It all changed for me when I was 11 years old. Our family was celebrating Thanksgiving with our family friends whom own a farm. This was not your typical Thanksgiving with a Butterball Turkey and shrink-wrapped vegetables for Safeway. We spent the entire day cultivating and harvesting all the vegetables from the farm and making everything from scratch. The most shocking, and yet important aspect of the day, was the preparation of the Turkey. It was the first time I had seen an animal of any size killed, and 10 hours later as we sat down to eat, I felt this amazing connection to the food we were eating, because I was no longer able to take it for granted.
Do you care where your food comes from? The fact of the matter is that even though many of you readers may be well versed in eating locally, there is still a huge percentage of the state that is either unaware or unfazed by this question. Many people focus solely on the price of the food they’re buying, or maybe you simply don’t think that it matters, or perhaps you’re turned off by the notion of “healthy, locally sustainable food” because of the Boulderite granola stigma that is attached. These deterrents may be blinding you from seeing the tangible positive impacts that eating locally will have on our great state of Colorado. Eating locally will bolster Colorado’s economy, and in turn benefit the health of the state, but psychically and environmentally.
Colorado’s economy is in need of growth. I think we can all agree with that. Putting an emphasis on eating locally will greatly stimulate the economy directly through the purchasing of goods, but because that money will stay in the state, instead of being spent on imports that money will continue to flow throughout the state. There is already an organization focused on growing the economy through local food initiatives. Colorado Local Sustainability was founded in 2007 with the goals bringing sustainability to the forefront of Colorado. Their mission statement states, “The goal of Colorado Local Sustainability is to unite farmers, ranchers, and consumers in order to stimulate the sustainable local food economy in Colorado.” They understand that we live in an amazingly productive agricultural and meat-producing state, and that focusing on growing the local food economy would help to stimulate the entire states economy. Their informational pages show that “smaller farms tend to be 2-10 times more productive than larger farms.” This shows that we don’t need to rely on multinational corporations to produce our food, that if Colorado consumers demanded local ingredients, smaller environmentally sustainable farms would continue to rise all over the state. All Colorado politicians and pushing the growth of small business owners, and here is the perfect solution. The more food we can produce in state, the less money spent we will spend importing food from food-producing giants like California, and Florida. I know what your thinking, this sounds great, but the fact of the matter is that locally produced food is too expensive. My solution for this is two-fold. Firstly, in the long-run the prices will decrease, as small farms continue to grow there will be an influx in the supply of locally produced food which will subsequently drive the prices down. Secondly I’m proposing that to give this movement the necessary quick start to bolster the economy, the Colorado Government offer a subsidy to farmers growing and selling their crops in state. If farmers are able to produce goods at a cheaper cost, they will obviously be able to sell the goods at a cheaper price as well. And the money spent by the government will continually circulate throughout the states economy and boost the states gross domestic product, which is an indicator of the states standard of living. The economic impact is huge and widespread but that is not the only thing that will benefit from eating locally.
Take a moment and think to yourself, why do I life in Colorado? Whether it’s why did I move to Colorado, or if you were born here, why did I decide to stay? The answer will surely be different for most of you, but I’m guessing that for a lot of you the connection to the outdoors plays a large role. From skiing to biking, hiking to camping, or even simply enjoying the view, Colorado is one of the most beautiful states in the country. The Colorado Ski Pass’ slogan is simply, “It’s why you live here.” It is ok if you don’t share the same environmental fervor as those “Prius driving hippies,” but we can all agree that keeping Colorado’s plentiful outdoor areas pristine is important, and eating locally will help.
Colorado is one of the most environmentally conscious and friendly states in the country. Colorado, along with California, and New Jersey offer the greatest government subsidies for research and spending on alternative energy. Even though Colorado makes a vehement effort to protect the environment, global warming is surely occurring, and eating locally can play a crucial part in slowing the effects on our planet. Worldwide environmental protection organization, National Resource Defense Council, or NRDC, started the “Growing Green Awards” in 2007 to honor farmers and businesses and to promote the environmental and health benefits of sustainable farming and sustainable food. The NRDC has published a pamphlet, “Food Miles: how far your food travels has serious consequences on your health and the climate.” Some of the data points are shocking, it states that the “average American meal contains ingredients from at least five countries outside of the United States.” Not only does this speak to the unnatural and unnecessary mixing of goods, but also the sheer amount of pollutants that are being spewed into the air by ships and planes delivery food around the world. We are lucky enough to live in a state, where we need not rely on food production from China, Chile, New Zealand, or Argentina. If we all start to begin to make the effort to support local food producers and farmers we could start to turn around this trend that is unnecessarily causing hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of tons of green house gases to be emitted throughout the world, all the while growing the states economy. I understand that this is a global issue, and it may not be easy to see that your changes will have an impact, but every person matters, and Colorado could be at the forefront of a global movement toward local food sustainability.
Eating locally will not only benefit the environmental health of the state, but also the physical health of the population of Colorado. Colorado is the leanest state in the country, which is something all of you should be proud of, however 19.1% of the adult population is still obese, and that is a growing number. Obesity is the commonly discussed topic when dealing with health, and rightfully so, but you can still be slim and unhealthy and much of that is determined by the quality of food you’re eating. Now that eating healthily has begun to take off, companies are catching on, and are starting to market their foods as healthy or organic regardless of its true merit. With no relationship to the farms or food producer there is no way to weed through the millions of dollars of branding to find the true nutritional value. By eating locally sustainable produced food, the consumer would finally have genuine knowledge on the food they are eating. Although the vast majority are, I understand that not every single small sustainable farm is organic, which is why I’m also purposing that Colorado state elevate it’s organic certification requirements. As of now, California is the only state with a strict regulated organic certification process, and Colorado should follow suit. If we implemented a government regulated entity that regulated and certified organic farmers then the “Colorado Certified Organic” stamp from certain farmers would genuinely show the consumers the dedication towards producing healthy goods.
The tangible benefits to Colorado of eating locally are wonderful, but to me there is a moral aspect of this movement that is astronomically important. For thousands of years humans have been eating food that by hunting and gathering and over the past 75 years or so, we have become more and more detached from our food and the process by which animals and plants become our food. I understand that we live in a world where not everyone will get his or her own food but eating locally produced food is a giant step in the right direction. I implore you all to form relationships with your farmers and talk with your butchers. Find out about natural growing seasons and the wonders of eating produce grown in its peak season versus eating tomatoes grown in the winter. Try to understand and appreciate that meat doesn’t come wonderfully laid out and wrapped in plastic in your grocery story, that at one point that was a living animal whom in many cases lived in a cage barley the size of its body. Have empathy for the animals that are being killed to provide us with food. Eating locally will stimulate the economy while bettering the health of Colorado and it’s population, but even more than that it will push us all to become more connected to our food. And if you can, spend a day out in a farm, get your hands dirty, and hey, it may affect you the same way it did me.
No comments:
Post a Comment