Point Counter-Point on Local Food

Originally published in From the Ground Up: A primer for community action on Kingston and countryside's food system, and also available in The Local Harvest 2007.

A number of concerns and criticisms have been made of local food in general. It is important to respond to those, in order to best understand the opportunities ahead.

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“I like local food, but I don’t want to give up my mangoes and bananas!”
Supporting local food does not mean blockading imports. Currently only a tiny percentage of the food eaten in Kingston is produced locally. Doubling the amount of local food eaten would mean a dramatic difference for local producers and processors, but only a small difference in the amount of food imported. Immense progress can be made by simply eating the kinds of food that can easily be produced locally.

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“Isn’t local food a form of protectionism?”
Protectionism refers to the practice (usually by countries) of intentionally creating economic barriers to trade. Those barriers are intended to benefit certain businesses by limiting outside competition. However, the purpose of supporting local food is not to erect barriers to trade, but to encourage economic activity here. In fact, enhancing opportunities for local food would involve removing barriers that prevent local growers from accessing local markets. In addition, local food does not mean isolating a region to trade.

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“Why should we support small farmers if they can’t compete in the free market?”

First of all, a healthy local food system has value beyond that which can be expressed in financial terms. We cannot rely solely on a system designed to maximize profit if we also want to maximize equality, sustainability, or other non-monetary benefits of a local food system. Secondly, we require time to build up local production and food infrastructure. In the event of sudden interruptions in the food system resulting from energy or climate disruptions, a food system solely based on the free market would not be able to respond rapidly enough to compensate. We need to build a robust and sustainable food system far in advance. And thirdly, it’s questionable whether the currentfood system operates on the free market. Corporate industrial agriculture is heavily subsidized, both directly by governments and indirectly by access to finite supplies of cheap energy. The chair of one of the world’s largest grain processors, Archer Daniels Midland Co., once told a reporter:  “There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.”

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“Won’t it cause more pollution for many small producers to be driving their food into town?”
Some critics have argued that it’s more fuel efficient to move large amounts of food in a small number of transport trucks than to move small amounts of food in a large number of private vehicles. The second case might occur if large numbers of people drove out to country farms to buy small amounts of food, or if a number of small producers drove small amounts of food into cities in their own vehicles. This criticism has a certain amount of validity in the short term, but fails to consider the situation in a more mature local food system. As the local food system grows, it will make economic sense for local producers to make use of shared, co-operatively owned, distribution infrastructure such as trucks and storage. Also, as the number of farms and gardens serving the local area grows, the distance between producers will become shorter and shorter, making it easier to share transport and distribution routes. And more local access points will mean that eaters will be able to walk, cycle, or take mass transit to get local food. As these trends progress, the local food system will become undeniably more fuel-efficient than the global one.

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“Small-scale and organic agriculture won’t produce the yields needed to ‘feed the world.’”
Recent research suggests that, in fact, organic agriculture can have sufficient yields to feed the global population.  A 22-year-long study by Cornell University showed that organic agriculture produces the same yields of soybeans as conventional agriculture, but does so using less energy and water. A different study, run in partnership with Iowa State University, actually showed higher yields for organic corn and soybeans. Some studies have shown significantly higher yields of various crops, especially in years with extreme weather. Numerous studies of a variety of different crops have shown similar yields between organic and conventional agriculture. Furthermore, the current system is designed to maximize yields per farmer, while some intensive gardening techniques claim much higher yields per acre. And again, supporting local food does not mean the immediate and total abolition of the global food system. Even in a future of totally localized food systems, it would still be useful to have long-distance food transport systems to move food into areas experiencing unexpected hard times.

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“Not everyone wants to farm.”
That’s okay, because not everyone needs to farm! In the Kingston area less than two per cent of people are actually involved in farming. Even if the number of farmers doubled or tripled, which would be a tremendous success for local food, the vast majority of people would still not be involved in farming. Also, an increase in the number of people who grew at least some of their own food, through community gardens for example, could make a big difference.

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“People, especially young people, don’t want to farm.”
The lack of new farmers has a number of different causes. Certainly a major one is the farm income crisis. Few people will deliberately choose an occupation that offers little or no income. Another cause may be that farming is sometimes perceived as an occupation of isolated drudgery that doesn’t involve much stimulation or creativity. The growth of a healthy local food system will address all of these problems. Solving the farm income crisis will make farming a more attractive occupation financially. A growing community of new and innovative growers locally will offer an exciting and stimulating environment. And the spread of new and innovative approaches to farming and food will make it clear that there is much opportunity for creativity and a need for intelligent problem-solving.

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“Local food is elitist because it is more expensive and harder to get.”
Farmers around the world are in the midst of an income crisis, with realized net incomes for farms in Canada actually being negative. Farmers deserve justice, and so do eaters. It is not an either-or situation. By building an equitable and sustainable local food system, we can help address the problems of both groups. Not surprisingly, families with more disposable income are more able to make monetary support to a local food system, whether that is through buying local food or through other means. However, everyone can participate in growing a local food system regardless of their income, and everyone will reap the rewards of a healthy local food system. Furthermore, food in Canada is already among the cheapest in the world. Low-income families encounter problems paying for food because their already small income is used up on their high rent and utilities costs. According to the Daily Bread Food Bank, the average food bank user has slightly more than $4 remaining after paying their rent and utilities each month.

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“We don’t have enough land to feed Kingston.”
Again, building a healthy local food system does not mean eliminating food from other areas. Rather, our first steps are to eat the food we already produce enough of locally, such as beef, and to encourage the farming of other foods that grow well in this area. There is no research about how far from Kingston we would have to reach to get all of Kingston’s food from as close as possible. However, a recent study suggested that we could meet as much as 70 per cent of our fruit and vegetable needs just from within the City of Kingston.

- Holly Grinvalds and Aric McBay