“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences” —Susan B Anthony
I read this the other day and it got me to thinking about what’s been happening here, at Boston Localvore HQ, and out in the greater world of the local food frenzy.
We don’t have a mission statement, because those are for real organizations, not just couples posing as real organizations, but if we did it might say something about how the glories and tastes and good health side effects of eating local food should — must — be accessible to all income levels, or else this whole shift in the food system ain’t gonna fly. So it is with heavy hearts full of complicated feelings that we post announcements here for local foods events that cost between $80 and $150 per person.
On the other hand, as I was politely reminded by the organizer of one such event when I asked the other day, farms and growers and people involved in this whole shebang should be able to make money. Isn’t that part of the message here? That the real cost of food is high, that people in this country pay a ridiculously small percentage of their incomes on eating, that, if we’re to staunch the agricultural bleeding and the dying of so many small farms, it needs to pay?
This is from the email I exchanged with Diana at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton which is hosting a Localvore Lobsterbake this month. Tickets are $80 each:
“We believe farming should be an actual business model and not a non-profit seeking constant donations, because our customers are willing to pay for the quality of produce and believe in how we run our business. We do not believe farms should be subsidized by anyone but their customers, and that people should learn the real cost and value of small scale organically grown vegetables and animals.”
And it’s not as if some nice fresh, crisp lettuce costs $80 a head. There is still plenty of food that can be had on low incomes. I do understand that. But there is a perception problem out there, and I’m not sure that any other “organizations” are standing up, a la the radical and unstoppable Ms. B Anthony, and saying, you know what, let’s wipe some elitism off this and make it even more viable by making it even more universal. So here we are, wiping elitism (I know, weird analogy) off local foods.
We may reassess how to make this happen. Maybe it’s less event driven work and more getting-local-foods-into-local-grocery-stores-in-poorer-neighborhoods kind of work. Not sure yet. Any words of wisdom would be very welcome.
On a different note, this goat/Sistine Chapel piece of art posted above is was taken today at Red Fire Farm in Granby. The goat is Bridgette. The hand of God is Kristi’s. Red Fire is our CSA farm, and members are encouraged to make trips for pick-your-own fruits and veggies. We succeeded in our goal of making ourselves sick on cherry tomatoes, and would recommend a trip to your own CSA (or any farm whose produce you’ve been enjoying this season).
Tags: Rants
I wish I did have more ideas about how to “wipe off the elitism,” but I agree that it’s important, and if you end up coming up with some projects, I’d love to help!
Big up to Susan B. She’s not just for coin faces anymore. I’m currently enjoying locally grown corn and cantaloupes in Delaware from many of the local farms. The roadside stands down here are just ridiculous. You can get any and everything your little localvore heart desires. Clearly, I think of you both every time I see a sign welcoming wary travelers to the delights of the road side produce… it’s a glorious thing. The corn is just outrageously good down here (and it’s not in my gas tank which I also appreciate…).
Just to throw another wrench in the works, if I may: (at least one) historian(s) [http://foodinboston.com/index.php/2006/09/06/revolution-at-the-table/] argue that changes in people’s eating habits are also largely influenced by their economic aspirations.
This line of reasoning makes me wonder if the various high-priced local food dinners don’t serve a role beyond their direct economic support.
Even so, I can’t bring myself to post much about them on foodinboston, since I myself probably haven’t ever spent more than $40 for a meal…
Influenced by their economic aspirations? I think that is an interesting theory. I am curious about the economic aspirations or maybe just the inherited privilege of the historian who came up with it.
It’s such an endlessly nuanced thing, I think, our relationship with food. Cultural. Health. Vanity. Finances… But as a general statement, I think Most People know what they know about food because it has been passively told to them.
Mostly commercials, I guess, and Oprah. Maybe it’s one’s economic aspirations that determine whether they want to look outside of what they’ve been passively told about food?
But what happens when a book like Omnivore’s Dilemma is on Oprah’s book club?
First, off, hats off to you two, Boston Localvores, for bringing up this no-so-popular topic!
I’d like to add that I think its important that we try not to see concern in eating local or healthy as just an interest of those who are well off. Certainly affluence may have something to do with eating local’s current popularity, but I think there’s more to it than that. I also think one way to get away from the $80 dinner issue is to look at the existing practices of “eating local” that many people engage in without calling it that. My parents were working class immigrants from the Azores and they grew many of their own fruits and vegetables, canned fruits, made jams, made their own wine, etc. So, perhaps the best place to start is to start thinking about those practices that folks already engage in! It’s a good reminder that eating local is not just something that the wealthy should and do have access to— when we see these sorts of high-end events as the only examples we erase the significance of all these really creative ways in which people contribute to their own off-the-grid healthy eating.
That said, I think these events have their place because, yes, food producers need to make a living. I personally can’t afford to go to these events, but I hope that people who can afford them will support their local producers.
Thanks again for the great post.
Last time I subscribed to a CSA (which admittedly a couple of years ago…I haven’t felt like I could keep up with the quantities in the last couple of years so have been doing the farmer’s market thing instead) it actually represented a really good value when you broke down the costs per week for the giant box of vegetables we received. So direct partnerships between consumers and growers may be one idea. I even had a friend last year who negotiated her own CSA with a farmer at the market, which also worked out to be a good value for her - she paid him a bunch of money up front, and then got to pick a certain number of items each week.
Maybe there is a way to make these kinds of options available to more people, whether by helping them with pickup or delivery, or helping them to bear the initial costs of the CSA share….. In Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Barbara Kingsolver mentions a “vegetable bookmobile” that runs in a city near her home.
Meat is a whole other issue, of course, although as probably everyone reading this blog already knows, we don’t need to eat a huge chunk of it in every meal, and other sources of protein are just as healthy and generally much cheaper! So for the person with an average budget it’s possible to learn to manage your meat costs so that you are getting a better quality product but maybe not eating it all the time - if people are willing to make that shift.
For someone with a really tight food budget though the meat issue is still tricky. This is why my Italian immigrant forebears raised the occasional pig, or why my grandfather, even in later years, kept chickens and would sometimes “go in” on a pig with a friend - he would keep and raise it, the friend would help out with the costs, they would divvy up the meat. Admittedly, not for everyone, but economical!