other Morton1 Worldwatch Books

State ofthe World 1984 through 2006 An annual report on progress toward a sustainable society

Vital Signs 1992 thm* 2-2007 An annual report on the environmental trends that are shaping our future

Saving the PIanet Lester R. Brown Christopher Flavin Sandra P o d

Hour Much 1s Enough? Alan Thein Dutning

Last Oasis Sandra Postel

Full House Lester R. Brown Hal Kane

Power Surge Christopher mavin Nichoh Lenssen

Who wi l l Feed China? Lester R Brown

Tough Choices Lester R. Brown

Fighting for Survival Michael Rennet

The Natural Wealth u f ~ t i o m David Malin Roodman

Life Out of BOY^ Chris Bright

Beyond Malthus Lester R. Brown Gary Gardner Brian Halwei1

Pillar ofSam3 Sandra Postel

Vanishing Bordm Hilary French

Brian Halweil

W-Wa NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON

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the Harvard Medical School and the Centers for Disease Control found that Ross students are eating substantially better than typicat Ameri- can kids, including meals with less fat, sugar, and salt, more fiber and antioxidants, and twice the fruits and vegetables. Urine samples from students contained considelably tess of 11 organophosphate pesti- cides than a control group. And three-quarters of parents have been inspired to change the way they cook at

Ross i s providing meats for a nearby public school, and dozens of other schools have sought Coopet's advice. The New York C i t y school district, the largest in the county, has asked Cooper to "reprocess" 14 of its top recipes t o inctude healthier ingredients and more food from the Northeast.26

Cooper estimated the cost per student per day-for breahst , lunch, and snacks, and all-day beverages-at less than $4. That may not sound like much, but the federal government only spends $2.25. Cooper, who recently resigned from Ross i n order to "take this model t o the nation," believes that even the most limited schooi budget leaves room for improvement. "Why i s someone's

health less important than trigonometly?" she asks. "We're mortgaging our children's lives because we can't figure out a way to pay for their

C H A P T E R 9

1, When Eating Local 1 Gets PersonuZ !

'

of those who are declaring food independence, there is owing urgency-"slow food" notwithstanding. Food er and is controlled by a smaller number of global enti- r before. The more c o r n u n i t i s forsake their food , the harder it becomes to recapture this market from

polies. The alarming pace at which locd farms and fwd

I

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businesses are fading away indicates that the initiative of well- meaning government officials to support and protect local foods may simply not be enough.

A more diffuse, but potentially more powerful, agent may hold the key to the rebirth of local foodsheds: the food consumer. Socially and ecologidy sound eating habits are not just the pas- sive result of changes in the way food is produced, but can actu- ally be the most pawerful drivers of these changes. "Lobbyists are working for everything else," says Nina Thompson, the director of the Vermont Fresh Network, which connects farmers and chefs. "There is no special interest group for local food."l But while the advocates of local food production aren't a major lobby group, they are gaining support horn a growing segment of the population, a segment that potentially includes every person who plants a home garden, every farmer who wants to sell food to his neighbors, every parent who cares about the food served in school cafetwias, and wery family that takes the time to eat home-cooked food together-all people performing small but powerful acts of rebellion against food that is increasingly transformed, sterilized, and removed from its source. Among the range of simple actions that the average person can take to reinvigorate the local food economy are shopping at the local farmers market, asking their favorite restaurant or food store to serve locally grown foods, and building a few weekly meals around seasonally available foods. (See Appendix 1, .p. 179.)

It's not always easy to stomach the fact that our food choices have landscape-shaping and climate-changing implications. Con- fronted with one more thing to worry about, many people might ask (perhaps a little defensively), "What's wrong with getting my food from some distant land, if the food is cheap and the sys- tem works?"

