Leading Green Distributing
  • Home
  • Available This Week
  • Eat Local Blog

The Importance of Local Food Systems

6/22/2014

4 Comments

 
In a recent TEDx talk in Knoxville, Tennessee Chad Hellwinckel explained the importance of local food across the United States and the Southeast. The overarching theme was that the agricultural system that we know today is not sustainable. It depends on cheap fuel mostly in the form of refined oil, and there is a large mountain of evidence suggesting we are on the downward slope for petroleum extraction.

On average about 40 years is required to bring a newly found and drilled oil field to reach peak production. After the rate of oil extracted from the deposit has reached its maximum flow, the volume of oil that can be retrieved from the field drops year after year. The graph below shows the amount of oil discovered each(bar chart) and the volume of oil pumped from the ground each year (smooth curve). Based on historical trends scientists have found a way to predict how much oil will be discovered in the future.
Picture
In short, the amount of oil left in the ground is declining while the amount of oil Americans and humans across the planet consume is rising. As less oil is pumped from the ground, but demand rises (as it’s done every year since the Industrial Revolution began) prices will rise too. Because little of our food is grown in backyards and towns anymore, the price for a bunch of carrots has the cost of the fuel to ship the vegetable across the continent built in.

The amount of fuel energy required to transport produce has risen many fold over the past 90 years. In 1920 one unit of energy burned on the farm produced three units of caloric value in the corresponding harvest. Food grown on a 1920 farm tended to be eaten within a few miles or at the resident farm house. Fast forward to 2010, we now burn one calorie of fuel for every calorie the farm produces. Add to that the cost of shipping produce from California to North Carolina. After refrigerated transportation energy requirements are included, seven units of petroleum based energy are used to produce one unit of food energy.
Picture
If our supply of oil were infinite and the atmosphere could handle unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide without global temperatures being affected, this imbalance would not be so bad. Our oil demands could continue to grow at an exponential rate. Because we are inside a system with a finite amount available to extract, the food system is not sustainable in its current form. We must move towards consuming food grown close by.

If the graph above accurately depicts oil’s supply and demand, we have entered the peak. Despite some unpredictable variations, gasoline and diesel prices are guaranteed to rise. The question is not if, but when.

We can address the problem preemptively or wait until economics dictate the time for a solution.

In 1990 when the USSR dissolved, Cuba was abruptly left without its key trading partner. Overnight it experienced peak oil and had to adapt quickly. Almost overnight Cubans went from a diet of 3000 calories to 2000. The average Cuban lost 20 pounds of body weight by 1993. Looking to solve their unexpected food crisis, the country had to relearn how to grow its own food with little oil input. By 1998, the Cubans were gaining weight again.
Picture
The US can wait until fuel prices begin rising sharply before addressing the problem. There will be shocks and hunger for years with this option, but necessity will dictate that we find a new method of bringing produce to the table. The problem will be solved in time once we get hungry. Or, using our capacity to predict future outcomes based on previous data, we can decide to solve this looming problem before grocery store shelves go barren.

So what do we do now? In North Carolina, it is possible to grow greens all winter long with minimal resources. It is time we start growing more of our own food in our backyards. It is time to begin supporting our local farmer. It takes years to learn how to farm and garden well. It takes longer to move a small farm into full production. We can start now and go through the growing pains in the comfort of a multi-year buffer. Or we can re-experience what happened to Cuba and realize the urgency sensed on an empty stomach.


If you want to deliberately support the sustainable food movement in North Carolina, you might want to consider using Leading Green Distributing to help partner local farms with your home, grocer or restaurant.

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." ~Mahatma Gandhi
4 Comments

Fruits and Veggies Lower Death Rate 42% and Make Local Jobs

5/31/2014

0 Comments

 

This story was originally published at OptimisticFuturist.org

There are three surprising facts about food that almost no one knows - and they absolutely impact the life expectancy and health of you and yours.  
Start with this:  people who ate seven portions of fruits or vegetables every day have a 42% lower death rate than those who ate just 4 or fewer servings according to british researchers who studied 65,000 people over 7 years.[1]  The Centers for Disease Control studies show that only 11% of Americans eat that many![2]  
 
The second interesting fact is that today's fruits and veggies are missing a lot of vitamins and minerals those same crops had 50 years ago. A woman eating a peach in 1951 got around 25 times more vitamin A than she would eating a modern peach!
[4]  One 2004 study done at the University of Texas found that there were "reliable declines" in "protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, B2, and vitamin C" when crops grown in 1950 were compared to those grown in 1999. [3]
 
This decline seems particularly strong in something called phytochemicals (also called phytonutrients). These substances occur naturally in food and give it color.[5]   Very important to human health, phytochemicals fight prostate cancer, cataracts, macular degeneration, asthma, heart disease and a host of other awfuls. There are less of them now.
[6]
 
Researchers theorized that these reductions in health supporting ingredients were due to creation of plant breeds developed for fast growth, storage during shipping, pest resistance, and size of product, all of which sacrificed nutritional content.[7]
 
The third fact is that from the time the food is picked until the time it is eaten, a lot of the nutrition vanishes. [11]The vitamin C in spinach is reduced by three quarters when refrigerated for 7 days, for example.
 
