Farm to Table...

I recently came across a Governing Magazine article that peaked my interest. The article, Fresh Fight: Governments Want Local Food From Family Farmers on the Menu. It's Not Easy to Find. by Zach Patton shed light on how local governments are joining (or trying to join) the local food movement. 

The article showcases Woodbury County, IA, a town in a state that’s a U.S. leader in production of pork, eggs, corn, and soybeans. Still, Woodbury officials have mandated that food bought by the county for use in its jail, juvenile detention facility, and cafeterias come from a 100-mile radius. Even in a region where it seems that every spare inch is used to grow food, large companies are farming the land, shipping the food they grow around the world, and imported, not local, food fills local grocery stores. All the while, family farms are going out of business. Currently, according to Governing, “Woodbury County residents spend about $250 million a year on groceries, and only 1 percent of that spending goes to local food.” Shifting more money into local food could bring $300,000 a year to local farms, so it’s no wonder that Woodbury County is jumping on board the local food movement. (Fun fact: “locavore” is now an official word in the New Oxford American Dictionary).

More and more local governments want to encourage local food, by increasing the number of farmers’ markets, setting up Food Policy Councils to create and strengthen local food chains, creating farm-to-school programs that connect growers with school cafeterias, and raising public awareness. (For example, Chicago started an Eat Local Live Healthy program that aims to increase fresh local produce in the city.)For governments, the benefits are more than nutritional: keeping food close to home keeps farmland viable, reduces suburban sprawl, boosts the local economy by keeping money spent on food circulating in the region instead of sending it across the country or overseas, and helps reduce the overall carbon footprint.

Local efforts are easily stymied by federal policies. If a city wants to increase farmer’s markets, for example, they may butt up against restrictive policies about food processing and cleanliness (livestock must be slaughtered in a federally inspected facility, and supervisors who are growing “organic” food must have a costly permit, for example). Many of these are mandated at the federal level, and small local farmers may not be able to comply. Obviously, state and local governments have a big part to play in the local food movements, what is your local government doing to get on the 100-mile diet?

For more about how Detroit is approaching this topic, check out this week's Metro Times Food Issue at www.metrotimes.com.

Photo Credit: A photo of my local farmer’s market the Downtown Rochester Farmers’ Market.