Often, the most convincing arguments for eating local wil l not indude abstract concepts such as the tremendous energy use (and thus pollution) associated with h a h g food across continents, or the loss of crop diversity from consolidation in the food business.

i-&F Eating Local Gets Personal

T J ~ most compelling arguments may instead be psychological ~d emotional: the realization that if we continue on the present iurse, one day we d wake up to h d that there are no locally , m e d farms, dairies, canneries, or grocers in sight, leaving us beholden to whatever farmer or food business is willing to ship ; food on their terms.

1 This appears to explain what has happened in Britain, which recent years has played host to an unfortunate series of food scam,

1 the discovery of mad cow disease and the recent outbreak of ~UL-and-mouth disease to ongoing concerns over genetically 1 6 e d foods. These scares prompted British citizens to start ask- ~g where their food was coming from and instiUed a wariness of

f long-distance food The 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, which brought sales of British meat to an abrupt halt and devastated rural

1 communities, was exacerbated by long-distance food transporta- tion. It spread considerably farther and faster than an earlier out- break in 1967, largely because animals today are shipped h m all mver the nation to central slaughterhouses. In 1967 most slaugh-

ring and consumption took place locally.2 (A government inves- ?ation also showed that the infectious animal feed for the recent Itbreak came from China) 3

Many British consumers have overhauled their food buying ibits in the wake of the scares, flocking to fanners markets and fbscribing to "box schemesn (the British term for CSAs), seek- ~g out food with some human connection they can trust. Mar- ia Bushwood of Promar International, a U.K.-based food msulting firm, points to surveys of consumers showing "a very rong desire to put their money directly in the hand of the rmer, due to growing concerns about food safety and due to 'owing cynicism about the motivations of agribusiness.*4 Con- uners seem to feel that the farmer is less likely to cheat them - lie to them than a supermarket or a fast food chain, accord- +g to Bushwood. And the ability to interact with the person who

m o w s how the crop or animal has been treated throughout its itire life has become particularly valuable, a sort of premium

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in an otherwise anonymous food system. In food industry jargon, this premium is known as "trace-

ability," and it depends to a large extent on shortening the chain between the farmer and the eater. Bushwood notes that British supermarkets, concerned about loss of market share, are scxarn- bling to host local food days in their stores, feature talks by local farmers, and even hold mock farmers markets in their parking lats.5 (The Waitrose chain recently rolled out the do- gan, "No other supermarket knows each of their milk produc- ers?) A government report from 2002 predicted that "local food will enter the mainstream in the next few years" and noted that several supermarket retailers "see lo& food as the next major development in food retailingP6

This search for security and confidence is, of course, not lim- ited to British consumers. Recent t m r i s t incidents have raised fears, especially in the United States, about how vulnerable a hqhly centralized and long-distance food system could be to tampering and disruption.7 (One estimate suggests that most major cities in the eastern United States have less than two days' supply of food on hand and are thus vulnerable to sudden transportation restric- tions.)s Food that spends large arnohnts of time in transit, changes hands multiple times, and is processed in huge batches provides nearly unlimited opportunities for both accidental and malicious contamination, on a scale impossible with a shorter, more decer tralized food.chain. small, lo& processing plants are not immw to such errors, accidents, or sabotage. But their s d e would he limit the consequences.

Still, it would be inaccurate to view the case of Britain, or other places where people are increasingly interested in eating local, as simply a story about people driven by fear and para- noia. Many Brits, though fist prompted by concerns about food safety, have now learned that local food is not only less suscep- tible to corruption of the food chain, but is also cheaper, tastier, and more pleasurable. I #

Slow Food founder Cado Petrini argues that the price societies

#hen Eating Local Gets Personal 161

e paid for having access to every possible food at any time of r ~ d is "the deliberate developrne~t bf species with characteris- ics functional only to the food industryand not to the pleasure ~f food, and the consequent sacrifice of many varieties and ,reeds on the altar of mass production."g Petrini argues, for instance, that we've lost the tastiest, juiciest fruits because they muldn't be transported or it cost too much to process them. Crop breeders have instead developed varieties able to withstand the -:--rs of shipping and mechanical harvesting. (Remember that,

