We Are What We Eat

The Union of Concerned Scientists tells us there are three really important things that we consumers can do to reduce our negative impact on the environment: 1) reduce our energy use in the car and home, and 2) choose sustainable food choices. It shouldn't surprise anyone that both of these arguments boil down to reducing the use of fossil fuels, but I think it does. Everyone knows that we use non-renewable energy for transportation and for heating and cooling our homes, but fewer people understand the relationship between food and oil.


In the aptly labeled "industrial food system" we obviously use polluting non-renewable energy to run the vehicles that transport the food from far away, but the fertilizer and pesticides we use are also both largely made from petroleum and requires a great deal of energy to produce, not to mention the packaging. So, for every calorie of food that is produced in this system we have burned an awful lot of oil. Producing and transporting meat is even worse, especially when you consider the tremendous amount of plant food it takes to raise meat producing animals. In The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, the UCC concludes that two of the most beneficial changes in food consumption are to eat less meat and eat more organic foods.

I won't argue with that advice except to say that I would suggest emphasizing local food more than organic food. Author Michael Pollan determines in The Omnivore's Dilemma that buying organic food produced far away provides far less benefit than does buying conventional food grown locally. The main problem is that the industrial farm system has co-opted "organic" and seriously diluted the relative benefits it provides.

In contrast, conventional food grown on relatively small, local farms generally use significantly less fertilizers and pesticides than factory farms and the transportation factor is obviously greatly diminished.
As you consider what you might do to strive for a sustainable Frederick, consider buying food from people who love where you live as much as you do -- local farmers.

The Big Squeeze. Where do we go from here?

Part of success -- with sustainability like everything else -- is staying engaged even when there seems to be no answer. When things get really hard, its easy to let your mind step back from the problem and kind of give up. It's very frustrating to have no answer while the problem stares you in the face. It feels like something has to give -- its just not going to be the unsolved problem.

It's times like these that people disengage -- and it's times like these we can't disengage, or we lose. This is the lesson we learn when we see real life heroes doing the mundane heroic work of raising their children, of getting the job done, of continuing the conversation even when every cell in the body wants to scream, holler and leave.

Here are two sides of one of those frustrating impasses: farms and farming vs. the growth and development of Frederick County.



This article by Ike Wilson in the Frederick News Post captures some of the issues that might be best summed up by the opening line, "A merger of city dwellers with rural living continues to impose problems for agriculture..."

Development has put the squeeze on our farmland, and Wilson touches on several of the conflict points. I suggest you read it and understand that this conflict won't go away until it's solved. Sit with the tension.

Here are a few points I don't think get made well enough in our stilted public dialogue:

--- Our population is growing and everytime we put in a new toilet or sink we are adding burden to our over-burdened wastewater system, which in turn burdens the Chesapake Bay with death. Maryland and the U.S. EPA are very industrious when it comes to regulating farms, but they are not so industrious when it comes to asking all those builders and flushers to carry their fair burden.

-- Economies of scale are forcing farmers to expand into what are known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation -- CAFOs. With regard to pollution, CAFOs are like farms on steroids. But to a farmer trying to run a business, scaling up is one of few options.

-- Many people from urban backgrounds want to live in the country and many from rural areas want to live nearer to work. This should be a strength for Frederick County! People want to live here and whether they know it or not they want to preserve the natural and agricultural aesthetic of our land. (Slipping into a mini-rant: I just wish these suburbanites who fancy themselves nature lovers would preserve our natural aesthetic, instead of living in ugly developments that seem to sprout like cancerous weeds on our hills and dales. I also want them to understand that living in the semi-rural comes with the earthy reality of living next to farms. Oh, and one more thing -- what are these folks going to do when their ugly development is surrounded by 50 other ugly developments? Move to Pennsylvania or West Virgina and muck them up, I guess.)

We need farms. We need land on which people can live. Neither of these facts are going to change. Stay engaged. Don't give up.

Yay Frederick Community Garden!

The Frederick Community Garden has a website. Community gardens rock!

It’s Spring!

The crocuses and the forsythia have given notice, and the trees are starting to get that red hazy look as the buds start to bud. Our brown and gray winter is coloring up with pinks and yellows and little nubs of new green.

When you walk outside, do you notice that feeling in the air? To me it seems that there is something building, something about to burst out into the world. Its kind of what I feel when I look at a pregnant belly – by God that thing is coming out soon! Every bud is like the baby that waits to burst forth; fresh and sweet and chubby and full of life.

Birth, birth and re-birth! Life! Life! Life!

Let’s get in on the action! Let’s re-birth this baby and get starting growing the world the way we want it to be – the way we want it to be for our baby’s babies.

Since it’s Spring and we live in an agricultural paradise, let’s start with food. Let’s be part of all that bursting forth; let’s help our local farmer’s to plant those seeds, grow those plants, harvest those babies and eat them right up!

I have a proposition for us – when the Frederick County farmer’s markets open up this year, let’s spend just a little of our money every week on food grown in Frederick County. Let’s spend $20 every week to invest in the future of our county and our world – it’s a better investment than anything you’ll see on Wall Street!

Something bursts forth to fill the gap

Agriculture in Frederick, and specifically local produce, is an interesting case study in possibility.

There is plenty of viable agricultural land in the county, some being used and much not. The economics of farming are such that for most farms the best bet is on large fields of commodities like soybeans, corn and hay. Some farms maintain success as vegetable producers, but its rare and requires specialized marketing like farmer's markets, this local organic(!) farm and this local orchard that are getting it done. The bottom line is that produce farms in this area depend on local markets, and to some extent tourist purchases.

The good news is that by all accounts, the Frederick market has demand for just this kind of local produce. Consumers want the produce, and many have proven they will pay a little extra for local produce. Of course, American consumers want something most of all and that's convenience, which leads us to the bad news.

The bad news is that since not enough people are buying local produce through existing sales channels, farmers aren't provided incentive to bet on growing more produce. Since not enough farmers grow produce for local markets, there are only a few retail options and there are no guarantees that what you want is what they got.

See how that gets in the way of the convenience thing?

For what it's worth, the farmer's markets and various local agriculture promotions do a great job. So far they haven't been of sufficient scale to kick start a market.

But, do you see how the elements for a new system are mostly in place, and that what may come is some innovation that gets us over the humps? The possibility is there for consumers to buy up enough local produce to persuade more farmers to enter the market and more fresh options will become available through more outlets. A few new jobs get created here and there.

Ultimately more of the money we pay for food stays here and gets spent here. Again and again.


Questions:

What will the businesses that distribute local produce look like? Will it be an against all odds year round mega farmer's market, or the existing markets beefed up, or some kind of network of CSAs? Will some entrepreneur figure out a new way to get it done or will some big chain find a way to get it started?