IDEALLY, eating is a positive experience. Food should be nutritious and should keep us healthy. Agricultural lands around cities and towns should provide the eye with a relief from suburban monstrosity, as well as support local economies. Food should be fun and interactive, and we should have the opportunity to grow our own in backyards and gardens. Food should be an oasis from our increasingly artificial way of life and the unhealthy stress it unleashes on us.
Instead, current economic and political networks in the United States have made food our enemy. Food is unhealthy, it is processed and it is wasteful. Few of us have the opportunity to see agricultural lands because of increasing suburban sprawl. Even fewer of us have the opportunity to grow our own food. Small, local farms are put out of business by factory farms, and instead of getting food from farms in our region we rely on food from across the nation and even across the world. Food in the United States just does not make sense anymore, but there is a solution.
We need to eat what comes from our own foodshed. A foodshed is akin to a watershed - it is the territory surrounding an urban area that most conveniently produces food for that area. Instead of considering the entire nation and globe as our foodshed, we must consider only our own regions as our foodshed. Business and political interests have manipulated our food supply by sending food an average of 1,500 miles from farms to plates, instead of 40 miles from local farms or 20 feet from backyards. Supporting local food production is a challenge, even if it is the most logical option. The benefits of local food production, however, are so great that it is worth the fight. Local food is healthier, it supports local economies and it is environmentally sustainable.
Considering that 50 percent of Americans are on track to obesity by 2030, our nation has no choice but to find every way possible to instill healthy eating habits. To ship food across the country and around the world, suppliers need to mix food with artificial preservatives. These are unnatural additives that increase the fat content of food. Locally produced food does not require preservatives, because it does not need to survive long truck or plane rides.
Not only is locally produced food generally fresher and less fattening, but it inspires healthy eating. It is much easier to eat fruits and vegetables when you know from where they come. If you know produce is coming from the farm down the street or even from your own backyard, healthy eating is much more fun and personal instead of the impersonal and remote nature of food production today.
Local food is also better for the local economy. When local food is purchased, small farmers and businesses profit. Instead of sending money to huge factory farms in other regions, purchasing local food keeps money in your own state. This, in turn, benefits the local economy, which has a positive effect on all who live in the community.
Local food also benefits the environment. Transporting food from far away places requires much more energy than transporting it within local foodsheds. According to the Council on the Environment of New York City, it requires 435 fossil fuel calories to transport a single strawberry from California to New York.
Supporting local food production preserves local farmlands, which in turn reduces suburban sprawl and unnecessary development. Between 1982 and 2007, the area of farmland lost in the United States to development is comparable to the size of Indiana. Well-maintained farmland provides a natural habitat for an array of wildlife, improves air quality and prevents flooding.
In Charlottesville, there is plenty of opportunity to support locally grown food. Many locally owned restaurants like Revolutionary Soup and Bodo's Bagels make an effort to purchase local food.
Depending on the season, Revolutionary Soup uses 100 percent local food and Bodo's uses 20 percent. The Charlottesville downtown farmers market, which generated $1 million in revenue in 2010, also provides a great opportunity to purchase local food.
Ultimately, current economic and political networks in the United States lead to unhealthy food that damages local economies and the environment. The concept of the foodshed and supporting the production of locally grown food is the solution. We must take our food back from big business and its political supporters and make food once again a healthy, interactive and sustainable experience.
Jamie Dailey's column usually appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.dailey@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
KURTZWEIL: True financial aid must be transparent
By Paul Kurtzweil | 3 days agoThe implications and revelations of the lawsuit should inspire greater transparency at the University in order to ensure that financial aid is properly and equitably distributed.
SULLIVAN: Ramp up physical accessibility on Grounds
By Scarlett Sullivan | 5 days agoThe University must take responsibility for the inaccessibility of Grounds and work to promote accessibility for all students despite misguided laws.
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | April 25, 2024Instead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
