How will we eat? (long w/ article)

[Guest guest]

Below is an article about the importance of buying locally grown foods. It is

long, but I think well worth the read. This is my first year buying from a CSA,

thanks to the wisdom of people in this group!

 

Leah

 

 

 

http://www.heliosnetwork.org/Nonhelios/CSC06.htm

 

John Pitney

Associate Minister, First United Methodist Church

How Will We Eat, Eugene?

 

One of our friends found her precocious 5 year old reading a carton of orange

juice at the supermarket the other day: " Mom, it says this orange juice is from

Florida. What's it doin' all the way over here? " A telling question.

 

Wendell Berry has been quoted often saying, " How we eat, to a considerable

extent, determines how the world is used. " He has nothing on our 5-year-old from

Eugene. The future health of our city and the larger region that supports it has

much to do with how we respond to this and a couple other important questions:

1) " What is the impact of the majority of our food coming from way over there? "

2) " Is this strategy getting people fed? " 3) " What is in store for us if we can

learn to substitute food that is owned, grown and processed closer to home for

what we now import? " For my perspective on the State of the City I bring these

questions. As a citizen these are important economic questions, questions of

democracy. As a religious leader, they are sacred questions: questions of

distributive justice, of how we steward the abundant gifts of place we are

given, of love in how we nurture the essential relationships of neighborliness

even in the way we buy and sell, questions of

common good.

 

How are we answering these in today's world and how in Eugene and its surrounds?

It's an exciting time in the world of localizing food systems. In virtually

every place we are reinventing ways to meet more of our local food needs from

local sources. In 1975 there were 300 farmer's markets in this country. Now over

3,000. We don't have to look beyond our county to see how these are enriching

our communities. >From Detroit to Walterville there are community gardens

springing up in thousands of vacant lots and school garden projects teaching

students about growth, health and entrepreneurship. In 1985, there was 1 farm in

the U.S. practicing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Now over 1,000. (1)

 

And I'm proud to see Eugene faith communities stepping up. We are beginning our

7th season of the project called That's My Farmer . We are 17 faith communities

supporting 14 local farms who practice Community Supported Agriculture. In CSA,

families become members of farms, paying 300 to 500 dollars at the beginning of

the season to get a box of fresh produce each week June-October. Money up front

means community sharing economic risk with farmers who don't have to go into

debt to farm. In April, more than 300 people gathered to meet the farmers and

inaugurate our season. >From ticket sales we raised $2,500 to subsidize CSA

deliveries to low-income families. We have nearly 300 families among the faith

communities joining farms. This will keep as much as $160,000 circulating in the

local economy that otherwise would quickly leave town through the globally

sourced, absentee-owned food economy.

 

$160,000 of course is a microdrop in the global food income bucket. So before I

get ahead of myself let me acknowledge that we are living in a treacherous time

for food and economics and it affects us here like any other community in this

day of globalization. In a sentence, we are " raising all the world's food in a

declining number of places, planted with a dwindling number of crop varieties,

controlled by a shrinking number of companies. " (2) Economists say when 4 or

fewer firms control 40% or more of any market, the real competition upon which

our democracy depends ceases to exist in the marketplace. Well, the same few

transnational corporations control upwards of 60%-80% of most food markets.

Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) now control 80% of the global grain

trade, making them proud owners of 60% of the world's food because 75% of the

food consumed on this planet is grain. Phillip Morris is the biggest food

company in the U.S., getting a dime of every dollar

we spend for food. WalMart is the biggest food retailer on the planet. (3)

 

The tool of economic domination is vertical integration. Single corporations or

clusters own our food systems from " gene to table. " For instance, in covenant

with each other, Cargill and Monsanto can own every step of production from the

patents on the genes of the plants and animals we eat to the prime shelf space

on the supermarket shelf and all the input, banking, transportation, processing

and marketing transactions between. In order to reclaim an agriculture that

supports community we must bring ownership of the produce and these transactions

home.

 

But even the transnational processors no longer call the shots. Today it's the

supermarket chains in charge. In 1997, the top 5 supermarket chains got 24% of

our grocery dollar. Today the top 5 receive 60%. These negotiate with the

vertically integrated firms to stock only their brands. 50-75% of supermarket

income is derived not from the sale of food but from slotting fees paid for

shelf space. The top 5 chains are Kroger, WalMart, Albertson's, Safeway and

Costco, all very present in Eugene. (3)

 

Now most of us, even in our progressive communities, still scratch our heads and

say, " Who cares? " What difference does it make whether I buy from Costco or

locally owned stores like Red Barn, Capella's, Sundance or Market of Choice?

Now, I'm a preacher not an economist. But I can see, when 5 corporations do 60%

of the business, they dictate everything: food pricing, who they will deal with,

what level of taxes they will tolerate to stay in a community. They deal in

megaquantities at great distances and if you're a small to middle-scale farmer

or food business you are out. WalMart may be too easy a target but there is a

great deal of pressure in the market place to dumb down to their level. This

makes their organization very descriptive of our time. There's a satellite dish

on each WalMart. Before midnight of each business day all proceeds are beamed

out of local communities to Arkansas, leaving behind just enough to pay

employees enough to starve on and local economies

bankrupt. The other chainstores differ only in degree. Some treat their

employees better, but all are party to the monopolistic control that sucks

dollars out of local communities to the benefit of CEOs and shareholders. And

since these are the only games in town, our municipalities tend to do back flips

to offer zoning and tax variances and other incentives to locate. And those in

poverty in our communities, they shop these stores because they can't afford

shopping elsewhere and they consume the highly processed fatty foods these

stores advertise most in order to dominate the marketplace. Eugene can do

better.

