Local Resiliance

Thanks to Alice Waters' blog for this image. She is the mother of the local food movement in this country.

Readers of this blog are likely all aware of the goal of local, ethical sourcing. Eating closer to home and seeking out the farmers markets, farms and restaurants that share that philosophy. But Naomi Klein talks about why a decentralized, multi-provider food system is a good idea. In her new book, The Battle for Paradise, she takes on the idea of disaster capitalism and how things like monocropping and concentration of power can result in negative outcomes. 

During the years when not only Michiana but the entire country underwent a food revolution, food sources moved from small local and regional growers and producers to more and more regional, then national and international growers and producers. Food became an industry. Rather than being able to rely on local products, consumers, institutions like schools and hospitals and restaurateurs began to be channeled into national brands, low cost producers and food items created for their simplicity and ease in shipping rather than their taste and nutrition.

Now as more and more individuals and businesses seek out local items, possibly even those that are foraged, or choose to make their own breads, sausages, beers, soups and more, they face a different challenge. Amid plenty, there are local food deserts.

Unlike the kind of food deserts that occur when there is no access to healthy food, these food deserts result when there aren’t enough local producers to fill the desires of eaters and restaurateurs for local products. Goals of “eating local” can only be satisfied so far until supply catches up with demand. And can only genuinely be satisfied when diners’ expect and enjoy changing menus, reflecting precisely what’s available rather than what one “has a taste for.” Eating with the seasons means that change is inevitable.

Such eaters and local-focused institutions are reclaiming the specialness, freshness and taste of local. They are working as quickly and as much as the situation permits with farmers, producers, foragers and suppliers to eradicate their local food desert. The goal: rebuilding a food system rooted in a specific place.

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