Is Eating Local Good for Poor Farmers?
The choice between eating cheap supermarket food versus being a sustainable locavore is not really as simple as it looks, at least if your goal is to make the world a better place.
You might think that an all-organic, all-local diet would be best for the environment, for your health, and for an ethical world economy—but not always. Maybe not even most of the time.
Sometimes food from halfway around the world has a smaller carbon footprint than food produced locally. Many poor farmers are “organic” because they simply can’t afford fertilizers and pesticides—in which case they probably can’t afford the “organic” certification, either.
Add in the issue of farm subsidies and their negative effects on third-world farmers and things start to get really complicated.
So should people who shop exclusively at farmers markets feel even more guilty than they probably already do? Overthinkers will be happy to learn that there is no consensus, though pretty much everyone agrees we should ditch the Farm Bill. (Except for the people who get money from the Farm Bill, of course.)
B. Traven is a Billfold reader (guess which one of you!) who sends us so many tips, we just had to give him a byline. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Worth noting that about 70% of spending in the Farm Bill is on SNAP (food stamps), which certainly make a difference to poor people.
@nudenixon The Farm Bill is a monster, it’s true, but the part the author probably wants to see cut are commodity subsidies, specifically those paid out to corn, sugar, and soy, which are disproportionately used in processed foods. He/she may also have been referring to crop insurance direct payments/shallow loss, which mostly go to large, established farms, or referring to conservation programs, which pay farmers to leave land fallow.
@nudenixon That’s a good point — SNAP being in the Farm Bill actually provides a lot of political cover for what would otherwise be quite a vulnerable program. In an ideal world, of course, it would be cash-based assistance…
@nudenixon @stuffisthings I mean, I think it’s an explicit political motivation, the inclusion of SNAP to prevent the Democrats from being able to vote against it. The Farm Bill has something for everyone.
In my humble opinion, this is a terribly gross oversimplification of the issue, or perhaps just very poorly titled.
Corn, sugar, soy, etc subsidies aside, purchasing directly from the farmer is extremely beneficial to the farmer as well as the bigger food picture. Produce from the grocery store tends to pay about 25% of the purchase price to the farmer. The remaining money goes to the grocer and middlemen transporting the food. Produce purchased from a farmers market puts about 95% of the purchase price back in the farmer’s pocket, in addition to developing a relationship with your food producer. Establishing a trusting relationship with your preferred food grower lessens the need for an expensive organic certification because you can visit the farm or just talk with them to understand that their growing methods meet your preferences.
Ugh, sorry. Food politics boils my blood.
@sox Most poor farmers don’t live in the USA though!
It’s stuffisthings isn’t it?
@Megano! – haha I said the same thing.
@Megano! That was my first thought, too.
Confirm/deny, stuffisthings?
@TheclaAndTheSeals It’s not me.
@Ret Marut +1
B.Traven is Stuff&Things?
Am I the only one who can’t afford to shop at Farmers Markets? They’re insane with their pricing!
I have a CSA with a family I met at my farmers market. They aren’t organic, but organic =/= sustainable. Keith and Angela grow good food. They’re not poor and desperate, but they are not rich by any means. I have a good job and can afford this and I’m happy to support them. My parents house is surrounded by fields that use to be my grandparents. Last summer my dad noticed that the corn in his garden had some beetles but the corn surrounding the perimeter of our land was completely barren of life because of the pesticides. My dad’s pretty conservative, but he feels the pesticides are going too far. That farmer (who my dad knows personally) is doing a lot better than Keith and Angela. I’m not happy my tax dollars is supporting that corn around my parents house. I don’t know any Chilean farmers, but I’d wager that there are some messed up US policy that benefits the guy on top and I’m betting the guy on top is not the Chilean farmer and whether I buy my produce from them or Keith and Angela is the least of their problems.