"Buy local produce and save the world......."

[Zorra]

(Hi, everyone - I've been traveling for 2 1/2 months and have not been posting at DU during my travels)

Found this article that is relevant to what we discuss in this forum.

Buy local produce and save the world: why food costs £4bn more than we think
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
03 March 2005
snip----
Professor Jules Pretty, of Essex University, and Professor Tim Lang, of City University, in London, said another way of looking at the problem was to assess the national savings that could be made if everything was done differently.

They reckoned more than £4bn a year could be saved if farmers grew organically, farming subsidies were abolished and if consumers shopped for local produce, preferably on their bikes. The issue centres on the concept of "food miles" which refers to the distance travelled by produce from farm to fork.

The scientists tried to assess the added expense of bringing food from around the UK and the wider world to the typical British dinner table. By analysing foodstuffs, farming methods and transport policies, professors Pretty and Lang found that if all of our food came from within 20km (12.4 miles) of where we live we could save £2.1bn a year in environmental and congestion costs.

They also found that if shopping by car was replaced by bus, bicycle or walking, these savings would amount to a further £1.1bn. And if all farms in Britain were to follow organic principles, the costs to the environment would fall from £1.5bn a year to less than £400m, a further saving of £1.1bn. "Food miles are more important than we thought and buying local is more important than buying green," Professor Pretty said at the Science Media Centre in London. "It's better to buy a local lettuce than an organic one from the other side of Europe."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=616308

[wildeyed]

1. I posted awhile back in this forum about CSA

or Community Supported Agriculture.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=255x1689

I am signed up for my first year starting this spring, so I will post later and let everyone know how it is going.

Part of my interest in CSA's is economic, but I have to admit, allot of it is my greed for yummy stuff. Food that is fresh and local tastes better than stuff that has been sitting in a refrigerator for weeks.

Plus allot of the produce that is shipped is designed for shipping, not for eating. So the taste is really blah to start with. I mean who actually buys the grocery store tomatoes anymore? They taste like styrofoam, why bother.

Also, fresh, local food is healthier than food that has been stored.

[NMDemDist2]

2. we have a "farmers market" that is a local chain and I love their

produce AND they sell flour and cereal etc etc in big bins. I am having too much fun with baking and cooking these days so I am rocketing thru flour for bread and pastry. Thankfully the flour is only $0.69 a pound

[wildeyed]

3. I will have to check our local farmer's market to see if we have similar.

I would also like to buy meat locally, but that may be harder due to sanitary concerns.

[NMDemDist2]

4. this is from the family that had a chain they sold to Wild Oats

they have opened a bunch of markets here in PHX as "Sprouts"

take a look at the pics of the markets at http://www.sprouts.com/

they don't use ALL local produce (some comes up from Mexico) but they do a lot and have a good variety of local organics. It will be interesting to see what they do in summer, when most of our plants are wilting on the vine around here :)

[kayell]

5. Old (and long) post on this issue, with lots of links

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=255&topic_id=161&mesg_id=161
How to eat locally

[amazona]

6. good book by joan gussow

I think I have recommended it before -- This Organic Life by Joan Gussow of "I trust the cows more than the chemists" notoriety.

Here's a link to an excerpt from her book:

http://www.chelseagreen.com/2001/items/thisorganiclifecloth/Excerpt2

One of the issues she covers is the problem she describes of spending 400 calories of hydrocarbon to ship a 5 calorie strawberry. My local farmer's market and locally raised produce is, for the most part, out of what I can afford to pay for produce. So I have addressed this problem "victory garden" style since I can grow some fruit and greens very cheaply and easily at my location.

For those who can afford it, though, Gussow suggests that the most important thing we can do to support local farmers is to spend $10 each week on local produce instead of grocery store produce shipped all the way from Chile and California.

If you can't afford the book, get it from the library. Our library monitors which books are requested and which are checked out, so you still contribute a bit and you will find a lot to think about.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72