The Local Challenge

I challenged myself to eat locally for one week. Because local does not have one set definition, I defined local as grown or raised under 150 miles, with the exception of bread, which I ate if it was produced in Madison. With these guidelines in mind, the challenge began.

Eating food from a regular grocery store, restaurants, and campus dining halls was immediately out of the question. I went to the farmers market and Willy Street Coop which has a fair amount of local options and also signs saying where all their produce comes from. Interestingly, even at the farmers market there is no guarantee of local food, because there are not regulations on where the farmers can come from. However, it still mostly is. Some farmers are from Eau Claire, WI, which is about 200 miles away –significantly farther than a backyard garden, but a vast improvement from 1,500 miles, the average distance produce comes from in the United States.

During this week I did almost all my own cooking. I live in the residence halls, but I could eat nothing at any of the cafeterias, except for milk and the bagels they have, which are from a Madison company. I ate locally produced bread because  locally grown and milled wheat is not available here. Ideally, I wouldn’t have eaten bread or wheat at all, but for reasons of practicality (and fears of being hungry the entire week ), I decided to compromise.  It’s not that I don’t know how to go a week without eating bread, but just that most of the other “staple foods” were also cut out of my diet; I couldn’t eat rice, processed corn, pasta, or quinoa. I ate mostly vegetables, dairy, and eggs. I should add that I’m vegetarian, but if I were not I know there are a lot of local meat options available here.

All processed or multi-ingredient food was excluded for the week. For example, take strawberry yogurt, and for the sake of the example, lets say it’s made by a local yogurt company who claims to get there milk from Wisconsin cows. That’s great, but what about the other ingredients? The strawberries could be local, but it is very unlikely because the company would probably source from a bigger, cheaper strawberry market, such as California. The sugar would be made from beets, sugar cane, or corn. The beets or corn could be local in theory, but since sugar is a processed ingredient, even if they were grown here they would have needed to be shipped to a processing plant and then shipped back. It becomes very complicated and this isn’t even to mention all the other additives and preservatives that would be in the yogurt. Not only is it unlikely that the ingredients are local, but it is also very difficult to find out where they actually are from.

I typically ate an egg or bread with honey for breakfast. For lunch I would make a cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich or a salad. Dinner was a variety of things. I made a kale and carrot stir fry, baked butternut squash and potatoes (see picture below) scrambled eggs, among other dishes.

Although eating locally did require a lot of cooking, this is just because how our food systems are currently set up. To exemplify the actual abundance and variety of food growing in are area, here is a list compiled by the Dane County Farmers Market of what they report to have available each month of the year:

April & May
Asparagus, Bakery goods, Bedding plants, Bunch onions, Cheese, Cut flowers, Dry beans, Greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes, Hanging baskets, Lettuce, Maple syrup, Meats, Morel mushrooms, Perennial plants, Rhubarb, Spinach, Other specialty items

June
Asparagus, Baby carrots, Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Maple syrup, Peas, Rhubarb, Salad greens, Strawberries, Zucchini

July
Apples, Baby Carrots, Beets, Broad Beans, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cherries, Cucumbers, Currants, Dill, Eggplant, Gooseberries, Green and yellow beans, Greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes, Honey, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Maple syrup, Okra, Peas (Sugar, Snap and Snow), Pesto, Potatoes, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Salad greens, Strawberries, Summer squash, Swiss chard, Tomatoes (Cherry, Beefsteak), Zucchini

August
Apples, Artichokes, Baby carrots, Beets, Broad beans, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Celery, Cherries, Cucumbers, Dill, Dried flowers, Edible gourds, Eggplant, Flowers, French shallots, Garlic, Green and yellow beans, Greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes, Herbs, Honey, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Maple syrup, Melons, Okra, Onions, Parsley, Parsnips, Pears, Plums, Potatoes, Peas (Sugar, Snap, Snow), Peppers, Pesto, Rhubarb, Rutabagas, Salad mix, Strawberries, Summer squash, Sweet corn, Swiss chard, Tomatoes (Cherry, Beefsteak), Wild mushrooms, Winter squash, Zucchini

September, October, November
Apples, Artichokes, Beets, Broad beans, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Celery, Cucumbers, Dill, Dried flowers, Edible gourds, Eggplant, Flowers, French shallots, Garlic, Gourds, Grapes, Green and yellow beans, Herbs, Honey, Indian corn, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Maple syrup, Melons, Okra, Onions, Parsley, Parsnips, Pears, Peppers, Pesto, Plums, Potatoes, Rutabagas, Salad mix, Strawberries, Summer squash, Sweet corn, Swiss chard, Tomatoes (Cherry, Beefsteak), Wild mushrooms, Winter squash, Zucchini

Even in winter, along with animal products, they still report having chard, kale, lettuce, radish, spinach and tomatoes, products which are presumably greenhouse grown.