- A e United States, a global leader in long-distance food, an esti- mated 80 percent of the tomatoes are harvested and shipped green, and then artificially ripened upon arrival at their final des- tination.) 10 People around the world have traditionally relished the excitement of eating foods at the peak of flavor and ripeness, iays Petrini, an excitement reinforced by an intimate knowledge ~f food seasons and an m a y of harvest festivals. While skeptics *night view such seasonal cuisine as constraining, Petrini con- siders it "much more of a constraint to be forced to eat standard- ized, tasteless industrial food products full of preservatives and

ticial flavorings," often of substandard quality because they r e rarely in season.11

If the pleasures of taste (and double-blind studies have shown ' *hat farmers-wket produce consistently trumps supermarket ire in this category) seem to be a rather selfish argument in favor )f local food, consider the constellation of meaningful human nnnections that emerge from the local foodshed, in contrast to he anonymity and coldness of supermarkets, packaged foods,

fastfood joints. Slow Food views these social interactions between citizens and bakers, butchers, and farmers, as well as n& shared with friends and family, as inseparable h r n the joy ~f eating localIy,

During his year-long experiment in digging deeper into his oodshed and eating only food raised within 400 kilometers of his lome--compared with a typical American diet whose components

come from thousands of kilometers away-ecologist Gary

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Nabhan made dozens of new friends.12 For urbanites in particu- lar, local food might also provide one of the few remaining con- nections to nature, rural ways, rural people, and an awareness of what is happeming to our food supply Dan hhoff, a writer in north- ern California, describes his experience of plowing a field behind a pair of Belgian draft horses as part of his membership in a CSA: "Although Decatur [the farmer] could have done the work in less time and more effectively, it was an experience that changed me, deepening my appreciation for those people whose passion is farming," and no doubt cementing his loyalty to the farm.13 Mar- garet Mead suggested that food might be our most intimate con- nection to *the whole problem of the pollution and exhaustion of our environment? 14

Households with a bit of land might be surprised at their capacity to satisfy some of their own food needs with a garden. In Cuba, the 104,087 small urban and suburban gardens in the form of patios, container plants, and "popular gardens" in tight locations between houses and streets actually yield more produce on just 3,595 hectares than all of the uorganoponicsn and inten- I

sive market gardens combined.15 In her book This Organic Life, Joan Gussow, the Columbia University nutritionist, suggests- and c o n h with her own half-= garden and storage pantry- that suburbanites can raise a good deal of their own food on what might currently be grass lawns. In explaining why she chose to do this, Gussow points to the "irrepressible joy in tending to and eating from that part of the natural world to which I have bound mysew16 ("Deliciousnessn is her other best reason.)l7 h fact, gardeners around the world recently got a sort of politid and intellectual meeting place. In late 2003, Roger Doiron of Scar- borough, Maine, founded Kitchen Gardeners International to bring people into closer contact with their food by celebrating home-grown, home-cooked foods in their many international forms. The group already has 1,000 members in over 30 nations, with plans for the first annual Kitchen Garden Day in 2004. "If the snack food industry has a whole month for promoting its

m Eating Local Gets Personal 163

cts, then we can at least have a day," Doiron says.18 rhaps the most persuasive case for eating local is the high

of control that it gives us over the food we at As decision- ng in the food chain grows ever more distant and concen- d-confined behind h e r corporate doors-the ability of the age person to know and influence what is going into the food

shrinks accordingly. case in point is the burgeoning field of genetically modikd ms. In readon to growing public concern over GMOs, a n that disingenuously calls itself the "Alliance for Better

adsm-actually made up of large food retailas, food processors, tech companies, and corporate-fmanced farm organizations- s launched a $50-million public "educationalm campaign, in

