Letter to the Editor: Local Food is the Alternative Source

The existing U.S. food industry is a finely tuned system that relies on regional, national and international food sources. It moves produce, value-added products and processed foods from one side of the globe to the other and makes available practically anything you want to eat, any time you want to eat it.

So what’s the complaint?

The problem is that the U.S. food industry has the luxury of externalizing many of its costs. Consumers believe that the price paid at checkout represents all they pay, but this is far from the truth. Externalized costs are negative impacts that also affect people outside of those transactions.

For example, the pesticide and herbicide runoff from large farm operations accumulates in streams and rivers and ends up polluting everyone's water; however, it is the taxpayer’s dollars that are used to clean up the mess.

One reason the U.S. food industry has low prices is because it can pass its external costs on to the consumer, whether we recognize it or not. Local food cost more, because the prices that are charged include the financial, social and environmental costs that cannot, and should not be passed off.

Some say the U.S. could resolve many of its health care costs if we ate better. For many — based on their diets — obesity, diabetes and heart disease are a way of life. This is not by choice, but is because inexpensive processed foods are readily available, easy to prepare and are very convincingly marketed. It is nice to be able to afford healthy, fresh food — but for many Americans this is not an option.

In moving goods around the world, we are burning significant amounts of fuel and needlessly polluting the environment in the process. If we concentrated on growing, selling and eating more local foods, we would not need to depend upon the existing international network of transportation facilities.

The U.S. food industry, like all businesses, has its bottom line, and it is profit. Local food has three bottom lines.

The first, just like the U.S. food industry, is also profit; but local profits are significantly impacted by having to compete with large corporations that are able to receive subsidies paid by taxpayers and favorable regulatory actions provided through lobbyists.

Another bottom line is local employment and promoting a community framework for doing business. Sure there is need for other domestic and foreign sources of goods, but that doesn’t have to be the norm — it could be the exception.

The final bottom line is the environment and promoting sustainable farming practices. Reducing dependency on fossil fuels by reducing demand for foreign and exotics goods goes a long way toward improving the environment.

Local food creates local employment and keeps money local. Local food promotes community – you know where your goods are coming from and who is being employed by your consumption dollar. Local food also promotes the environment because it is intended to be sustainable.

For those who have attended the Port Washington Winter Farmer’s Market at the , 135 N. Webster St. — thank you for your support. We do it again February 26 and March 26, the last Saturdays of the month. For those who have not taken the opportunity, please come out and support the local producers.

Amy and Pat Wilborn