USA Today - 'Locally grown' food sounds great, but what does it mean?"

[TomCADem]

Interesting story on what different retailers consider to be "locally grown" produce. Personally, I am just trying to grow a bit more of my own food in my tiny vegetable garden because fresh peas just taste better and sweeter than the stuff at a store. Unfortunately, I do not have enough room for a bigger garden.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-10-27-local-grown-farms-produce_N.htm

Nationwide, retailers from Wal-Mart to Whole Foods are increasingly devoting more shelf space to "locally grown" products including such things as fresh produce and Thanksgiving turkeys. Whole Foods, for one, now spends almost 22% of its produce budget on locally grown products, up from 15% four years ago, it says.

The "locally grown" label is part of retailers' push to tap into consumer desires for fresh and safe products that support small, local farmers and help the environment because they're not trucked so far. At least one consumer survey has showed that whether something is locally grown is now more important than whether it is organic (which many local products are not).

But retailers may have far broader definitions of "local" than consumers do. And while freshness is more likely if food isn't trucked so far, food-safety experts say there's no evidence that locally grown products are safer, especially because small producers often lack the food-safety audits more common among big producers.

"There's a feeling that if it's local, it's safer. I consider that a myth," says Christine Bruhn, food-marketing specialist at the University of California-Davis.

[Xipe Totec]

1. It means CSA - Community Supported Agriculture

It does not mean starter plants from Wal-Mart.

[TomCADem]

3. To Be Fair Though...

Even under Walmart's definition, it is a lot better than what I see in my California super market where a lot of the produce comes from outside of the country.

"Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest retailer, considers anything local if it's grown in the same state as it's sold, even if that's a state as big as Texas and the food comes from a farm half the size of Manhattan, as in the case of the 7,000-acre Ham Produce in North Carolina."

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Safety is not the driving factor of choosing local, it seems to me.

It's about supporting local businesses and using less fossil fuels to transport food to consumers.

[TomCADem]

5. Just Saw Iron Chef - The White House Is Featured In Episode

Promoting local ingedients. Kudos to the White House on this one.

[LWolf]

4. Safety isn't the reason that people choose locally grown foods.

It's an economic choice.

My local farmer's markets offer good choices, and a colleague's family has a local farm. He keeps us supplied with corn and peaches in season.

My neighbor has a 5 acre garden, and is always willing to sell to me, as well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. My local farmer's market...

sells locally organic produce... as far afield as next county.

It is more expensive, to a point, but the quality is amazing.

[LeftyMom]

7. I buy local, and I mean really local, produce because it tastes better.

Most of my groceries come from our local co-op and they label their produce not only by the location where it comes from, but by the farm and how many miles away it is.

[SpiralHawk]

8. This new book tells of the food-farm revolution happening now

with food and farms -- urban, suburban, and rural -- and it cites model after model of how households, neighborhoods, towns, cities, churches and businesses can be involved. The Call of the Land: An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century -

http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[1]

9. when the local farmer sells you his produce, of course you believe it is better...

its local, right? therefore better.

the local farmer would never use pesticides to increase his yields. hell no.

the local farmer would never use genetically modified seed. hell no.

the local farmer is a stand up guy. he would never engage in the practices of those fucking corporate fuckers. hell no.


not the local farmer. never.

heh...

[vadawg]

11. yup unless you grow it yourself you can never be truly sure.

luckily my garden is big enough to supply enough veggies for my family and friends all through the season and we are still eating canned stuff, not sure what this year will hold but the wife wants to turn another 1/2 acre into a garden so her sister can grow stuff.

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13. it is good to be truly sure... i hope you have a bountiful garden this year...

[vadawg]

14. lol i got to confess i could do with less bounty this year, harvesting, canning etc

can get to be a bit much :) i think the 100 or so different tomato plants that my wife had should have alerted me that i would be doing a lot of work.

[1]

15. yeah, but its good work. so much good food. you *complain*, but i'd bet you are deep down happy...

i know i am when the horn of plenty is full.

bliss...

[vadawg]

16. rofl you are so right, i would have killed to have this much food growing up so its good i can

complain now, if it wasnt for the luxurys we could easily feed ourselves on the garden, deer on our property and local fish. Now if i could just discover oil :)

[Hannah Bell]

10. Does "locally grown" = higher priced? If so, I'd bet Walmart takes a higher profit margin.

Like "natural" food -- first they make what was ordinary uncommon, then they sell it to you as higher-priced yuppie exotica.

[1]

12. ain't no rules, hannah. "locally grown" is the new "organic." if you believe, then i guess it is...

if you believe what you are eating is wholesome, then you are better for that?

right?

[SpiralHawk]

19. If you know the farmers who grew your food, and how they grew it

then you can be assured the food is clean, no matter what anyone calls it, no matter how the name is coopted or exploited...

[elleng]

17. 'Locally grown' means different things to different people.

Because there are so many of us, and its such a big country, it gets VERY complicated.
Different people want 'locally grown' for different reasons, as we can see by reading our comments. AND when some want to impose RULES on 'what means locally,' and it becomes DIFFICULT in addition to the complicated.

[old mark]

18. UC Davis - the agribusiness school. Of course she would not support

growing your own food - she wants to sell you more plastic tomatos.

OP, we have had some success growing vegies in planters on our patio - greens and salad vegies grow just fine in a plastic box, as do green beans if you let them climb poles or fence. We got great sweet peppers and some good tomatos out of our porch garden last summer, too.
Strawberries are supposed to do well , but we have not tried them yet.
\
mark

[Taitertots]

It means worse for the environment

Large farms exploit economies of scale. For the same output, small local organic farms are generally way worse for the environment.

[Taitertots]

20. But not as bad as double posts.

[a kennedy]

21. this should make you sick........

Something doesn’t quite add up about genetically modified (GM) foods.

Big biotech claims that genetic engineering is a necessary step towards feeding the world’s growing population. And yet debate still rages as to whether GM crops actually increase yields at all. Furthermore, the UN recently stated that 30,000 people a day were starving to death, but not because of underproduction of crops. It’s simply through lack of access.

Independent scientific studies raised serious alarm bells over the safety of GM foods over a decade ago. But while this made front-page headlines in European newspapers, the North American mainstream media were conspiratorially silent.

Biotech companies stand to make billions from their seed patents. Governments and supreme courts have sanctioned the patenting of life itself. The planet’s food supply is becoming increasingly dominated by fewer and fewer players.

If the biotech industry’s stated intention of feeding the world is misguided or even misdirecting, is there another political agenda behind GM food? Have we been mis-sold? Were we even given a choice in the first place?

Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, reveals the shocking truth behind GM foods and the huge effort by governments and Biotech corporations to keep it out of the mainstream media and outside of your awareness.

WORDS: Jeffrey M. Smith

It looks the same—the bread, pies, sodas, even corn on the cob. So much of what we eat every day looks just like it did 20 years ago. But something profoundly different has happened without our knowledge or consent. And according to leading doctors, what we don’t know may already be hurting us big time.

In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) publicly condemned genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply, saying they posed “a serious health risk.” They called on the US government to implement an immediate moratorium on all genetically modified (GM) foods, and urged physicians to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients.

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=4302