Cannon Valley Grown Produce Q&A
AUTHOR: Leslie Wander
Answering questions about foods from Cannon Valley Grown (CVG) produce providers
Many questions arise about the foods available from CVG producers. Since the answers vary somewhat depending on the type of food, this article will focus on produce products (fruits, vegetables, grains). A separate article will consider animal products. For produce products, the local component provides many of the benefits, and the Cannon Valley Grown commitment provides additional important benefits for the consumer.
Why is local better for you and your taste buds?
The main benefits of local foods accrue from at least four main differences: Distance, time, variety options, on-farm handling.
Local foods, by definition, travel less than 100 miles from farm to fork. This contrasts to the 1500 miles your food products travel on average from farm to fork. If that distance seems unbelievable, consider the asparagus from Chile, the produce from California or Mexico, and the multiple trips some products make from farm to ingredient processor to food manufacturer to wholesale warehouse to retail warehouse to retail store and finally to your home.
Most of the time, produce sold through regular retail channels travels miles (with all the attendant energy, infrastructure, and climate costs), requires significant packaging or methods to protect the products, and most importantly, requires time to make the trip. Even with modern fast shipping methods, the addition of 2-3 days of age can make an enormous difference in the quality of produce. Products begin to undergo important changes from the moment of harvest, and generally, these changes include loss of nutrient value, loss of flavor, and changes in texture and appearance quality. Alternatively, producers have learned which varieties are most tolerant to handling, how to harvest produce before peak ripeness, transport this more robust product while it is ripening, and sell it when it looks good. Sadly, the most robust varieties seem to have become completely devoid of flavor. We buy with our eyes and fingers. But we get to taste the produce only after we own it. Tomatoes come to mind. I just purchased a beautiful, firm, red ripe tomato from my local Italian market. I cut it into my salad, and discovered it tasted like beautiful, red Styrofoam. What a disappointment!
Local food, by definition, reduces the distances traveled, and the time required to navigate those distances. Local foods can be picked within hours of sale, transported with minimal protection because it doesn’t have to travel far and survive many points of handling. Local producers can choose the best varieties for growing conditions on their farm and that provide the best taste and nutritional quality to their consumers. The products are harvested at the peak of perfection, frequently by hand, because local farms are often too small to afford the highly mechanized harvest operations. The products are whisked from the field to the point of sale, which in some cases may be on the farm itself. Tomatoes handled this way taste like tomatoes. The nutrients have not been lost to post-harvest changes. The varieties grown can include flavor, texture, and appearance, while also providing the other characteristics farmers need to like pest and disease resistance, and the proper growing season, among others. Variety options also provide another important benefit: we are not concentrating all of our bets on some “optimized” variety which can be harmed by specific threats. Although we don’t grow bananas in the Cannon Valley foodshed, they provide a good case in point. Almost all commercial bananas are from one variety, and a pest threatens that has the potential to wipe that variety out. Our local farmers can help to preserve genetic diversity for the crops they grow, preserving our food options for the future.
Here in Minnesota, local food also generally means seasonal food. Minnesota’s seasons bring natural limitations to produce availability. As a consumer, you have multiple options to deal with this. You can joyously overconsume the product when it is freshly harvested, treasuring the food at its peak quality. You can buy extra and use various methods to preserve the products for use in the “off season”. Product picked at peak quality, carefully handled, properly preserved by appropriate storage methods, canning, freezing, or drying retains most of its peak characteristics. In addition, because products are harvested in their peak season, they also tend to be more economical in that timeframe.
If you choose to eat “seasonally”, you shift your menu items to take advantage of items that are currently available. And in the dead of winter, your recipes shift to reflect the produce you have put aside. Numerous cookbooks are available to help you learn to preserve and utilize preserved produce in very tasty dishes. Since the 1980s, many produce items have become available year-round, so we lost the need to adjust our menus with the seasons. Rediscovering seasonally eating can be a real treat and can make a significant difference to your pocketbook as well.
During the Pandemic, we’ve experienced significant disruptions in our food chains. Local food tends to be one way to make the food chain more robust to unexpected disturbances. When the nation’s supply of product is concentrated in narrow locations, we often end up with lower costs, but we are also at risk to interruptions in supply from worker concerns (as with COVID 19), product pest and disease issues, contamination (as in large E. coli contaminations and others), and bad weather. With production dispersed over many local farms, these issues generally affect a smaller portion of the total production.
Who grows the food and under what conditions? For product at major grocery chains, this question may not be easily answered. You need to trust the manufacturers and retailers are diligent about providing safe, sanitary, healthy food. Much of our Food Labeling and Good Manufacturing Laws are necessary because the consumer cannot easily ascertain how the food was grown, harvested, stored, and processed.
For Local Food, you can talk with the farmer if you wish, so the “implied contract for quality” is made directly with the farmer. The farmer commits to you how they are growing the food, and you accept your responsibility for the proper cleaning, storing, and preparation of the food.
The benefits of Cannon Valley Grown. Cannon Valley Grown products offer significant additional advantages beyond local produce products, in that you can be assured that the producers have committed to adhere to several important practices:
The Cannon Valley Grown commitment: CVG produce products
- Have the majority of the product is sourced from within the Cannon Valley Foodshed,
- Use sustainable farming practices and minimize environmental harm to the land and watershed,
- 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.
You can also discuss with the farmer if organic practices are followed, if the product is certified organic, etc. if these practices are of interest to you.
Shopping for Cannon Valley Grown foods can enhance the taste and nutrition while enhancing your community and the surrounding lands. As Paul Wellstone said, “We all do well when we all do well.”