E

iition to the tens of millions of dollars its members have given and political parties since 2000, to head off the of such foods.lg A recent report by the Agrz'busi-

tabjlity Initiative, a network of family-farm and pub- groups, found that regulatory policy at the U.S.

artment of Agriculture has been "hijacked* by the agribusi- industry. Former industry employees hold many high-rank- olicymaking positions at the agency, and have helped to nt strict safety and t&hg measures for bovine spongiform halopathy (mad cow disease), ignore anti-competitive prac-

the cattle industry, cripple slaughterhouse inspection prac- d encourage giant animal f d 0 t s . m

contrast to such backroom dealing, farmers markets, CSA mgements, and locally owned food business all tend to return cision-making power to thelocal community. Local fwd options m that consumers who want meat raked without hormones d antibiotics have a good chance of hding a farmer nearby who n deliver. Direct feedback to the firmer means an immediate ; pow to personal preferences.

People who aim to take back this control wjll quickly realize at it wiIl not come easdy. We are increasingly removed from our

And not just by distance, but also by the chopping, cooking,

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coloring, flavoring, and other forms of processing that transform the raw material harvested from the soil into ersatz comestibles. Especially in the developed world, as more meals come out of cardboard boxes, plastic tubes, or Styrofoam containers, more and more people no longer know (or have nwer known) how to cook, preserve foods, garden, or identdy wild edible plants-skills

$ that were essential to the survival of m y people only a couple of generations ago.21

This is not to say that everyone will go back to canning, and the long work hours and commutes of modern life do not h a y s leave time to enjoy a home-moked meal. (Surveys from England show that, compared with two decades ago, the reduced time that people spend cooking at home is almost perfectly offset by the increase in time spent traveling to food stores and shopping there.)u But there can be great pleasure and independence in relearning these forgotten arts. People who participate in CSAs often report that they are forced to be creative and resourceful cooks. They shape dishes around the seasons and evolve into competent soup malters to take advantage of leftover and surplus foods.23 G m - ing, harvesting, selecting, preserving, and cooking food in the comfort of one's home also provides an ideal opportunity for par- ents to teach respect for food, pass along good eating habits, and simply spend time with their children.

JoAnn Jaffe, the University of Regina sociologist, argues that the loss of food skills weakens consumer sovereignty, increasing the capacity of food fnanufachmrs and d m to manipulate tastes and desires and making it possCble to introduce *an endless stream of packaged, processed, and industrially bansfonned foodstuffs? Jaffe suggests a retaliatory strategy of "eating lower on the mar- keting chain" by buying food as locally a s possible in order to regain control. Eating lower on the marketing chain will often be healthier. Buying more food direct fiom growers generally means eating more fresh h i t s and vegetables. And m y of the extra steps between the farmer and the consumer remove nutrients and fiber and add fat, sugar, salt, and other Mers.24

,, When Eating Local Gets Personal 165

Buying locally can even save money, and not just because raw lgredients are often less expensive, per unit of nutrition delivered, >an prepared, packaged foods. In some cases-pdcularly in mer-city food deserts and other communities where food options re limited-local food will be less expensive. In one survey, food

1 at farmers markets and through a food delivery scheme in I

I southwest England (hi ts , vegetables, meat, eggs, and certified nic products) averaged 30 to 40 percent cheaper than prod-

cts of similar quality horn the local supermarket.x (In lnany c . le supermarkets did not carry the same in-season produce found :the farmers market.) For $375, the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, [assachusetts, will deliver produce that wodd cost $800 at a

I lpermarket and as much as $1,200 at an upscale gourmet store.26

badzmanhu ~ n ~ e r p - the local peanut butter maker in Zimbabwe, mells multinational competitors like Cairns Foods by as much

