FARMERS’ MARKETS BRING OUR FOOD CLOSER
Sustaining New Jersey Agriculture Benefits Everyone
by Gray Russell, member Board of Trustees
New Jersey Council of Farmers & Communities
One of the enduring pleasures of summer is the appearance of fresh fruits and vegetables as close as your local community farmers market. Each week until Thanksgiving, New Jerseyans have a marvelous and all-too-rare opportunity to not only purchase healthy, Jersey-fresh produce, taste delicious “slow food” nibbles from local chefs, listen to some live music, and mingle with neighbors in the bustling markets. The markets are a tradition as old a civilization itself, offering opportunities for those unfamiliar with tilling the land to actually get to know those who grow the food they buy.
This pleasure shouldn’t be taken for granted. Community farmers markets are relatively recent arrivals in New Jersey, going back only as far as the early 1990s. Happily, they’re becoming more and more popular; 2007 will boast more than 80 throughout the state. Once as common as simply “going to market,” now it is a rarity, not to be taken lightly, to be able to personally ask growers about picking times, fertilizing practices, seasonal harvest schedules, cooking suggestions and recipes, or what sprays may or may not have been used (locally-grown produce is either organic or else uses much less pesticides than store-bought, due to new technology and shortened travel times).
On The Road Again
Our growers bring us just-picked produce directly from farms less than 60 miles away. This is a more sustainable and secure trade method than our predominant food system. Consider that the average American meal consists of foods that travel average distances of 1,500 miles. For example, a head of lettuce bought in a supermarket likely was grown in California. Yet New Jersey is called the Garden State!
Our diet generally is extremely energy-dependent, especially upon oil. We require substantial amounts of cheap oil to grow and harvest, and then to transport, refrigerate, process, store, package, and sell our food. And distances between field and table are getting farther, as demand for year-round access to fresh produce increases, causing energy use to soar.
As gas prices increase, every stage of our food system becomes more expensive and costs us more at the supermarket. This has a significant impact on our farmers, many of whom are struggling already. In addition, our globalized food system is increasingly vulnerable now to disruption due to oil shortages, weather catastrophes, even terrorism.
It is estimated that if a major disruption happened, New York City has only a two-to three-day supply of food. After that it would begin to get ugly. A region that is instead dependent on a closer food source and delivery system is a more self-reliant community.
To paraphrase the common dictum: They aren’t making any new farmland. Once we lose a farm there is no getting it back. Either our New Jersey farms are supported by our purchases of their products or they will disappear. And like extinction, that’s forever.
Currently, our federal government props up the long-distance food supply lines through oil, water, and highway subsidies. We should be also promoting sustainable agriculture, locally grown foods, and energy-efficient transportation.
Farmers’ markets and CSAs (community-supported agriculture food co-ops) eliminate unnecessary food travel and improve local food security. They also use less packaging than shipped or processed foods, which means less energy wasted and less garbage requiring disposal, too. Like the Victory Gardens of WWII, they are a patriotic way to feed our families.
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