Star Tribune

OPEX

November 21, 2004

Food can better link us with farms, farmers

By Brian DeVore

The day before Thanksgiving, my kids and I will drive a half-hour from the Twin Cities to a family farm to pick up our turkey. The freshly slaughtered bird will be handed to me by the people who raised it.

It is a colorful "heritage breed" that's not far removed from its wild genetic roots. This type of turkey is known for its flavorful meat and ability to thrive outside, where it was raised. It's a turkey, but other than that it doesn't much resemble the double-breasted products of confinement animal science that dominate most Thanksgiving tables.

My children, 5 and 8, have been to this farm many times, and know a lot about it. They know it also produces and processes the milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream we consume. They know the cows and know the farmers -- Dave and Florence -- who work so hard to produce this food.

What my children don't know is that this turkey was raised the way it is because it fits in with the farm's carefully managed grass-based system, which helps this operation protect the environment while staying profitable.

My kids don't need to be aware of that intricate agroecological/economic relationship to enjoy the fact that they are visiting the place where their food comes from. This isn't just something we do around the holidays -- 52 weeks a year our family tries to obtain food in a way that makes us aware of how and where it was produced, and by whom.

Each winter we buy a share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm that's located in a beautiful Wisconsin valley dotted with springs. In return, we get a weekly delivery of vegetables during the growing season. Our beef, which we just picked up from a small-town locker, was raised on a hilly southeast Minnesota farm that's made an art out of soil conservation. Our pork comes from a hog whose lineage I can trace back to the western Minnesota sow that farrowed it.

On a good night, food travels no more than 150 miles to get to our south Minneapolis supper table. Of course, on a Thursday between the end of the workday and the beginning of soccer practice, who knows where that macaroni and cheese came from?

But some evenings it's astounding how much of our food's human, geographical and ecological history we are aware of. We can't produce coffee or bananas in the Midwest, but this region has some of the best meat, dairy and vegetable farmers in the world.

It's ironic that our most heavily cultivated regions often produce little food for local consumption. Our globalized transportation and distribution infrastructure means we are eating California tomatoes in August, Washington apples in October, and Colorado beef year-round.

On average, food travels at least 1,500 miles to get to Midwestern tables, according to Iowa State University. It's easier to get cheese from New York than from New Prague.

So what? In the end our stomachs are just as full, right? But all this culinary globe-trotting comes at a cost. Getting most of our food from afar means people have little incentive to see family farms survive in the Midwest.

You can talk about the big picture "economic engine" of agriculture until your face is the color of cranberries, but the average citizen needs to benefit personally before seeing the advantage of having our soil produce crops and livestock instead of subdivisions. Thriving family-sized farms have innumerable environmental, economic and social benefits. It's even a homeland security issue -- by 2007, the United States will be shipping in more food than it exports, says Purdue University.

It doesn't have to be this way. I work for the nonprofit Land Stewardship Project and many of our members are farmers, so I probably know more than most about where to get local food. But giving the average consumer's pantry a local pedigree isn't as difficult as it once was.

The Stewardship

Food Network and the Twin Cities CSA Directory (www.landstewardshipproject.org/foodfarm-main.html) are good places to start. "Green" labels can serve as surrogates for the personal relationship consumers would like to have with a farm. Here in Minnesota, the Food Alliance Midwest (www.foodalliance.org/producers/fa_midwest/midwest.html) label certifies that certain stewardship practices are used, and that the food is from the region. The Minnesota Grown Directory (www.mda.state.mn.us/mngrown/) is a treasure trove of local foods.

Even with these resources, localizing our kitchen takes the kind of planning one doesn't need when picking up groceries at Cub. And yes, it can cost more -- our household food bill is perhaps 25 percent larger than normal. For us, the extra trouble and cost are worth it compared with the price we pay for being ignorant about our food's background. And did I mention local food almost always tastes better?

Thanksgiving is about counting our blessings. One blessing is being able to sit around the table with family and update the stories that make our lives and region so rich. In our home, the story behind our food -- raised here, on our soil, by our farmers -- is part of that tradition.

Brian DeVore is editor of the Land Stewardship Letter, and was a contributing writer for "The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems With Ecosystems."

© Copyright 2004 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

www.startribune.com

top