These individual actions may seem small and disconnected, n futile. Not so: every successful effort around the world to uild a local foodshed ultimately began with the work af an vidual or small group. Four housewives started Fadzavanhu

terprises; it now provides a market for many bcal farmers and eriously challenging the dominant, foreign-owned peanut

rands in local stores. Organic Valley, the farmer-owned ooperative that is now the largest seller of organic dairy

cts in the United States, was started 15 years ago by a hand- organic farmers in the Midwest. And the hundreds of con- r cooperatives in Japan, which now include roughly 15

on members and buy many billions of dollars of produce ar directly from Japanese farmers, were almost all started wives concerned about pesticides on their families' food

ugh prices in the supermarkets. vlrhether you are a farmer, restaurateur, politician, banker, preneur, student looking for a career, or concerned parent, are an infinite number of entry points into the local food

omy. The opportunity-and the need-for rebudding local

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, foodsheds is vast. And this work will. always depend most on '

' motivated individuals searching for a more secure livelihood, a . , stronger community, or simply a delicious meal.

My Own View From the East End

Where I live on the eastern end of Long Island, one of the most I * beautiful roads is also one of the most treacherous. A couple of

hundred years ago, it was one of the roads that connected the ' farms of Bridgehampton to the port of Sag Harbor. The low-lying path was frequently waterlogged and wagons heavy with or corn were often "scuttled" (accidentally, of course) on their way to market. Farmers dubbed the road Scuttle Hole. Today, despite a few inches of asphalt, during a heavy rain whole stretches of the road sit under puddles where potholes lurk

1 The road is not used much anymore to bring food to rnarket. Sag Harbor stopped being a major commercial port after the Atlantic whaling industry collapsed in the early 19th century. The remaining Bridgehampton farms stopped shipping their harvest

9 by boat. But most of Scuttle Hole R o d is still Aanked by h fields. he ~esnofske farm seems to lie under a & of water, no matter how many Earm ponds Mr. Wesnofske dig and how many wdlows he plants. The Falkowski b t a n d sits between the fam- i lyrs fields of cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and other cole crops, and the barrel-shaped house of an artist whose yard contains md- ticolored metal and wood sculptures and a small flock of sheep.

I , - 8

One field rises to an oasis of wilderness filled with pitch pines, east- ern red cedars, white oak, white birch, cat briar, and other pine bar-

' rens plants that covered this landscape before the settlers cleared

, .it. Other fields are now horsefarms with pasture that is occasion- . ally mowed to preserve the vistas. There is one vineyard with mas-

, , sive wood sdptures by the eccentric artistlowner scattered among , . the vines. At least seven potato barns (with soil mounded up $ the

, * I

, . r o o h e for insulation) sit along Scuttle Hole Road, plus at least , , two corn silos and countless pieces of rusting farm machinery.

. :: ; ,Because of the flat topography, the fields seem to stretch to the < '

< 2 > < , . '

I

lhen Eating Local Gets Personal

horizon and support the illusion that this is the prairie. Driving or biking along this idyllic stretch, I'm less distracted

k r nbstades than by feelings of despair. The most common thing . uting along Scuttle Hole Road are "For Sale" signs. It seems : every week there's a new parcel for sale. None are being sold her farmers. I, cringe when I see septic tanks on the side of the I, and a team of bulldozers, cement mixers, and backhoes

carby waiting to erect another mansion. Farm fields that used to ' A d m to the Atlantic ocean have been violated by behemoths,

,,dding the largest single-family home in America, an incorn- lrehensible 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters) of living space hat features 43 bathrooms.

