Help to Eat Locally

Help to Eat Locally

 

Suppose one of your customers asks “where do you find such nice greens?” What will your answer will be? It is unclear how many would be able to answer the question, because most of us have slightest idea where our food comes from.

 

A growing number of people agree that this is a shame, because if we pay attention only to nutritional content and taste, we cannot create a truly sustainable diet. They say we should determine where foods are grown, because "local" is the new environmental imperative.

 

But as pleasing as this is to our palate and sense of aesthetics, the pleasure comes at a considerable cost. Thanks to reliable refrigeration, freezing, food preservation, storage and transportation, it is possible to purchase produce that is grown halfway around the world. In contemporary America, where the average bite of food travels 1,500 miles before it is consumed, eating locally is still a bit limited. However, the trend is becoming stronger, driven by health-conscious families, nutritionists, environmentalists and ranchers.

 

Community nutritionists have identified several reasons why the more sustainable approach is to buy locally; not only does the food taste better because it is fresher, but the purchases also support local farms. Buying locally helps to preserve genetic diversity — local farms tend to grow a variety of crops in order to provide a long harvest season — and it supports the preservation of farmland, keeping the local food supply secure. The crops themselves capture carbon emissions and help combat global warming, and they reduce reliance on the fossil fuels needed to transport food great distances.

 

Restaurateurs and chefs used to change their menus once a season and bought trucked-in, out-of-state foods from foodservice companies. Farmers sold their crops directly to customers at farm stands and at retail markets or in big lots to wholesalers. However, things have been changing in areas like Pennsylvania. There is now a bridge that can link chefs and local farmers. It is a farmer’s cooperative, Penn's Corner Farm Alliance.

 

There are about 50 restaurants and chefs in Western Pennsylvania buying fresh, local and seasonal products. Purchases can be as homespun as potatoes and onions or as upscale as micro greens and cheeses. These chefs are agents of change, because by working together with farmers, they allow their customers to experience local food in a way that they couldn't do in their own homes.

 

At Point Brugge Cafe in Point Breeze, chef Adam Manculich speaks for many of his colleagues.

 

"We stress freshness on our menu. When I buy produce from Penn's Corner, I call in my order, they pick it, and the next day it's delivered. Besides, buying local is the right thing to do."

 

Bill Fuller, corporate chef of big Burrito Group restaurants, which include Casbah, Soba, Umi, Eleven, Kaya and Mad Mex, was looking for a source of high-quality fresh produce, when Penn's Corner was a fledgling project. Taking the farmers in hand, he suggested crops to grow and offered business advice. He has been one of their biggest supporters. Although Mr. Fuller was the first chef to take the lead in building the farmers alliance, he notes that he has responsibilities other than supporting the local farmer.

 

"In the past eight or nine years, there's been a lot of talk about the farmer-to-chef movement,” says Fuller. “It's on everybody's agenda. There's this sunny, warm image of farmers with bushel baskets of produce and that's great. "But to be sustainable, the farmer-chef relationship depends on more than soft perceptions. It depends on quality, service, price, accessibility and dependability. Where it gets complicated is with the small farmers who are new at working with chefs. There are problems involved."

 

He said they occur on both sides of the aisle. Among the problems:

 

Farmers would rather take their produce to a one-stop, drop-off wholesaler than make multiple drops at kitchen doors, as restaurant kitchens can demand.

 

Farmers don't have the amount of food restaurants need in a season.

 

Local products can be expensive. Local garlic might go for 50 cents a head, but Mr. Fuller said he can buy 30 pounds of Chinese garlic for $15.

 

Chefs can be too busy to follow through on orders. Farmers have to be prepared for unreturned phone calls and the occasional temper tantrum from a chef when the order isn't as expected.

 

Restaurants must keep their bottom line in mind. "If a farmer calls with one load of ripe zucchini, it's not worth my time to buy it. But if a farmer calls me two months out and says, 'I'll have 'X' amount of zucchini for 'X' amount of time, and is there any way we can do business?' -- well, now you're talking."

 

Source:http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/167/8/895, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06183/702183-34.stm

 

10 Reasons to Eat Local Food

 

1) Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

 

2) Locally grown produce is fresher. While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer's market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time.

 

3) Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? Enough said.

 

4) Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be "rugged" or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

 

5) Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the distance that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

 

6) Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.

 

7) Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal.

 

8) Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.

 

 9) Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling "name brand" fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.

 

10) Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

 

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