The Red and Black

I don't get it.

I don't get it.

me neither. This is really confusing.

I want to thank Jennifer taking the time to write this article on the importance of buying locally. I also want to thank the Red and Black for putting this article on the front page. The majority of our food travels 1500 to 2500 miles from farm to plate and simply by buying food locally you are helping to eliminate the transportation of food from across the country or across the world that contributes to global warming. However, I wish Jennifer could have delved deeper into the other benefits of buying our food from local sources.

I find it ironic that the UGA homepage featured an article on the growing concern of ensuring food safety and consumer health from foods imported from other countries. Cued for the solution to these problems, Michael Doyle, director of the UGA Center for Food Safety, proposed that the "solutions to today's food safety issues will not come easily" and that "they will require a major research commitment to developing the state of the science methods to detect, control, and eliminate harmful substances in food...especially those that are imported."

I disagree. The answer is quite easy. Buy locally.

I would challenge Mr. Doyle to visit a farmers' market. I believe Mr. Doyle would find plenty of sustainable organic local farmers growing healthy and safe food. He would find farmers who would gladly invite him over for dinner and be invested, as a friend and neighbor, in his health and safety from their food.

Then I would question why he thinks we should invest federal tax dollars in technology that encourages an industrialized system of agriculture that requires us to import food just so we can have cheap food at the expense of small scale farmers both here and in other countries. Why can't we invest in our local economy, into creating a community food infrastructure that can supply the majority of our food needs without exploitation and marginalization.

And the benefits of buying locally go beyond food safety, environmental protection, and supporting local economies. Buying locally supports local farms and farmers who are working hard, even in the heat waves of August, to stay on their land and provide us with food grown for taste. Compared to a tomato grown by a faceless industrial agribusiness corporation in Mexico that is genetically modified for uniformity, grown to withstand mechanical harvesting, picked green to endure thousands of miles of transportation, and gassed with ethanol to "ripen" it to red before being put in the supermarket produce aisle, a locally grown heirloom Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, or Big Boy tomato, carefully tended, allowed to ripen on the vine and hand picked by someone you can actually meet face to face, seems the only sane, safe, nutritional, and tasty choice.

I should mention in closing that there are organizations right here in Athens working on creating a sustainable and tasty future and local food culture. I have started PLACE (Promoting Local Agriculture and Cultural Experiences, Inc., website: www.localplace.org) which, like the acronym states, is trying to support and increase the number of farmers and the availability of locally grown food to all Athenians, including university students. There is also Athens Urban Food Collective, a service learning organization that grows local organic food for the hungry on the roof of the Geography building. Athens also has a chapter of the international local food movement, Slow Food (www.slowfoodusa.org). And there are many, many more people and organizations working on the simple solution to solving all the problems around our failing industrial food system.

Bravo Jennifer, from now on I will only buy Bananas that are grown in Georgia. Oh.... wait......