From Farm to Fork...

Kerre Clark:  From Farm to Fork...



In an article printed in the High Plains Journal titled “Local schmocal”, the writer Trent Loos describes his views and findings on the cost of buying local food.
In the very first paragraph of the article, he says, “For the past year even some in the agricultural community have been critical of my hard stance against local food that is marketed for the wrong reasons. While I fully endorse a person seeking local consumption first if you are doing it for economic reasons, the food nazis have hijacked the term to control peoples’ lives. I have a major problem with that.”
I agree with Mr. Loos view here. It is hard to support buying local food when it is being promoted for the wrong reasons. As consumers we need to look into things and be able to find the truth for ourselves.
Loos also quoted some findings by Jude Capper, Ph.D., from Washington State University. Dr. Capper found that the most efficient place to buy food, eggs for her example, is in the grocery store. She found that a semi trailer can carry 23,400 dozen eggs from farm to store. It requires 4.5 times more fuel to buy eggs at the farmers market and 17.2 times more at the local farm than when buying them in the store.
These simple facts that have been used are eye opening and show how the cost to produce and buy locally is often more expensive. I have experienced this personally every time that I buy milk. A month or so ago my husband and I started buying our milk from a local Dairy Farm that bottles their own milk. The bottles are all a half gallon and come in variety of flavors. The milk itself is better tasting, but the price is a little more than what I would be paying at the grocery store. However, this is a decision we all have to make when we decide to buy local products. We choose to spend more of our dollars, but at the same time we are keeping it local and as Mr. Loos mentioned in his article as well, helping boost the local economy. On the other hand, buying local ends up being less efficient when it comes to energy, according to some of the findings by Dr. Capper. Despite these facts, I am going to continue buying my milk from my local family dairy. But what about all the rest of my food? I find it easier and more convenient to buy it at the grocery store. Again this is a personal choice that each consumer must make for themselves.
Also mentioned in the article “Local schmocal”, is an excerpt from “Math Lessons for Locavores”, by Enter Budiansky, which was featured in the New York Times.
"It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound of freight 3,000 miles by rail; that works out to about 100 calories of energy. If it goes by truck, it's about 300 calories, still a negligible amount in the overall picture. Overall, transportation accounts for about 14 percent of the total energy consumed by the American food system.
Agriculture, on the other hand, accounts for just 2 percent of our nation's energy usage; that energy is mainly devoted to running farm machinery and manufacturing fertilizer. In return for that quite modest energy investment, we have fed hundreds of millions of people, liberated tens of millions from backbreaking manual labor and spared hundreds of millions of acres for nature preserves, forests and parks that otherwise would have come under the plow.
The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far."
In response to this excerpt, Loos explains how he has been trying to inform readers that the term “local food” has become a ‘political football for the celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental groups who want to control our food purchases.’

We, the consumer the people for that matter have the choice to purchase food where ever we so choose. People today are looking for the most affordable, nutritious and safest food, which can come from the grocery store, the local farmers market or even from our own backyards. We each have a choice on how our food gets to our fork.
Sources for information referenced:
http://www.facesofag.com/

Loos, Trent. "Local Schmocal." High Plains Journal (2010): 2-B. Print.
High Plains Journal website:
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2010/aug10/aug30/0824LoosTalesMRsr.cfm