Chatting with some long-time locals reminds me how ndive I am. I've been visiting this a m with my family for the last 20 years, and have lived out here fulltime for just two years. In conhast, oth- ers remember when there was not a single house on Scuttle Hole, only farm buildings. One farmer remembers riding his bike the two miles from the ocean north to the highway as recently as the 1960s and nwer having to get on a road or leave a farm field. Today,

stretch is crisscrossed with developments and private streets. Lome of these fields have been farmed continuously by the same arnily for over 300 years. - 'laps the person with the longest perspective is Dick Hen- hidwon, local farmer, historian, and weather observer. Hendrick- on, who is 91 years old and favors khakis and moccasins, sat in s ancient rocking chair not long ago and told me the early story

P f farming in the area. "Eastern Long Island at the turn of the last century, 1900 up

the early '20s, was mainly agriculture, and, in the summer h e , lur summer visitors," Hendrickson starts in his sing-songy voice, b if he were trading tales around the cracker barrel. "They started brning out here shortly afier the Civil War and staying with a krm family, and were taken to the beach or came out later to ao

168 €at Here

hunting giant beaver and bear in Ice Age times. In more recent times, the Indians fished the oceans and bays, dug clams and oys- ters, and planted corn, beans, and squash. The first European set- tlers described, in awe, pulling oysters the size of a man's head out of the local waters.29

Hendrickson estimates that before World War 11, between the Shinnemck Canal and Montauk (the western and eastern bound- aries of eastern Long I h d ) , there were 73 potato farms, 38 pod- try farms, and 17 dairies. Today, there are six potato fanns, two poultry farms, and one farm that keeps a half dozen cows for making cheese. W e t e gone from woodland, easily available at $10 to $15 per acre, .to the priceless oceanfront property of today," Hen- drickson n0tes.M

At the end of World War 11, East End farmers cultivated more than 50,000 hectares.31 About the same time, the modern Amer- ican suburb first bloomed in Levittown, Long Island, and the clones it spawned gobbled so much land that the area adopted the nation's &st farmland protection program in the mid- 1970~.~2 Under the program, farmers sold the right to develop their land to the county, and could use the lump sum to build a farmstand, invest in new machinery, or send their kids to college. (A 1995 sur- vey indicated that residents, second homeowners, and tourists were willing to spend a staggering $74,500 to protect an acre of farmland, and the rural landscape and farmstands that go with it. This value, unheard-of elsewhere in the nation, is still w d below the market price.)33 Despite its good intentions, the county couldn't really compete with the prices farmers could get on the pen market. Just a few years ago, the county downgraded its goal of farmland proteaion h m 12,000 hectares to 8,000 hectares. It estimated that there were only about 14,000 hectares of farmland left. As of 2003, just over 2,800 hectares have been protected. At the present rate of loss of agricultural land, there will,be only 4 , M hectares left by 20 1 2.34

Just lidre that, the finger of land where America's first farming and fishing families settled morphed into the McMansion-laden

!hen Eating Local Gets Personal 169

~dmational. resort spot known as ="The Hamptons:' The frrst uropeans to settle in this area-let alone the Algonquin Indians

-ley pushed out-could never fathom the building craze that f would be this d s fate. When the last gIaciers retreated 22,W

m s ago, having plowed up the *Long Island" that stretches 200 ilometers into the Atlantic Ocean, they Ieft beJ~ind what soil sci- ntists consider some of the best dirt in the world. Like geologi-

[ cal bulldozers, the advancing glaciers ground boulders into eight ' " feet of fine silt, day, and loam that was called "Bridgehamp-

jam." It still occupies the top position in the Department of ,--ulture's soil classification system, even though more and lore of it sits under asphalt.

But, as in so many dying rural communities around the United tam, this morphing has a way of folding back on itself The images 'despair along Scuttle Hole coexist with scattered signs of hope. op at any of the remaining farmstands or the fields where farm- s continue to grow some of the world's tastiest potatoes, and you m find inspiration. When the setring is our own neighborhood

unty, it's hard not to feel like we help fuel the inspiration. At the end of one driveway in Sagaponack (named by the Shin-

:cock Indians for its abundance of large, wild tubers), less than mile from the Atlantic ocean, a friend is trying to hold onto her rnily's potato Edrm by reinventing i t With land values rising and e price for wholesale potatoes falling, Marilee Foster and her nther Dean are making potato chips. Marilee likes to call the

:rted storage shed, outfitted with a peeler, slicer, and fryer, a micro-chippery"-a nod to the microbrewery craze that swept

r America in the last two decades. "Kettle-cooked on the farm" ad the foillplastic bags, which carry the same image as the fam- ?s potato sadrs: a tiger licking its lips over a steaming, butter- pped spud. Their chips are already flying off the shelves of lzens of local stores.

