rural economies are struggling due to volatile commodity prices, local farmers are being driven out of business by huge trans-national corporations, local flavors and traditional foods are being replaced by national brand-name foods, and fossil fuels are burned by trucks hauling food across the country. In many ways the demand for local food is a critique of modern consumerism and an attempt to regain control from increasingly powerful corporations. While there are no precise geographic criteria for deeming a food “local”, it should be possible to travel to the source of the food to meet the producer in less than a day. Central to the idea of local food is not an exact geographic distance, rather a connection to the local culture, environment and community in which the food is produced and consumed.

Sustainable

Sustainable may be the vaguest of these three terms because there is no scientific or public consensus about how it is defined. At the most basic level, sustainable food production does no harm to the natural environment. A sustainable food production system should be a closed system; it should not rely on outside energy sources such as synthetic fertilizers or fossil fuels and should not produce waste material. Sustainably produced food is essentially both organic and local because it does not rely on synthetic inputs and fossil fuels for long-distance distribution. Conventional food production systems are highly unsustainable for many reasons. High inputs of petroleum based fertilizers, loss of top-soil due to soil run-off, over-use of antibiotics in livestock resulting in drug-resistant bacteria, and irrigating crops from dwindling water sources are just a few examples of why industrial food production is not environmentally sustainable. Unfortunately, even locally produced and organically certified food are often not produced in a sustainable manner, but the small scale of local farmers and restriction of inputs on organic farmers act to limit their harmful effects on the environment.

Rejection of the Industrial Food Chain

There is a movement underway which aims to re-examine the industrial food chain and to return to a more sustainable and local based food production system. At this movement's core is the belief that food is not just another consumer product which can be mass produced, branded, and sold as a generic commodity. People are becoming interested in where their food comes due to a diverse range of environmental, political, ethical, and health concerns, not to mention taste preferences. A growing body of research is revealing the dark side of industrial food production and the public is beginning to take note. The growing demand for organic food is one result of this trend, but the term “organic” has been co-opted by trans-national corporations and has lost much of its original meaning; it is now possible to buy organic TV dinners and high-fructose corn syrup.

The idea that consumers should be knowledgeable about all aspects of their food's production is gaining momentum, but the industrial food chain is intentionally opaque. Large corporations’ response to the “know your farmer” mentality is to brand their products with an image of the agricultural idyll – a family farm which produces food with care and attention to detail. Grocery chains deal exclusively with large producers that are able to guarantee a stable and cheap supply of their product, so the ubiquitous images of small family produces are entirely fictitious and designed to disarm those who are suspicious of industrial food production. The organic food in major grocery stores is produced on massive factory farms that rely on cheap unskilled labor and mechanization to lower production costs. This industrial organic food production makes it exceedingly difficult for family farms to operate because of price and distribution issues.

Thankfully, the assumption that food produced by corporations on an industrial scale is equivalent to food grown by local farmers is being challenged. Consumers are beginning to place a monetary value on the connection to their food; people are willing to pay more for food produced locally, sustainably, and organically. Knowledge about where the food was grown, the methods and practices of the farmer, and how the food is distributed are beginning to influence the price consumers are willing to pay, thereby making it possible for small, local farms to compete with industrial producers. While food should be affordable to everyone, it should not be reduced to a lowest-possible price commodity. Understanding and pursuing this new market for local food may make a grass-roots revival of American agricultural possible in the coming years.