The significance of buying local food benefits go to economy and tastebuds

[Guest guest]

Karen Kleiss

The Edmonton Journal

 

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

 

 

EDMONTON - Every Saturday morning Lori Verquin loads her 1996 green

Dodge minivan with homegrown tomatoes and drives an hour from her farm

to the Strathcona farmers market.

 

She makes the trip to make ends meet and because she loves to see her

loyal customers go home with the tomatoes they love.

 

" Some even tell me they don't buy tomatoes through the winter until I

come back to the market, " the 60-year-old farmer says.

 

" They say mine are the best tomatoes they've ever tasted. "

 

Without question, taste is the main reason Edmontonians buy her

locally grown tomatoes. In a recent survey, Albertans said the quality

of the produce is the number one reason they shop at farmers markets.

 

But there is more to be said for eating food grown close to home:

advocates say it strengthens the local economy, sustains small farmers

and even heals the environment.

 

On a good day at the market Verquin brings in over $1,000, which she

in turn spends at the grocer in her home village of Sangudo (pop.398),

at the farmers market and in nearby Mayerthorpe or Barrhead.

 

According to a 2001 survey by the New Economics Foundation, a food

dollar spent locally generates nearly twice as much income for the

local economy as does a dollar spent at a multinational grocer. In

other words, spending $5.50 to buy a kilogram of tomatoes at Verquin's

stand on Saturday morning will benefit the wider community far more

than spending $6.37 for a kilogram of tomatoes at the local chain

supermarket.

 

Jim O'Neill is the manager of the Strathcona Farmer's Market and

former president of the Farmer's Market Association in Alberta. He

says supporting local farmers ranks third among the reasons people

give for buying their tomatoes at a farmers market.

 

" Obviously it gives the consumer the opportunity to actually talk to

the grower, " he says. " And a farmers market can make all the

difference for the small family farm.

 

" It is a hard go in Alberta at times, and this gives the grower the

opportunity to make a reasonable income. "

 

Farmers markets across Alberta are what experts call an " alternative

agricultural market " -- a title they share with regional cuisine,

roadside stands and U-picks. According to a 2004 Alberta Agriculture

study, these alternative markets are set for explosive growth.

 

Albertans spent an estimated $638 million on locally grown food last

year, a figure that Alberta Agriculture expects will grow to $963

million by 2010.

 

" The time is ripe; consumers are showing a lot of interest in buying

local, " Farm Direct Marketing Specialist Marian Williams says. Her

work at Alberta Agriculture connects farmers with the information and

education they need to increase their profitability in marketing their

produce directly to consumers.

 

" We really expect that the local food movement is going to grow, " she

says.

 

" That means farmers could have a future on the farm, because it means

that they can have a successful business. "

 

But growing and selling food locally isn't just good for the community

and the farmer. Experts say it is good for the environment.

 

The alternative to Verquin's locally grown tomatoes can come from vast

conventional farms as far away as Boca Raton, Fla. -- a 4,800

kilometre, two-day transcontinental drive. Thanks to refrigerated

trucks, low gas prices, taxpayer-built highway systems and new

long-term storage techniques, most produce today travels between 2,500

and 4,000 kilometres before it reaches your plate.

 

To make the long haul, the tomatoes are typically plucked when they

are still hard and green, which helps prevent bruising. But then they

need to be bathed in ethylene gas to help them turn red before they

hit grocery store shelves. They look ripe, but aren't really, which

could be why people start calling Verquin in February to find out when

she is coming back to the market -- she doesn't need to use ethylene

gas.

 

" Once the tomatoes start ripening we start picking them and bringing

them to market, " she says.

 

" We only pick them when they're red, and the odd one we pick a little

bit on the orange side because some people like them that way. "

 

Big farmers and grocery stores pick green, ship and gas the tomatoes

because Canada is part of a profitable, multi billion-dollar food

distribution network that circles the globe. Alberta exports $12

million worth of fruits and vegetables annually, mostly to the U.S.

The export industry is crucial to the welfare of Alberta farmers.

 

But critics like Jules Pretty, a professor of environment and society

at the University of Essex, say large-scale conventional farming --

and the food distribution system that underpins it -- degrades the

environment, fuels climate change and damages infrastructure that

citizens pay to fix.

 

In a study published in the March 2005 edition of the Food Policy

journal, Pretty and his colleagues tallied the total costs of

industrial food distribution systems. They found the environmental

impact of importing coffee beans from South America was almost

irrelevant when compared to the cost of trucking conventional produce

across the country.

 

If Britons ate only food grown within 20 kilometres of their homes,

Pretty and his team estimated the country could save more than 2.3

billion pounds annually ($5.3 billion CAD) -- the cost of transporting

conventional produce, maintaining U.K. roads, and cleaning the air.

 

" We need to localise food systems within countries as much as we

possibly can, " Pretty says.

 

" You eat food and you buy a farm at the other end of the food system;

those choices matter hugely. "

 

" The most political decision we make on a daily basis is what we eat. "

 

kkleiss

© The Edmonton Journal 2005