I recently stopped by the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming at the University of Guelph. It is an impressive plot of lush greenery; herbs and vegetables abound.
I spoke with the manager who told me how difficult it is to sell the food they are growing. They have far more than they can sell right now. You might ask why - has it been such a bumper year? The answer in part is yes - conditions are exceptional for growing veggies this year, but the complete answer lies in the problem of getting local people to buy local food. The outlook for this local food movement is a little grim in Guelph unless we can spread the word about the delicious organic produce which is flourishing at the GCUOF.
The story is the same all over. Speaking with a local marketeer of our Meaford Farmers' Market I was told how difficult it is to market local produce. People are just not putting their money where their mouth is and supporting local; it is difficult to break out of a habit of buying fruit and veggies at the grocery store.
But are grocery stores the problem? I mean, forty years ago access to food was limited - people ate in season, with the exception being tropical fruits. Today it is different. In taking an informal survey of grocery store produce over the last few years I have found very few local products. This is true in high season of each product as well. Try this yourself. Pick a vegetable in season and look for some options at the grocery store - you will find difficulty with several very well known Ontario products such as peaches, berries, melons, grapes, apples, cherries, plums, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and garlic. Potatoes, carrots, cucumbers are regularly from Canada and in some cases grown in hothouses in the winter, however these are exceptions. I have found that Ontario corn is often found at the grocery store, however, early US corn is also found months before our corn is ready.
The "market" is flooded with foreign products we can grow wonderfully right here in Canada. In most cases the foreign products are cheaper and have squeezed out many farmers and farm products, in particular garlic, cherries, peaches, apples and grapes (all Ontario tender fruit are in jeopardy of being wiped out). It leads me to question the free market system - why are we allowing food stuffs to enter the country that we already have? That is too big of a question for me to try to answer this time around.
Despite the dominant trend of large grocery store chains, farmers' markets and farm stands are cropping up everywhere. But the outlook for the local food movement is not as rosy as it would seem. The movement to eat local is more of an undercurrent to the mainstream of high volume, cheap, foreign produce.
Although many city markets are flourishing, many smaller rural markets are struggling, just as farmers are, to sustain themselves. In a 2006 study, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) found that among consumers there was “ clear latent interest in buying Ontario food” however, consumers lacked the motivation. This means that while most of us want to buy Ontario food, we are too lazy to go out of our way to do it.
Here's to complacency. Meanwhile, I have made it my mission to not eat or buy anything for the rest of the summer that is not locally grown. To clarify, if I am driving somewhere and I see a roadside stand - that is fair game. I plan to pick up a few things a week from Guelph when I make the commute down to finish up the last of my summer courses. The rest I will buy from my own community.
It is summer, people - I won't starve.
