Full Belly

Another cog in the wheel of sustainability is locally produced food. You've heard of the 'fifteen hundred mile Caesar salad." Lettuce and tomatoes don't grow in Peoria this time of year. If an Illinois-ian wants salad, damn it, they are entitled to get it, and it ought to be the same price as a salad in New Mexico. It's their right.

It sure is. The trucking cost is now increased $270 to get it there, but the Applebee's salad is roughly the same cost as before. So the independent trucker is taking it up the bunghole. Or perhaps any of a number of other players in this food transportation industry are, except, so far, the eater.

Here I sit comfortably in Northern California, blogging away, while my produce is almost all locally grown. To ensure this, I subscribe to a Community Supported Agriculture Farm, Full Belly, in Guinda, CA. Not only can I ensure where it's grown, I know exactly by who, and I know how. I also know when -- it's all grown in season. I get tomatoes in late summer. Only. Asparagus right now. And I also know why -- a group of farmers who did not have to borrow money in '06 and '07 to keep things growing, and have an committed interest in organic, sustainable agriculture.

Do I pay more? Of course. Is this a privilege of the wealthy? Absolutely not. I will never subscribe to a lack of food, or the price of food, as the cause of hunger in the U.S. Never. Beans and rice support entire families in other countries for less than a dollar a day. I will never be concerned about the price of eggs, milk, cheese, meat, and butter (the staples in this country!) as they apply to the cause of hunger in the U.S. Bullshit.

Would my views change if I lived in Montana? I really don't know. I 'happen' to live in a region flush with water, good agricultural land, a long growing season...so when I say I buy locally now, I am able to do so with minimal sacrifice. A guy from Minnesota would have available much less 'choice' in locally produced food.

The point is, I try to buy locally. I've got a ways to go on this one. We have native resources to move goods inter-regionally and I am not opposed to their use. I am, however, opposed to have to buy my potatoes from Idaho, because of economies of scale, or asparagus from Peru/Mexico, wheat from Washington, tomatoes from greenhouses in Canada, bananas from Ecuador, and corn syrup from Nebraska. I can choose not to buy out of season and out of region. So I don't eat watermelon in April...even though it's in every supermarket chain I walk into.

That's not to say I don't eat a banana. Or a bagel made from wheat that only God knows where it was grown. Or ribs from a cow slaughtered in Missouri. But I am making inroads. Cows aren't grown locally anymore because diesel is so fucking cheap that it makes sense to raise them by the hundred thousand in corn country and ship them to all four corners. If I eat ribs, I really have no choice but to eat remotely. So the only thing I can do is to limit, or not eat them at all. If more did what I did, however, how many truckers would we be 'throwing out of work?" Or highway workers? Or diesel mechanics?