The loss of local food sovereignty

For the third time in as many years, the U.S. will be a net importer of food in 2007. According to data from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), the U.S. is facing an increasing threat to its food sovereignty. Like our dependence upon foreign oil, we are becoming a society dependant upon other nations for its food supply. Imagine a headline referring to an Organization of Food Exporting Countries (OFEC) cartel:

OFEC announces food cutbacks, prices expected to rise

But don’t be shocked. For more than a decade now, right here in Michigan’s Great Southwest, we have been a net importer of strawberries, peaches, nectarines, tray-packed apples, plums, sweet cherries, Bartlett pears, fresh raspberries, onions, potatoes, and many other fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s the same story for chicken, beef, turkey, pork, and fish. And we shouldn't leave out dairy products because we’re net importers of those too. Of course, these farm products for the most part are being imported from other states. Still, when a region’s access to its own food industry is trumped by food being shipped in from other states and foreign nations, it means we have lost our local food sovereignty.

Now one might easily understand how such a thing could happen if we were discussing North and South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, or many other states lacking the soils and micro-climate we enjoy here in our corner of Michigan’s Water Wonderland. Yet Michigan leads all the other states in the production volume of fifteen agricultural commodities and ranks in the top ten for fifty more. How for example, can the third-leading state in the U.S. for apple production import more bulk fresh apples from Washington State, California, and New Zealand than it sells here in Michigan?

Actually, the answer is simpler than one may think: First, we are losing family farmers at an alarming rate. (As in ½ our apple orchards since 1982.) Second, we are still a much diversified agricultural production region, with only a couple of factory-styled farms producing the individual volume required to satisfy the needs of an increasingly consolidated retail foods industry. The rest do not produce enough of a single farm product to consistently supply the major chain stores. Third, we have experienced a collapse of local food processors, which means for the most part, we have access to locally grown food only on a seasonal basis. (And then only if we seek out farmers, fruit stands, and local farmers’ markets.) Finally, we the people don’t seem to care.

It’s this last aspect of not caring troubling me most, because unlike many other industries, the farming business cannot rebound once the land is developed. When a farm is converted to one acre lots and housing, it’s pretty much gone forever. So not caring has its consequences, and dependence upon others for food is what’s at stake. Not to mention the consequences of having no choice but to eat food harvested days or even weeks earlier, with little flavor, reduced nutritional value, and living in communities where food dollars are sent elsewhere instead of being circulated here.

Yet it’s not too late! If we make a choice to seek out local food producers, and make demands of our retailers to offer local farm products, and yes make a protectionist decision to stop buying those tasteless, tart, juice less, hollow, and hard California strawberries, we can regain our local food sovereignty. If we learn to freeze again, and dust off that old canner again, and relearn the experience of eating food that tastes good and is good for us, who knows what might happen.

Maybe someone will decide to open up a local foods store, or maybe someone will see there’s a market for canned Michigan peaches and invest in a commercial kitchen to do the processing. Maybe someone might even start to offer grass fed beef, free range chickens, and locally raised rainbow trout. Here within this unique corner of Michigan, just about anything is possible in agriculture. But only if we agree to a grass roots, bottom-up commitment to local food sovereignty, and then follow through with action....