What Would It Look Like If Rural Mattered?
The development of local foods systems across the country should be applauded. Diverse economic opportunities for family farmers and ranchers that supply local food systems are worth pursuing. Providing high quality food with some character to our urban cousins also has merit. “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaigns and other local food initiatives also create economic opportunities for local merchants and restaurants.
However, I should be able to buy actual food from actual farmers from somewhere near where I live. I went to the grocery store here in Lyons the other day. The folks there are nice, the prices are not too bad, and there is more selection than one might expect.
But among my food purchases there was only one item – potatoes – that I could be reasonably confident had been produced in Nebraska. Theoretically, the pork might have come from Nebraska too, but there is just no way of being certain.
The reason my trip to the grocery store stood out in my mind is that it drove the point home, yet again, that much of the economic benefit from farming and ranching has been lost to farming and ranching communities.
Rural communities have lost too many grocery stores, butchers, locker plants, bakeries, breweries, and every other imaginable type of local food processing. The diminished commerce in food and the consequent loss of jobs, income, and quality of life are starkest, ironically, in the very places where much of our nation’s agricultural production occurs.
But there is hope. These last two summers I have had the great pleasure of buying vegetables at our local farmers market that were grown just outside Lyons by Lucy Alexander. Vintners like Tim Nissen of Hartington, Nebraska, are bringing grape growing and wine making to new places in rural America. And I can still buy some of the best beef and pork anywhere in locker plants in Bancroft, Nebraska, and Edgewood or Holy Cross, Iowa.
If Congress made a priority of investing in initiatives like the Farmers Market Promotion Program, Value Added Producer Grants, and the Rural Entrepreneurship and Microenterprise Assistance Program that have and could help rebuild rural food systems, then there would be a lot more people like Lucy and Tim in rural America. And rural Americans would have a lot better choices for spending their food dollar. That is another glimpse of what it would look like if rural really mattered.
Contact: John Crabtree, 402.687.2103 x 1010 or johnc@cfra.org, with comments or ideas on this continuing series. Send John your version of what it would look like if rural really mattered. You can leave your comments here as well.
However, I should be able to buy actual food from actual farmers from somewhere near where I live. I went to the grocery store here in Lyons the other day. The folks there are nice, the prices are not too bad, and there is more selection than one might expect.
But among my food purchases there was only one item – potatoes – that I could be reasonably confident had been produced in Nebraska. Theoretically, the pork might have come from Nebraska too, but there is just no way of being certain.
The reason my trip to the grocery store stood out in my mind is that it drove the point home, yet again, that much of the economic benefit from farming and ranching has been lost to farming and ranching communities.
Rural communities have lost too many grocery stores, butchers, locker plants, bakeries, breweries, and every other imaginable type of local food processing. The diminished commerce in food and the consequent loss of jobs, income, and quality of life are starkest, ironically, in the very places where much of our nation’s agricultural production occurs.
But there is hope. These last two summers I have had the great pleasure of buying vegetables at our local farmers market that were grown just outside Lyons by Lucy Alexander. Vintners like Tim Nissen of Hartington, Nebraska, are bringing grape growing and wine making to new places in rural America. And I can still buy some of the best beef and pork anywhere in locker plants in Bancroft, Nebraska, and Edgewood or Holy Cross, Iowa.
If Congress made a priority of investing in initiatives like the Farmers Market Promotion Program, Value Added Producer Grants, and the Rural Entrepreneurship and Microenterprise Assistance Program that have and could help rebuild rural food systems, then there would be a lot more people like Lucy and Tim in rural America. And rural Americans would have a lot better choices for spending their food dollar. That is another glimpse of what it would look like if rural really mattered.
Contact: John Crabtree, 402.687.2103 x 1010 or johnc@cfra.org, with comments or ideas on this continuing series. Send John your version of what it would look like if rural really mattered. You can leave your comments here as well.
»
Comments
If Rural Mattered?
If Rural Mattered?
I am a 61 yo single female with extremely limited resources, and am currently emersed in developing what is classified as an organic micro-farm in a NW Washington State rural collar surrounding a major economic engine, Portland, OR. With well-demonstrated successful accommodations such as lateral and container growing, intensive production can be achieved anywhere including urban environments. I grow as much of my own food as possible as well as several products for market. My goal is to become mostly food self-sufficient + to establish a viable income stream to enrich my pitiful SS Retirement income which starts in 4.5 years. I do this because I love it and keep in mind that I am smart and have a lifetime of relevant experience and skills but let me tell you just how difficult it is to make this lifestyle work.....
First, although the DOL has no job title for a solo small vegetable producer, I am doing this job and will until the day I die. But in order to, I must continually purchase at retail prices, the ongoing necessary materials and resources for this entrepreneurial enterprise. Then there is the problem of how to get to the customer who wants to buy from me....the cost of selling through Farmer's Markets is too high -- the flat fees are required no matter how much you sell, there are on-site set-up materials and labor, you have unprofitable sitting time when you could be better used elsewhere, you cannot avoid high gasoline expenses, and you have lost income from unsold presicous produce which you had to invest in but will ultimately end up donating to the local food bank.
An alternative, the CSA business model, requires too many management hours to operate (a profitable sized CSA) with anything less than a family-size labor force. And if you will look closely at the "successful" families engaged in this employment program, you will discover that many are working themselves to death and pushing their overused kids away from farm life faster than they are proving a viable business and healthy lifestyle model. Because I am required to work to come up with the outside income required to constantly re-invest in my ag business to keep it going, I could never manage even a small CSA, with it's emphasis on high customer satisfaction, no matter how organized and productive I was!
The ideal would be to sell (at a profit) to the natural and organic food distributors and/or, stores. But this is a pipedream. Whole Foods for example, says in their literature that they want to support local, small growers, but when it comes down to actually making the deal, their hoops are so unrealistic that no one can break in to their private club of larger suppliers who endure fixed, wholesale pricing which steals any possible profit that a talented small grower could eak out. Their dilemena is trying to compete in the customer's eye, with beautiful looking, much lower-cost standard produce.
So what would rural look like in my ideal world? It would entail setting up systems of economic viability across the spectrum required for those pioneers willing to end agriculture's addiction to petro-chemicals and return to human-scale, local, direct, compost-produced agriculture. If rural mattered, we would sponsor micro-farmers with business start-up funds and tax credits, based on the premise that every tomato diverted from the odyssey of cross-continental transporation is more worthy than an ear of subsidized corn intended for biodeisil. If rural mattered, we would facilitate and reward the ordinary consumer willing to support the small producers living nearby. If rural mattered, we would invest in a major educational campaign akin to the anti-smoking campaign, and we would change the paradigm which results in the choices we make about what every person in this country puts into their body.
Post new comment