Local Food as a Community Investment
AUTHOR: Leslie Wander
Spending your food dollars to improve our community
Did you know that your food purchases can be an investment in your community? This idea is relatively new for me, but as it sinks in, I’m finding it is redirecting my lifelong food purchasing habits in a major way.
Common food purchasing habits
Like many consumers, my food dollars were focused on the best combination of convenience, cost, and quality. The priority of these three items varied depending on concerns of the moment. The safety and good nutrient content of food were assumed. Considerations of humane animal treatment, impact of farming practices on food safety and the environment, and fair treatment for workers were seldom on the radar screen.
Convenience often dominated, as I had limited time. This caused me to shop at stores nearest my home, or those that carried the largest proportion of my food and other needs. These stores were almost always big chains, and the foods I chose were often from major food manufacturers. Many of the foods were pre-prepared, which pushed the control of ingredient quality back to the manufacturer.
Cost dominated in other instances; a lifelong habit of frugality driven by many years of need to stretch my dollars to cover my commitments.
On the occasions where quality was the main driver, my purchasing habits changed significantly. I tended to cook from scratch on those occasions. The taste and texture qualities of the foods became the focus, rather than cost. This led me to purchase from “fancy” sections in my grocery, small butchers, farmer’s markets, or specialty stores. My cost and convenience concerns were set aside for these occasions.
A shift in focus on food expenditures
My move from the Twin Cities metro area to Faribault triggered a major shift in my food focus. During a blustery autumn visit to the farmer’s market, I met a gracious vendor who began my introduction to the idea that my food purchases could have a profound impact on my newly adopted community. To best understand how food purchases can impact your community, it is useful to translate “community” to the concept of a “foodshed”, which is often described as a limited geographic area, with a radius of roughly 100 miles, that encompasses the lands and waterways within it. The foodshed that includes Faribault is the Cannon Valley Region, a seven-county area in southeast Minnesota.
Benefits of local food purchases
According to the USDA, farmers and ranchers receive on average less than 15% of consumer food dollars. In 2019, the average US Household spent $4600 for foods to be consumed at home. That means that $690 went to the producers of the food, and the rest went to transportation, manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, wholesalers, retailers, etc. Buying local, and directly from the farmer where possible, keeps a much greater portion of these food dollars in the community.
These local food dollars multiply locally because the farmer is likely to make local purchases of seed/ feed, equipment, labor, and many other inputs which keep money recycling in the community, multiplying the impact of your local food purchases. And if you purchase locally produced food, you are likely to purchase less non locally produced food, reducing the “export” of your food dollars out of the local community.
When you purchase foods locally, the food variety can be chosen for taste, nutrition, and can be harvested at peak quality, rather than focusing on robustness to aging and damage during distribution. Also, because the distances are smaller, and the number of intermediate steps is fewer (transfers to manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer), the food is consumed much sooner after harvest. Reduced travel, reduced age, and variety choices all contribute significantly better taste and nutrition.
Specific benefits of Cannon Valley Grown products and providers
The fact that food is locally grown or produced does not guarantee the attributes described below. To assure the presence of these attributes, you need to learn the specific practices of each farm, or in other words, “read the fine print”. Cannon Valley Grown participants are working together to bring you the benefits of their brand…all the participants have pledged to deliver the attributes described below. That saves you a great deal time when you are trying to learn exactly what is being offered. Cannon Valley Grown products:
- Use sustainable farming practices and minimize environmental harm to the land and watershed,
- Have the majority of the product is sourced from within the Cannon Valley Foodshed,
- Assure humane treatment of animals,
- Balance profits with fair wages and a safe and healthy workplace,
- Assure open and transparent marketing,
- Strengthen the Cannon Valley Foodshed through sharing and collaboration.
Other Specific Attributes
For other attributes, like organic, grass-fed, or others, you will have to investigate the food or the producer. Local foods are not necessarily organic. Being produced locally doesn’t guarantee specific practices. If something is important to you, you can discuss it directly with the farmer. The Cannon Valley Grown commitment to open and transparent marketing provides assurance that you’ll get clear, truthful answers, not the marketing “double-speak” from large companies, which is so often meant to mislead and misdirect.
How to start shifting to local foods:
It’s not hard to buy local, but you do adapt your purchasing habits. I started by going to our local farmer’s market, which requires its vendors to being within 15 miles of the market. (Please note, the rules for all markets can vary.) It was fun, and I met nice people who were passionate about their products and the community they lived in. I purchased the foods and produce that appealed to me. Then, I went to my traditional grocery to fill out my weekly purchases.
I tried more expensive purchases in small amounts first….like a small amount of beef or pork from specific vendors. Then, as I found farmer’s products I liked, I was comfortable committing to larger purchases. Once I made the larger commitments, I no longer purchased those items from my regular grocery.
It took me a whole season to commit to a CSA vegetable share. That was a wonderful adventure of fresh produce, varying naturally with the season. And again, after I brought that product home, I filled out my needs (now much smaller) from the traditional grocery store.
I’m retired, so I had time to explore shifting to local purchases. Initially, I thought it might be hard for someone with less time to make the shift. But I’ve learned buying local doesn’t necessarily take more time……you just use your time differently. The average consumer makes 83 grocery visits each year. Over the three-year period that I have been slowly shifting from processed to local food, I have gradually evolved to spending about 25-30 of those visits on local food shopping events, and the balance on traditional grocery visits to fill out my needs. I now make major meat purchases by phone with farmers and butchers I trust, with one pick up of a substantial quantity of meat; terrific quality, humanely produced, processed to best suit my needs. While I count the farm visits as “grocery shopping trips”, they have also become a wonderful source of fun and companionship.
During the winter, I review my local purchases from the prior year. I’ll definitely continue my CSA share next year. I’m delighted with my local egg source. I’m ordering another half hog. I’d like to add chicken, fruits, and possibly lamb to my purchases, so I’ll use the Cannon Valley Grown website to identify local sources for purchase. Now that I better understand the benefits of knowing the farmers that produce my food, I hope to visit the farms as I choose my next sources.
Best of all, I know my food dollars are increasingly being spent in my community, strengthening it, making it more vibrant. And I’m making some marvelous friends along the way.
