Think Local
By Chris Hoffman
(Sherburne, NY – March 2014) According to Bryan Walsh of TIME magazine, every square mile of California is in some state of drought. Central California’s agricultural heartland, almost 15 percent of the State, is in the most extreme state of drought. Rainfall in some of the most populated parts of the state has been all but nonexistent. Since July 1 last year, San Francisco has had less than six inches of rain (35 percent of normal) and Los Angeles has received just 1.2 inches of rain, less than 10 percent of the average. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada basin, which provides much of California’s water, is less than half below average. This drought will likely cost the state and the country billions of dollars.
Alex Park and Julia Lurie provide some alarming statistics in Mother Jones’ article, “It Takes How Much Water to Grow an Almond?” California produces nearly half of all U.S. fruits, vegetables, and nuts, including 95 percent of all U.S. broccoli, 92 percent of the strawberries, 91 percent of the grapes, 90 percent of the tomatoes, and 74 percent of the lettuce. Much of California’s agriculture is concentrated in parts of the state where the drought has hit the hardest, such as Monterey County, which grew nearly half of America’s lettuce and broccoli in 2012. It takes 5.4 gallons of water to grow one head of broccoli, 3.5 gallons for one head of lettuce, and 3.5 gallons for one tomato.
On Jan. 15 this year, Congress released a new report on “The U.S. Trade Situation for Fruit and Vegetable Products.” Salient points include:
U.S. fruit and vegetable exports totaled more than $7 billion in 2011, while U.S. imports of fruits and vegetables exceeded $18 billion. Over time, the United States has gone from being a net exporter of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables in the early 1970s to being a net importer of fruits and vegetables today.
The total value of U.S. fruit and vegetable imports has more than tripled since the 1990s. Increased imports were greatest for fresh citrus, strawberries, berries, tropical fruits (excluding bananas), grapes, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, and apples.
The four largest importers are Mexico (36 percent, including tomatoes, avocados, peppers, grapes, cucumbers, melons, berries, onions, asparagus, lemons); Canada (12 percent, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, cucumbers, mushrooms, beans, carrots, fresh/preserved vegetables/fruits); China (8 percent, including fruit juices, citrus, processed/frozen fruit and vegetables, onions, garlic, preserved mushrooms, stone fruit); and Chile (8 percent, including grapes, cranberries, apples, avocados, citrus, stone fruit, berries, fruit juices). In other words, we get 64 percent of our fruits and vegetables from these four countries, NOT from our own farmland.
A growing share of U.S. fruit and vegetable trade (both imports and exports) is carried out by U.S. and foreign multinational companies or enterprises. These companies may produce the products they trade, while some may only further process products and some companies only trade the products of other firms. Among the reasons why companies choose to extend their businesses globally are to build a global supply base to ensure continued, year-round supplies to meet demand, but also to source lower-cost production in countries with relatively lower input and technology costs, particularly for labor [emphasis mine].
So, the biggest agricultural state is running out of water and the U.S. is now importing more than half the produce you see in the supermarket, mainly because it’s cheaper for Big Ag, facilitated by trade agreements that favor multinational corporations over domestic farmers. But the consumer never benefits at checkout, and most of the time we don’t even know how supermarket produce is grown or whether it contains genetically modified organisms.
Reading these articles and others over the past few weeks, I can only conclude that the writing’s on the wall. The current system of food production and distribution is not sustainable, for many reasons. If ever there was a time to consider joining a CSA farm, restricting our purchases to seasonal produce at local farmers markets and farm stores, and weaning ourselves away from supermarket produce, it is NOW. Farmshed CNY has a directory of CSAs and local farm markets here: http://directory.farmshedcny.com/.
CSAs in the Courier’s reading area include:
Common Thread Community Farm, Madison
Alambria Springs Farm, Earlville
Greyrock Farm CSA, Cazenovia
Lucky Moon Farm, Cazenovia
Red Tail Hawk Farms, Chittenango
Hartwood Farm, Fenner
Three Goat Farm/Szarek Greenhouses, Clinton
Quarry Brook Farm, Sherburne