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Shopping with your conscience

If you want to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ there are worse places to start than by looking at what we eat, why we eat it and what effect our eating has on the global community that extends well beyond the doors of the local supermarket.

A recent US study found that more Americans than ever before are supporting their local food markets, and it’s not just because they believe the food is fresher and tastes better.

According to the University of Iowa study, people are shopping in farmers markets and joining food coops in record numbers because they enjoy knowing where their food comes from and who grows it.

Beyond the BOGOF

Because we don’t seem to be able to live in a world without silly labels, these folks are generally referred to as “locavores”. What drives them to eat locally-grown produce and meat is a desire to feel a part of something greater than themselves – for instance, a community that reflects and shares their passion for a healthy lifestyle and a sustainable environment.

For some supporting the local food movement is also a kind of civic duty; a way to shore up their local economy against the threats of globalisation and ‘big-box’ stores.

In other words, they are making values-based judgements about what to buy and what to eat. Values-based judgements consider more than just the top line price of something or whether there’s a good BOGOF (buy one get one free) on offer.

According to the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA), national direct-to-consumer food sales increased three-fold between 1992 and 2007, growing twice as fast as total agricultural sales.

More local shoppers

The number of farmers markets currently listed by the USDA increased from 3,706 in 2004 to 8,268 in 2014.

That number is rising in countries like Australia too and in the UK, the growing popularity of farmers markets is has some interesting knock-on effects, such as an increase in the number of school leavers taking agriculture courses. Even kids with no background in farming are showing an interest in getting qualifications in subjects such as horticulture, agriculture, floristry, food and gamekeeping.

That’s good news for anyone who is genuinely interested in the future food security of the country. Our farming population is ageing and unless younger people start coming back to the land we won’t have enough farmers in the country to keep us fed.

Better – not bigger

The movement to shop at farmers markets and more locally presents a direct challenge to two of the overriding myths that rule our relationship to food. The first is that bigger is better, cheaper, more efficient and ultimately gives us a better quality of life and the second is that more choice equals more freedom.

In fact, smaller and local brings revenue into the community; it creates jobs, provides us with food that is fresher and therefore more nutritious, food that is region appropriate and therefore can require fewer chemical enhancements to grow and to ward off pests.

Under this scenario you are much more likely to understand where your food is coming from, how it got there, who produced it and what’s in it. You are much more likely to have the choice of food grown organically, biodynamically, with permaculture methods which are flora and fauna friendly and which enrich the soil and environment rather than deplete it.

We’re worth it

That’s got to be worth the relatively minimal effort it takes to get to the local farmer’s market each week.

Whenever I talk about local food, there is always a kind of rolling of the eyes that suggests this is a parochial solution that belongs to the turn of the century rather than to the modern world. And yet by thinking smaller we actually take away so many of the complex problems that are facing our society.

Yes it may well be that those with a better education and a higher income are the ones leading this move away from the supermarket to the farm store but so what? Isn’t it up to those who can to lead the charge? The more we make the values based decisions about what we eat and where we shop the more the marketplace will grow and the more available it will be to more citizens.

So, go on, keep on shopping with your conscience and let’s see where it leads!

Pat Thomas, Editor