 

Mayor Kitty Piercy attended our That's My Farmer gathering last April. She asked

the farmers present what she could do to help. One of them quickly told her to

buy food locally as much as possible and be a voice for local buying. There are

dozens of efforts starting in our communities that give us hope. Some have been

happening for years. But there's a new urgency now. Individual efforts are not

enough. Whole communities must step up and learn how to meet more local food

needs from local sources, building economy, infrastructure and policy to sustain

it over time. And I am here to encourage our community leaders to support and

redouble these efforts and keep that hope alive. From Michael Shuman's book,

" Going Local. " I learned 2 economic terms that name contrasting economies. The

terms are: TINA and LOIS.

 

TINA stands for There Is No Alternative. That is, to the globalizing system

where com-munities beg corporations to locate with no promise of staying while

more goods are imported and local profits exported. The economics are so

pervasive, most of us have come to believe deep down that there's no other way.

In TINA we are in danger of losing our ability to dream.

 

LOIS is Local Ownership Import Substitution, a term with infinitely more

imagination and hope at least for the common good. (4) Think of Burgerville

U.S.A. for example. Owned by an Oregon family, 2 years ago they decided to stop

importing their burger from an absentee-owned source and substitute for burger

from Oregon Country Beef, a cooperative of Oregon ranchers.

 

The farm to cafeteria movement is sweeping the country. Over 400 school

districts in 22 states are connecting with local farmers, finding ways to

substitute local for imported produce to feed students. (5) Similar

substitutions are getting locally owned food in the cafeterias of universities,

hospitals, prisons. This year Kaiser-Permanente made a corporation-wide policy

decision to favor local produce whenever possible. What difference does this

make? Local ownership means business owners living in their communities,

spending their profits in communities, investing there. It's about economic

multipliers, about money spent at locally owned businesses circulating longer in

communities before leaving.

 

All the same discussions that are happening around the world are happening here.

Parents and others are talking about how to get local produce in schools. Local

chefs are favoring local produce and advertising their choices. Our farmer's

market and CSA cultures are growing. New retail businesses are being risked. We

have FOOD for Lane County, one of the most innovative programs in the country,

organized to meet emergency needs, while working to teach, train and support

food sufficiency for low income families. Many discussions bring the realization

that, if we are going to make some of these LOIS kind of changes in our

community, we need the kind of local food processing capacity we've lost in

recent years.

 

I close with a challenge, a task and a hope. The challenge: find the public will

to give the same kind of credence, advantage and attention to the development of

local business and local economic capacity as we now give absentee-owned

concerns. The task: continue to broaden community-wide coalitions for working on

these food concerns. And a place to begin is by supporting as a community the

work of the Lane County Food Policy Council. Newly formed, it will meet for the

first time later this month. FOOD for Lane County and the Lane County Food

Coalition have worked for 3 years to bring it to birth. The Council will gather

around one table, citizens who represent the diversity of stakeholders in the

future of our food system: farmers, processors, people who buy food for

cafeterias, restaurants and agencies; folks who manage community gardens and

emergency food programs, urban planners, commissioners and other policy makers,

bankers, university professors and grocery owners,

extension agents and nutritionists, retailers and public health officials and

more. Over 40 U.S. communities have established food policy councils in recent

years. Much like watershed councils in watersheds, they seek to bring local

wisdom, democracy and infrastructure to food choices. They have the most power

to influence the public will when they have some interface with county and city

governments. We must figure out how to do that.

 

Finally, I have great hope that together we can continue shifting our values to

bring our food economies home, that we can find new energy to eat for justice,

the real end to hunger and the integrity of this place. That future children

won't have to wonder what our food imports are doing way over here. And may we

never cease to dream.

 

1. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket by Brian

Halweil,

(W.W. Norton, New York and Worldwatch Institute: 2004) page 111.

2. Ibid, page 119.

3. Web site of National Farmer's Union and referenced in the work of Dr.s

William Heffernan and Mary

Hendrickson,

University of Missouri, Columbia.

4. Going Local by Micheal H. Shuman (The Free Press, New York: 1998)

5. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket by Brian

Halweil,

(W.W. Norton, New York and Worldwatch Institute: 2004) page 119.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone is raving about the all-new Mail Beta.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Is it ok if I use this for another group that I'm on? I just want to

ask permission. Thanks, Janet

 

rawfood , Leah Morrison <l_morrison2002

wrote:

>

> Below is an article about the importance of buying locally grown

foods. It is long, but I think well worth the read. This is my

first year buying from a CSA, thanks to the wisdom of people in this

group!

>

> Leah

>

>

>

> http://www.heliosnetwork.org/Nonhelios/CSC06.htm

>

> John Pitney

> Associate Minister, First United Methodist Church

> How Will We Eat, Eugene?

>

> One of our friends found her precocious 5 year old reading a carton

of orange juice at the supermarket the other day: " Mom, it says this

orange juice is from Florida. What's it doin' all the way over here? "

A telling question.

>

[Guest guest]

Janet,

I don't see why not. I included the website that it came from for anyone that

wants to go to the source.

 

Leah

 

Janet FitzGerald <planetwax wrote:

Is it ok if I use this for another group that I'm on? I just want to

ask permission. Thanks, Janet

 

rawfood , Leah Morrison <l_morrison2002

wrote:

>

> Below is an article about the importance of buying locally grown

foods. It is long, but I think well worth the read. This is my

first year buying from a CSA, thanks to the wisdom of people in this

group!

>

> Leah

>

>

>

> http://www.heliosnetwork.org/Nonhelios/CSC06.htm

>

> John Pitney

> Associate Minister, First United Methodist Church

> How Will We Eat, Eugene?

>

> One of our friends found her precocious 5 year old reading a carton

of orange juice at the supermarket the other day: " Mom, it says this

orange juice is from Florida. What's it doin' all the way over here? "

A telling question.

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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