For supermarket "fresh" vegetables, the average distance traveled is around 1500 miles, [8] and the time from farm to fork in the United States is 14 days! [9]Add to that the fact that around 40% of all fruits and vegetable we eat are imported from other countries with the chance of even longer travel time.[10]
 
You can shape the future now.
 
Start to help both your family and your community by increasing the number of servings of fruits and vegetables up to the recommended 7 per day.   Slice some bananas or apples into the cereal, add some chopped greens into the morning omelet....It is just not that hard.   Pack some carrots with school lunches, and some fresh fruit. For dinner, adding broccoli or sweet potato alongside the meat, and set a salad along side, and you are there. Our family life expectancy would soar.
 
We would move away from being the country with the 42nd life expectancy in the world (behind Japan #3, or Sweden #12, France #15 or Ireland #27). [12]
 
As you plant the spring garden, buy older strains of fruits and vegetables, grown from "heirloom" seeds.   While they don't travel or store as well as modern hybrids, they are a lot healthier.
 
You could get your food from something called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. These small local food producers run their own agricultural business - which is to grow food for specific named customers who contract ahead to buy frequent (often weekly) shipments of food when it is at optimal nutritional content.    The customer knows who grew their food, where, and the exact breed, and how much if any chemicals and pesticides are used. The nutritional content of the food can easily be double that of the supermarket because of varieties planted, and time from farm to fork.
 
You can locate local food producers by going to www.localharvest.org, which will show you area local farmers on a map, and introduce you to CSA's who want your business. In North Carolina, you can go to the Center for Environmental Farming Systems site at www.cefs.ncsu.edu for help locating a source of healthy food.
 
We can lengthen lives, save money, create jobs, and become less dependent on the behavior of other nations.   As you lay awake at night fretting about the world we are going to hand our children and grandchildren, you can at least plan to set your table with food that not only brings comfort, but health. Will you step to the plate? 
   

[1] "Eat seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day to lower death" - http://medicalnewstoday.com/articles/274841.php
[2] http://www.cncahealth.com/explore/learn/nutrition-food/declining-nutrition-of-fruits-and-vegetables#.UzsWP1faHKd
[3] Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? Scientific American April 27, 2011
[4] http://mannatechscience.org/files/file/Farm_to_Table.pdf
[5] http://www.webmd.com/diet/phytonutrients-faq
[6] http://www.ars.usda.gov/aboutus/docs.htm?docid=4142
[7] Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? Scientific American April 27, 2011
[8] http://source.southuniversity.edu/farm-to-table-and-the-local-food-movement-49961.aspx
[9] http://resourcespotlight.farmaid.org/2014/01/from-farm-to-fork-the-journey-of-food/
[10] http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/healthy-farmland-diet.pdf, page 6 and
[11] http://www.healwithfood.org/nutritional-differences/frozen-fresh-vegetables.php
[12] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html


http://theoptimisticfuturist.org/

0 Comments

September 23rd, 2012

9/23/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
This article was originally published by the Institute of Food Technologies.
http://www.ift.org/about-us.aspx

The study, conducted by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA/AMS), details how these organizations help local and regional producers overcome bottlenecks in the food marketing system through collaborative and transparent planning and adherence to a shared set of operating principles. March 20, 2012

A new study, entitled Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution, reports on the distribution practices of eight producer networks and their partners distributing locally or regionally-grown food to retail and foodservice customers and it reveals how these networks tap into the growing commercial demand for local and regional food products while creating additional economic opportunities and expanding healthy food access.

The study, conducted by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA/AMS), details how these organizations help local and regional producers overcome bottlenecks in the food marketing system through collaborative and transparent planning and adherence to a shared set of operating principles. By sharing lessons learned and best practices, the new study serves as a resource for producers, food processors, and marketers organizing to supply local and regional food products to commercial customers.

To compile the report, AMS studied eight network models over a three-year period. AMS looked at network organization, product branding and labeling, infrastructure management, and price negotiation.

The report identified four factors that influenced performance across all the case studies: 

  • The amount and timing of investments made in infrastructure are vital to the success and survival of food value chains;
  • Preserving the identity of growers on product labels is critical for connecting with consumers, distinguishing the product from the competition and providing traceability;
  • Informal farmer networks can offer additional flexibility for suppliers and buyers and allow food value chains to be highly responsive to the shifting demands of specialty food markets; and 
  • For-profit businesses, nonprofits, and cooperatives all have unique strengths. By partnering with each other within food value chains, they can leverage organizational competencies and reduce the risk of failure.
Download the complete report

0 Comments
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Categories

    All
    Farm 101
    Food Distribution
    News
    Studies

    Archives

    July 2020
    July 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    September 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.