Families visited China Grove's Wild Turkey Farms during a farm tour last fall. (Alex Gregor/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Supporters of the emerging local food movement are eager to support farmers and local food by shopping at farmer’s markets and shops that sell local foods. But some advocates say that won’t be enough. What’s needed are new public policies to encourage and improve the networks that bring local food to market.

“Our food system was local before we went global. All the infrastructure was in place,” said Christy Shi, co-owner of Know Your Farms LLC of Davidson. “But what we’ve seen over past 20 years is this astonishing consolidation.”

Today, she says, “The infrastructure that a small farmer would need to get food distributed just doesn’t exist anymore.”

Christy Shi

Ms. Shi is among a small number of folks around the nation who are attempting to remedy the situation by starting new local food distribution networks. She is the co-founder of Know Your Farms with brother Wes Shi, and they operate food buying clubs and community supported agriculture groups, which aim to connect consumers with local farmers. The company collects food from farmers and distributes it weekly during the growing season.

Those of us who shop at farmer’s markets may enjoy the chance to meet farmers and get fresh meat, dairy and produce. So what more is needed?

Consider that marketing and delivering food can actually be a burden to some farmers. Not all are natural-born marketers or salespeople, and the weekly (or more than weekly) act of packing, fueling and driving a truck to another location may not be as easy as it sounds.

WORDS, BUT NO ACTION FROM WASHINGTON?

Take the case of New York State farmer Morse Pitts. In an article in a recent issue of American Prospect, Heather Rogers describes the difficulties Mr. Pitts faces in reaching customers 65 miles away in New York City. While he has no problem selling twice a week at the Union Square farmers market in the city, he’s having trouble making ends meet. Production and transportation costs are higher than at giant farms, and small farmers don’t get anywhere near the federal subsidies that big farms get, if they get any support at all.

Ms. Rogers notes that President Barack Obama and his family are “eco-friendly and food savvy,” and they’ve even planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House grounds. But, Ms. Rogers writes:

President Barack Obama’s Department of Agriculture is doing little to ensure the survival of Pitts and thousands of other holistic local farmers. Obama is making some changes at the USDA, but they’re the type of improvements that appear larger than they really are. Sustainable agriculture proponents don’t want to complain because finally they’re getting something. But these incremental changes won’t be enough to ensure farmers can stay on their land and sell their produce at reasonable rates. Neither will they clear the path for a new generation of farmers to participate in remaking the food system.

For some farmers, especially meat producers, the issue goes beyond labor and transportation. There are the added problems of processing, packaging and distributing, and even finding veterinarians, Ms. Shi said. The main issue is that most of our infrastructure is controlled by large food companies.

“For someone who raises animals, for example a pork producer, all the veterinarians that do pork-type work are now contracted by Smithfield. And the distributors and cold-storage facilities and packaging plants are now housed within a single company, too,” Ms. Shi said.

We’ve heard some local farmers complain that getting time at a packing plant in North Carolina is difficult. And for some services – such as smoking or curing – the best options are out of state.

In Ms. Shi’s company’s case, the answer has been to get a refrigerated truck to provide new storage and transportation links in the chain. She’s also looking for a cold-storage facility.

For now, she said, “It’s going to be cobbled together. That’s what we can do right now.”

Ms. Rogers says in her article that another barrier is fear that efforts by small farmers to change the system too quickly could rankle big-agriculture. She quotes Fred Kirschenmann, of Iowa State’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, as saying that small changes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been big enough “that Big Ag is rising up, the blowback is already starting.”

Other hurdles lie ahead, Ms. Shi said. Some farmers or entrepreneurs (like herself) would love to help get local produce into schools. But most public school cafeterias no longer have equipment for processing raw foods, she said. For example, instead of knives for chopping, cafeterias have scissors and can openers. “If you say we want fresh food for the schools, it’s an infrastructure issue.”

While there’s lots of optimism now about local farming, she thinks it’s time to take the next step. “There’s so much energy behind production, but we really need to be having a conversation around distribution. It’s imperative to find ways to tie in with existing systems, if at all possible.”

RELATED LINKS

Know Your Farms LLC, of Davidson

American Prospect, “Slowed Food Revolution”. Ms. Rogers is the author of the new book “Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution.”

Grist.org, “Food: Why eaters alone can’t transform the food system.”

See past coverage of Know Your Farms LLC and local food on DavidsonNews.net in our “Local Food” category.

April 28, 2008, “4-min. interview: Christy Shi on local food.” – Listen to DavidsonNews.net audio interview with Christy Shi.

Slow Food Carolina Piedmont Region