The Cost of Convenience

Industrialization and globalization have presented us with just as many challenges as they have benefits, and these past few years have brought many of those challenges into stark focus. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed deeply entrenched systemic inequality, the failures of our healthcare system, the rapid escalation of the climate crisis, and the weaknesses in our food system.

It is abundantly clear that we can’t keep doing things the way we are now. However, many of us as individuals feel helpless to enact meaningful change.

While we should absolutely continue to push politicians and the super-wealthy to make better decisions for all of us, we can also contribute where we can to building a better food system and a better world. We can do this by purchasing our food from local sources whenever possible. Find weekly farmers markets or farms with stores in your area, and get to know the people who produce our food. It will benefit you, your community, and our world.

Sustaining those who sustain us

Many of us living in urban or suburban areas don’t stop to consider farms much anymore unless we’re planning a fun excursion filled with quaint, old-timey activities. However, we still rely on farms to feed us, just like our ancestors have for countless generations.

Some might say there has been a conscious effort on the part of the food industry to disconnect us from the source of our food, and with devastating impact. Almost 90% of American farms are small, family-owned businesses, yet more than half of the food we eat comes from 5% of the country’s large industrial farms. ?

Just 50 years ago, 40 cents of every dollar spent on food went back into a farmer’s pocket [2]. Today, that number is closer to 16 cents on the dollar.

Here’s what happens when you give your money directly to the people producing your food rather than a big company. First, that farmer is also a member of your community, which means they will likely spend that money at another local business and breathe life into your local economy. Second, you create new jobs. If demand for their product grows, farmers will need to increase their supply. This usually means hiring more workers to plant, harvest, and sell their food. Again, that money continues circulating through the community and improving your local economy.

Most small farmers sell their goods in their surrounding areas rather than across state or national lines. They then have to pay a tax on everything they sell. The more you buy from local farmers, the more taxes go to your local community to improve infrastructure, education, and other local programs.

Feeding the future of our planet

The human population is growing exponentially. It took 123 years to go from 1 billion people to 2 billion people. It has taken less than 100 to go from 2 billion to 8 billion. Keeping up with the global demand for food has put an immense strain on our environment. Acres of trees have been cut down to make way for farmlands. Agriculture also uses a huge quantity of water. In 2015, researchers found it took nearly 118,000 million gallons of water each day to irrigate America’s farmlands. More than half of that comes from surface-water sources that are being depleted faster than they can be replenished. Once food is produced, it has to be transported to consumers. In our current food system, that could mean anywhere in the country or around the world. The planes and cars transporting this food emit greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.

However, when your food only has to travel a few miles to market, the environmental toll is reduced dramatically. Due to increased diversity, small farms also tend to do more with fewer resources. Most industrial farms focus on one crop or food product. Smaller farms tend to produce a wider variety of crops, some of which can be planted side by side to use all available land and reduce the chance of weeds. Since small farmers usually live on the land they work, they have a more vested interest in protecting and ensuring its long-term productivity than big companies.

More nutrients, better flavor

When you purchase locally sourced food, you can be confident the farmer picked it within the past few days. This has a number of benefits. First, that means it is fresher and has had less time to spoil. If your food has to be shipped all the way across the country before you can eat it, there is more of a chance for rot or mold to set in on its way to you. Even before it becomes inedible, you’ll notice a marked difference between fresher and less fresh foods. The longer foods are off the vine, the more their taste and color will fade. Certain nutrients, especially antioxidants, decline during storage, making food less nutritionally dense.

Large farms usually harvest food en masse before it has finished ripening and instead let it ripen off the vine during transit. Small farmers can take more care to wait until their produce is ready and harvest it at the peak of freshness when the taste and texture are at their best. Purchasing directly from your local farmer at their farm stand or a farmer’s market also allows you to speak with them and get their recommendations for preparing and pairing their produce. You can discover delicious new dishes that you would never have thought to try otherwise.

Building a food system on empathy

Humans thrive when we work together. Modern society can be isolating even though we can connect more easily than at any other point in history. Many grocery stores have added self-check-out kiosks, so it is possible to purchase your food without ever interacting with a human being. The process is strictly transactional, and we have lost our connection to our food and the people who produce it with devastating consequences.

Our food system reinforces deeply entrenched systemic inequalities. Black and Latinx workers account for 30% of the total labor force but are overwhelmingly represented in the crop production and animal slaughtering and processing industries. These industries were deemed essential during the pandemic, but they have some of the lowest rates of compensation and one of the most hazardous jobs in the country. During the pandemic, many meatpacking plants got away with not implementing the same COVID-19 safety regulations that were required of other industries. As a result, COVID-19 swept like wildfire through these plants, sickening thousands of workers. Some of those who caught COVID-19 never recovered.

When you purchase your food from local sources, look the farmer in the eye, and shake their hand, you are forced to remember that our food is brought to us by other people with families, hobbies, and dreams just like you. Getting more people to acknowledge that truth is the first step in revolutionizing how we produce food to ensure a more just, sustainable system.

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