The following is a list of resources for eating locally in Madison.

This website is where the above list of foods came from. There are also recipes, tips for eating seasonally, and food preservation instructions. http://www.dcfm.org/shopmkt.asp#prodo

Slow Food is an international organization supporting “good, clean, fair” food. UW-Madison has a chapter with offers dinner Monday night and lunch on Wednesdays. They also sell Growing Power’s Market Baskets of fresh produce.  http://slowfooduw.org/

The Madison Area Community Supports Agriculture Coalition is an organization that connects farmers with consumers who pledge to support the farmer by purchasing a weekly box of produce. Their goal is to “support a sustainable agriculture system which provides farmers with direct outlets for farm products and ensures fair compensation.” http://www.csacoalition.org/

F.H. King is a student run UW-Madison farm. Among other things, they handout their produce for free to students from June-October, which would be great way to get local produce. http://fhkingstudentfarm.com/

These resources all provide ways to get local food at a reasonable cost. For example it’s five dollars for dinner at Slow Food, free for F.H King produce,  and items at the farmers market are usually very reasonably priced, especially the vegetables that farmers have an overabundance of.

After considering the list of produce, all these resources, and experiencing eating completely locally in Madison, I have concluded that with a shift in the food system, our diets could shift to almost completely local food, still having diverse and healthy diets. They would be different diets, but by no means worse. In fact, the week I ate locally was probably the healthiest week for me in terms of food since I’ve been at school, since I was eating all whole foods and cooking them myself. It was a successful challenge, a good experience, and one that will become easier as the food systems continues to shift towards local food.

 

The Implications of Global Food: Shifting Diets to the Local Market in Madison, Wisconsin

In a supermarket in Madison, Wisconsin, there are tomatoes that have traveled 1,500 miles to reach that store. Carrots from nearly 2,000 miles; apples and pears from at least 1,600; bananas from over 4,000. Eating tomatoes from Mexico, carrots from California, apples and pears from Washington, and Bananas from Ecuador wouldn’t strike the average American as strange. One meal might contain food grown in four or five different countries or states, and these foods would not be considered exotic or special; it is what we are accustomed to.

A USDA publication states that “In the early 1900s, nearly 40 percent of Americans lived on farms, compared with 1 percent in 2000, and much of the food bought and consumed in the United States was grown locally.” This shift in our food system occurred after World War II, when gas prices where low and effective refrigerator trucks had been manufactured (Martinez et al., 2010). As a result, the food system became almost completely delocalized, until about 10 years ago, when the demand for re-localizing food began.

A study done by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture found that produce travels an average of 1,518 miles to reach the Chicago Terminal Market (Pirog, 2001). In Madison that average would probably be 50-100 miles higher. The following image compares this distances between food types.

However, this study is from 2001, and there are significant reasons to believe that the numbers would be lower today. First, there has been a 92% increase in the amount of farmers markets in the US from 1998 to 2009, bringing the number of farmers markets in the US to 5,274. In August 2011, the USDA reported that there were 7,175 farmers markets, a 26% increase from 2009 (Jones-Ellard, 2011). Also in 2001 there were 761 CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the US, compared to an estimated number of 2,500 in 2010 (Martinez et al., 2010).

To understand why this shift in our food system is relevant, it is important to understand the benefits of local food. These benefits include economic, environmental, and community aspects of the food system.

It has been argued that the carbon dioxide emissions produced in transportation of food are irrelevant, because there are other aspects of the food system that have greater energy consumption. However, for a sustainable food system all aspects need to be taken into account. It is important though that “local” is not confused with “sustainable.” Local food is by no means organic or sustainable, but it is a step in the right direction. Local food is more likely to come from a farm with sustainable practices than conventional food, but there is no guarantee of that. Still, it has been estimated that a local food system emits on average 17% less carbon dioxide than the conventional system (Why Local, 2009).