Serious and independent, with gray-green eyes that are intense cause they are so pale, Foster is a member of the Long IsIand

a Bureau, an avid birder, and a published author who has 'I

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written about the struggle to keep farming amid the estates of movie moguls and fashion tsars.35 She worries that the East End's agri- culture will degenerate into corn mazes, hay rides, and other forms of "agri-entertainment" So she3 be the first to tell you that potato chips aren't the most serious product. But a few years ago, Foster took several acres of the family's land out of potatoes to raise flowers and vegetables h r a roadside stand The stand made money, and Marilee expanded her plot. Now she and her brother are rais- ing a single acre of potatoes orpically for the h t time ever, hop- ing to further distinguish their chips h m Pringles, Doritos, and the other mainstream stuff. "It's plain old divers&cationP Foster said, who admits that some neighhrs are laughing at the pilot plot. "I do find it exciting because I've felt for some time that the rev- olution is here, and we're not going to hold onto the farm selling potatoes for a few dollars a hundred weight? 36

The Fosters aren't the only ones coping. Their strategy is part of a larger resurgence of interest in holdmg on to what hasn't been lost. Like the Fosters, most other local farmers have stopped sell- ing all their produce to wholesalers and started selling it the- to restaurants or drive-by customers. It means fewer 100-acre potato or dairy farms, but more 10-acre vegetable farms or orchards.

Many farms have been turned over to grape vines, and the rel- atively young "Long Island wine country" now boasts more than two dozen wineries. Local winemakers are churning out merlots, chardonnays, gewiirtztraminers, and other standards that feature the unique characteristics of the maritime climate, and have won international acdaim.

The nephew of one vegetable farmer got trained in microbi- ology and began p w h g g o m e t mushrooms--shiitake, maitake, and oyste--on straw in one of the family's greenhouses. A long- time potato farmer stopped planting spuds, dusted off the cream- ery equipment that sat in his farnilfs old milking barn, and is making three different types of raw milk cheeses, one of which i c

contending for an American Cheese Society award. Restaura and gourmet shops have started stocking them. And when the local

Yhen Eating Local Gets Personal 171

~oney producer was getting ready to retire, a couple of city-slick- turned-biodynamic-beekeepers purchased the business, and

aLF selling varietal blends of honey that correspond with the sea- (. wns and b10ssoming of East End crops. The neophyte mush-

oom grower, cheese maker, and beekeepers are raising these [ products because no one else is.

[ Regardless of the product, farmers who can turn a profit will : less difficulty convincing their farm-raised kids to stick

round Twenty years ago, the 13th generation of Halseys to work me family tract of land around Mecox Bay in Watermill turned a 1 Ymalesle orchard into a pick-your-own, and built The Milk- ail," a farmstand that carries their apples, cider, pies, apple sauce, nd apple cider donuts. "My father would turn in his grave if he new that we were letting strangers walk around the farm," John [alsey coniides.37 Recently Halsey's two daughters (the 14th gen-

erat ti on) decided to add peaches and flowers to the mix. '

"It's not assumed that a f a d y can even attempt to huow in .- business: says Fred Lee of Sang Lee Farms in Pemnic.3a ee took over the h that his father and uncle started after World Tar 11, and made a name selling Asian vegetables to Chinatowns om New York to Toronto. Five years ago, when competition from

; a s growers drove down the prices for his "niche" crops, Fred ]is wife Karen d e d back their operation. They built a farm- ' d kept it stocked year-round with produce from their *+are meters of greenhouses. His children haven't shown

,--nendous amount of interest in the farm, but he didn't either, 3til he graduated from college. "My 10-year plan is to just wait

p see," Lee says.39 armers aren't the only ones trying to hold on to what remains.

