| Real Food, Naturally: As the Market Grinds
by Glen Boudreaux, Jolie Vue Farms
Let's discuss the age-old problem of the family farmer versus Big Food.
What's the problem? It is and always has been that the farmer is David and his buyers are Goliath. As soon as the farmer has established a production system that grabs the attention of the consumer, market forces go to work to squeeze the profit out of his new-found profitability. How and why does that happen? Let's look at the success of the organic movement to exemplify the problem.
Whole Foods Grocery was a blessing but is now in many ways a curse to the local farm family. A blessing because it put organically grown foods into the mainstream of consumer thought. Some 30% of consumers now purchase organically-labelled foods with some degree of regularity.
A curse because Whole Foods has pushed the farmer to get big, get standardized, and get cheap - or get out. As a result, we now have "Industrial Organic".
Huge farms with huge energy requirements and cheap, probably illegal, labor. Many of the features of factory-line production now dominate the organic production system. If you buy organic at Whole Foods, the likelihood is that you are supporting huge farms owned by huge food companies no closer to you than California. And if not California, then New Zealand, Argentina, or Mexico. Competition among these highly efficient factory farms for the Whole Food dollar pushes the price down, then the grocer takes 50% of that dollar*. The small organic farmer is, once again, pushed into financial unsustainability. And it will only get worse. Walmart, the Goliath of all Goliaths, is about to enter the market.
As a consumer, you may say that is good. We can get organic food, and we can get it cheap, right? To that I respond: cheap is as cheap does. Never fool yourself into thinking that you can get the same product in Whole Foods or Walmart that you can get from your local farmer. Here's why:
When you buy locally, you get what Industrial Organic can never supply: you get -
Fresh. And fresh trumps everything else. Why does fresh make all the difference? 2 reasons: a tomato picked before it matures cannot develop its full nutritional buffet. This deficiency is exacerbated by the long ride and many storage days that Industrial Organic requires before the fruit hits the shelf. The longer a tomato is stored, the more its original nutritional value is denigrated.
Integrity: As your organic food supply gets further and further away, the more opportunity there is for cheating. Can you trust the Argentinian farmer to comply with the rules? You'll never know. We do know this as fact: since the USDA joined up with Big Food, the organic rules have been softened. There are now 60+ synthetic materials allowed under the organic certification. The proof in the pudding is literally in the eating. Organic today is not the same as organic yesterday. In contrast, you can visit any local farmer and see for yourself if the farm fits your idea of wholesome food. We welcome you. Try that at Tyson or ADM!
The Big Picture: Tack on these benefits when you buy locally, adding them to "fresh" and "integrity".
- you are improving your local environment, not someone else's. If everyone did that, our entire United States would be improved, rather than just one select state.
-you will become a part of sustainable agriculture, insuring that the local farmer can live a dignified lifestyle, and pass his and her agrarian life on to their children so that your children can eat well.
-you can "eat your view". There is nothing more beautiful than a well-maintained, naturally harmonious farm or ranch. Support it where you live, then enjoy it.
Well, I have been rather long-winded today. But it's a big story, and hard to tell in sound-bytes. Sort of like natural farming.
Visit us at our farmers' markets or your CSA. If you're there, we'll always be there, too.
Glen Boudreaux, Jolie Vue Farms
*Correction: In this column, I noted that the retailer gets 50% of the price at the grocer's produce bin. Before we sent this out, I was quickly corrected by Joan of Gundermann Farms, who worked with Whole Foods and others to supply their organic vegetables for 25 years. Joan reports that she saw her produce marked up 500% and more by WF. The only time there was only a 100% markup was when WF used her vegetables as "loss leaders".
Thank you for the education, Joan. Wow!
|