Additionally, there are clear economic benefits to local food. In many cases, sales are directly from farmer to consumer, which eliminates the middle man. In a non-local food purchase it is estimated that 7% of the cost goes back to the farmer, as opposed to 90% with a local food purchase (Why Local, 2009). If the food system continues to shift towards local food, it would mean a loss in some jobs, such as truck drivers and jobs at large factory farms. This would not be a complete loss though – it would be a shift. New jobs would open up in the local economy.

Buying local food also strengthens communities. A relationship with farmers can be formed, which bridges the large disconnection as to where food comes from in this country. CSA’s provide a space for people to grow food together. Instead of relying on complex global economies and people all over the country and world to grow food, in local systems, people rely on and support their neighbors.

Although there has been huge growth in the direction of returning to local food systems in the last ten years, the mainstream dependence is on non-local foods, especially in northern areas such as Wisconsin where the climate does not allow for fresh produce to be grown all year round. A large part of the problem is that Americans, in all regions, are accustomed to eating fresh produce all year round, regardless of if the climate supports these plants. Grocery stores are nearly uniform throughout the country, a stunning phenomenon when the climatic differences between regions are compared. Supermarket shelves have become “permanent global summertimes” (Blythman, 2004). Because not only are Americans used to eating just fresh food year round, but also food that could never be naturally grown in the environment. For example, in Madison, produce like bananas, avocados, pineapple, and other tropical fruit are plants that do not and can not naturally grow here because they require year round warmth. Yet many of these tropical fruits, like bananas and oranges, are among the most commonly purchased fruits everywhere in the United States..

In order to truly create a local food system people will need to get used to eating produce that is actually available in the local market. Today, with local in mind, people go to the farmers market and buy what is locally in season, and then proceed to go to the store and buy fruits and vegetables that they are used to eating, even though it doesn’t make any geographic sense to be eating those items. Eating just local food does not mean giving up a healthy or diverse diet –there is a rich amount of products available here – but maybe it does mean not having fresh produce in the middle of winter. That is, at least until the development of sustainable and energy efficient greenhouses, which could allow some of this produce to become available locally. However, until then, in the upper Midwest, the depth of winter should mean root vegetables and canned and frozen options. Foods readily available and native to Wisconsin should make up the diets of the people living here, leaving tropical products as a delicacy, not a staple.

Sources

Blythman, Joanna. “Permanent Global Summertime.” Ecologist. 1 Sept. 2004. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://ecologist.testing.net-  genie.co.uk/investigations/food_and_farming/82832/permanent_global_summertime.html>.

Jones-Ellard, Sam. “More than 1,000 New Farmers Markets Recorded Across Country as USDA Directory Reveals 17 Percent Growth.” United States Department of Agriculture. 5 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ams.usda.gov/&gt;.

Martinez, Steve, Michael Hand, Michelle Da Pra, Susan Pollack, Katherine Ralston, Travis Smith, Stephen Vogel, Shellye Clark, Luanne Lohr, Sarah Low, and Constance Newman. “Local Food Systems.” United States Department of   Agriculture. Economic Research Service, May 2010. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR97/ERR97.pdf&gt;.

Pirog, Rich, et al. 2001. Food Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far Food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. <www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/food_mil.pdf>.

“Why Buy Local.” Sustainabletable. Jan. 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.             <http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/whybuylocal/&gt;.

Project Statement

My project is based on local food. I will be exploring what that term means, the benefits and implication of local food, and the possibility of eating locally in Madison. This will include researching the effects of eating food shipped around the world verses food grown in nearby, looking at common grocery store items and where they come from, and exploring the issues that come with our accustomedness to eating seasonal food all year round. I am also attempting a “local only” week, which will consist of first setting guidelines as to what local food is, and then attempting to eat exclusively local food for that week.
Eating locally is not only an environmental topic, but also economic, and it becomes a complicated, but necessary question of if its better to support the farmer a mile away, or fair trade products from across the globe. I will research and discuss the phenomenon of grocery stores in January in Florida looking nearly identical to ones in Wisconsin, when the climate is drastically different. Essentially, I want to answer the question, “Why, in Madison, do we eat fresh strawberries in January? “Moving further than this, I will explore what environmentally sound food system would look like, in terms of shipments and “food miles”.
I created this project because of my interest in local foods and curiosity as to if my assumptions about them where correct. I hope to be able to report my findings to spread awareness and insight as to where our food actually comes from and the effects of this. Food clearly plays an important role in everyday life, so it is necessary to look at the sustainability of our food systems, question their present state, and figure out what we can do to improve them.