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February 2005
Local Food Trumps Border Opening
Dear Friends,
I’m really not a good card player, but I do know the importance of having a few trump cards in your hand. These days, consumers, whether they realize it or not, are the ones who rightfully hold the trump cards in food and agriculture policy.
The latest Canadian case of mad cow and the insistence on the part of USDA to remain on schedule for opening the border for Canadian beef has farm groups scratching their heads.
The grassroots rancher group, R-CALF, filed a lawsuit against USDA to force an injunction on the border opening. Even groups that fully support the opening like American Farm Bureau and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association relayed their own reservations. Farmers I’ve talked with who like opening the border believe we should wait until trade partners like Japan have agreed to purchase our beef again.
But no one seems to be asking U.S. consumers how they feel. Even if the idea of opening the border is based on "sound science" as USDA suggests, and the human health risk is only perceived, eroding consumer confidence in food safety is still bad for farmers.
But farmers are probably not the top priority. Other business interests often trump farmers and even consumers when it comes to food policy.
Yet consumers should be the ones who play the final card. In our area, you can always vote with your forks who you want raising your food.
You can purchase beef and pork from local farmers and hometown lockers, where you know the animals were raised by farmers right here.
Folks can take advantage more often of all the locally raised food sources - beef, pork, lamb, bison, elk, ostrich, poultry and eggs, milk, honey and fruits and vegetables in season.
Voting with your fork for local food keeps those dollars churning in our own communities and supports farmers just down the road.
To maintain a strong, family farm economy in our region, local consumers, restaurants, caterers, schools, nursing homes and hospitals need to begin to look to local farmers to directly supply at least part of their food needs. And farmers need to seek out expertise on how to fill those orders too. When that connection is made, it sustains our family farms and it gives consumers actual control over the food we place on our family’s table. That’s a trump card tough to beat.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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