Sustainable food | Organic certification levels vary and offer few guarantees, while higher prices can turn consumers away from buying local
Consumers are lazy. Organic claims are confusing. The definition of “local” varies. Food sustainability is within our grasp.
These themes and many others permeated a wide-ranging discussion Feb. 12 about supporting sustainable food.
Food activist Jill Cairns of Calgary, tomato producer Tony Legault of Nanton, Alta., and beef producer Wade Nelson of High River, Alta., acted as panelists while moderator Lorne Fitch of the Cows and Fish program struggled to focus discussion.
But among all the emerging themes, panelists agreed on at least one thing: consumers should better inform themselves about their food sources.
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“I would like people to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing and where they’re actually getting their information from,” said Cairns.
“Consumers have dropped the ball. They’re lazy.”
Cairns, a freelance farm activist, said many people are uninformed about the sources of their food and the way it is produced, moved and marketed. Most people have never had to go without food and take its availability and safety for granted.
She said that will eventually lead to crisis, and the signs are already there in the form of higher poverty levels, diseases related to poor nutrition, rising obesity rates and lack of resources and money to fix those problems.
Consumers often use time constraints as an excuse for relying on fast food and failing to better inform themselves about nutrition, food and local sources.
Cairns doesn’t buy that argument.
“Look again, because everybody’s got 24 hours in a day and everybody’s got, say, 72 years. I know you’re busy. Maybe some of those things (keeping you busy) aren’t as important as you think they are or maybe some of your motivation is more ego based than survival based.”
She said consumers should start by talking to produce managers at grocery stores and stating their preference for local food.
Legault operates Paradise Hill Farm, a greenhouse operation that supplies tomatoes to Calgary Co-op stores. He said informing consumers about how he produces his crop is part of his philosophy. Then it’s up to consumers to decide if they want to buy it.
“All you have to do is make sure that you tell the people that you’re marketing to, what you’re doing. And if there’s a way to back that up, that’s all that’s needed. The people will buy your product if they want.”
Legault said he was once approached to supply Costco with tomatoes, but his operation did not fit the retail giant’s idea of “local,” which sells Ontario tomatoes in Mexican Costco stores and Mexican tomatoes in the Lethbridge outlet.
“Local” can be defined in many ways when it comes to food, he added. Is it food from your neighbour, your county, your country or some other place?
He too encouraged consumers to find local sources of food, learn more about them and patronize them if it suits their needs.
“We’ve always produced local food,” he said.
“Local food has always been here. There has always been a farm just outside of Lethbridge. There’s always been a farm just outside of Nanton. Whether or not you bought from there is what’s now making what you call local food.”
Nelson, who markets Highwood Valley Ranch Beef, said lack of volume is a major impediment for many local food producers. He has a small herd of cattle from which he markets dry-aged, antibiotic-free beef directly to consumers.
The operation has been asked to supply beef to Calgary restaurants, but they only want strip loins, tenderloins and prime rib.
“There’s not a cow in the world that has all three of those,” said Nelson.
Another potential customer asked for 10 tenderloins a week, which would equate to slaughtering five animals a week.
“I said, ‘sure, I’d love to do that, as long as you buy 100 pounds of ground beef a week.’ ”
It would be possible to supply some of those demands if a group of producers with similar production practices and philosophies could pool their product, he added.
However, they would face another problem: lack of mid-sized slaughter facilities. Nelson said there are no middle range meat processors in southern Alberta that can handle more than 25 to 50 head a day and fewer than 4,000.
He said many consumers patronize fast food outlets because it’s cheap and convenient. Local food isn’t a priority.
“We want consistently crappy food,” he said, explaining people want entrees to taste the same regardless of franchise location.
Panelists agreed that the range of organic groups and the levels of certification, which vary by province, are confusing for consumers and can offer few guarantees. Legault and Nelson don’t market their produce as organic, but they do explain their production methods to those who buy it.
As for the sustainability of local food, the panelists agreed it exists but consumers have to become willing to pay more for it.
“People have gotten convinced in the last 50 years that food should be cheaper than it actually is,” said Cairns.
“People just want cheap food and they don’t want to think too much beyond that.”
