Local Foods from Family Farms

According to the website www.foodroutes.org, there are a great many reasons for each of us to support our local food producers. By itself, the reduction in fossil fuel usage when products are produced and consumed locally makes for a pretty compelling argument (approximately 10% of food's fossil fuel usage is in production--the remaining 90% of fuel is consumed in packaging, transporting and marketing food products). Then there is also the issue of food safety--an issue I plan to take up in a future post. Keeping it simple, imagine how much easier it is to make choices about food, with your own health and safety in mind, when you know where it's grown, who grows it and the methods they employ. The transparency is simply much greater when your food comes from nearby.

But neither of these tremendous benefits are at the heart of what I want to write about today. Instead, I'd like to focus on what many call the "endangered" family farm. Why are they better, and, perhaps more importantly, why are they endangered? In this blogger's informed view, independent, family-owned farms localize wealth to a greater extent than large, corporate-owned operations. Not only do local family farmers spend more of their money locally, they also have more of it to spend, because when we deal directly with farmers, we eliminate the middle man and farmers make a better profit. What's more, family farms are responsive to local needs and demands. They promote local control of food systems and promote healthful eating in ways that distant, large-scale industrial farms simply cannot. These are just a few of the reasons why, I would argue, independently operated family farms are better than the alternative. They are, unfortunately, endangered. Why? Because not enough of us support them.

Due to huge subsidies on a few commodities (corn, soybean, wheat, etc.), and through the "efficiencies" of industrial agri-business, price has become the leading consideration for most of us when we buy our food. As I mentioned in an earlier post, however, the price of a particular product seldom reflects its cost. And although there are a lot of costs that our current industrial system of agriculture passes on to the rest of us, perhaps the biggest is the loss of family farms.

According to the USDA, since 1935 the U.S. has lost approximately 4.7 million family farms. It is estimated that there are fewer than 1 million remaining family farms in the U.S. Since we certainly haven't scaled back our eating in the last 72 years (and our population has grown significantly), it's a safe assumption that our diets have become increasingly supplemented by food produced overseas and by domestic industrial agriculture. Independent family-owned farms cannot hope to "compete" for your food dollar when corporate-run farms receive the added benefits of federal subsidies, widespread distribution and marketing, and the economies of scale that hundred-acre mono-cropping makes possible. Food Routes Network also reports that, in 2002, family farmers received the lowest real cash income for their labor since 1940. That means that, given the current heavily-subsidized, price-driven system, family farmers' own access to the things they need to survive is being dismantled. While they're at work feeding others, they are struggling to feed themselves. Is this how we want to treat those who make it possible for us to live, and to live well? Perhaps more to the point, can we afford to lose the remaining million of these family farms? Do you think that corporations care whether the food they sell you is actually good for you? Do you think they're concerned with your long-term health? Most independent, family-owned farms should and do care. Without your patronage they have no livelihood. It's in their long-term interest to do right by you. I'm merely suggesting that it's in our long-term interest to do right by them, too.

If you are interested in learning more about local food systems in your area, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:

www.foodroutes.org

The Food Routes Network is a national non-profit whose sole interest it is to promote and support the efforts and development of local food systems. They achieve their mission by helping to connect you with food produced in your area.

If you need a more comprehensive list of reasons why you should consider supporting family farms, you can access Food Routes Network's page on the subject at:

www.foodroutes.org/whycare3.jsp

Lastly, if you're inclined to learn more about the issues facing family farmers today, visit the National Family Farm Coalition site at:

http://www.nffc.net/