Shinnecock Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton es that a return to native foods-from succotash and sarnp (a te corn dish also called hominy and typically combined with

beam or venison) to clam chowder-can help mnhnt the of high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity that are rampant in

tribe. The tribe is currently raising money to build a kitchen

172 Eat Here

at the Cultural Center to share native foods with their members and the public, and the S h i n n e d health center is planting a native garden this year. Preserving the baditional dishes is not simply a nutritional concern. From the potions described while gathering plants, to the building of eel hips, to the jewelry made form oys- ter shells, food carries a deeper significance for Shinnecock cul- ture. *One of the goals of the cultural center is to revitalize lost arts so they don't die out: says Josephine Smith, a Shinnecock Indian and native cookm

The local Farm Bureau has started a "Savor Long Island" cam- paign to get restaurants to serve all-Long-Island menus, paired with Long Island wines, in the tourist-heavy month of July. Many chefs, bakers, and caterers already feature local produce and seafood. One local chef is working with the New York environmental group Earth Pledge .to build *Farm-to-Table? a website to help chefs, cater- ers, and home cooks connect with nearby farmers and vintners. The town of East Hampton recently purchased a 16-hectare par- cel of farmland and turned it into a community - and the neigh- boring town of Bridgehampton has been inspired to do the same. Since 1983, the Peconic Land Trust has worked with farmers, developers, and other landowners to protect a total of more than 2,600 hectares. A group of citizens in Sag Harbor, my town, have pooled their money to try to turn a defunct bakery into a sort of "em-healthy cae" and community kitchen, serving soups, salads, and sandwiches made from local produrn and providing a space where farmers and aspiring food entrepreneurs can make chut- neys, preserves, dried fruit, and other products. "People always talk about California cuisine, but there's no reason we can't have a Long Island cuisine: Andrew Engle, the chef at East Hampton's Laun- dry, said. W e have the local farms, the local vineyards, some of the best lo& fisheries in the world."41

It's true that sportfishers come from all over the world to cast for monster bass at Montauk Point, *the surf fishing capital of the world." Schools of bluefish chase mackerel, bunker, and whitebait along the coast all summer. The region's fleet of boats hook fluke,

Yhen Eating Local Gets Personal 173

tuna, and cod just oEshore.Amateuran$ers can choose from fIom- dm, eel, blackfish, porgies, triggerfish, sea robin, and five differ- -at species of herring that exist in relative abundance. A few lozen baymen rake clams for a living, and there remains a hand- ul of l o d lobstermen.

These fisheries face their own set of challenges. As more pea- k ple have made their home here-including me and my wife-pol-

on from roads, lawns, and septic tanks has increased. A %brown uae" hit the bays in the 1980s, and the s h a s h populations stjll Lnen't fully recovered. in response, hundreds of residents are ising oysters, clams, and scallops in cages on their property as art of a shellfish gardening program run by Cornell University's

ine Center in Southold. The three-ym-old program, called PAT (which stands for Southold Project in Aquaculture Training, nd is also the term for young bivalves), has grown to include over 00 participants in 41 different Long lslandtownships. Along with similar effort in the Chesapeake Bay, the SPAT program is one f only a few in the nation to involve average people in restoring ild shelEsh populations. The growers get to keep half their ap-to throw ayster parties, for instance-and return half for :seeding local bays.

hd-fken ~ i & a , a marine biologist, has reopened a defunct ~eUfish farming facility built during the birth of the aquaculture lpwment in the 1960s. She's hoping to turn it into a shemsher

where local baymen and &hers can make a living rais- , including the Peconic Bay Scallop, which the local

ded to the International Ark ina now dominates produc- Peconic Bay scallops sold in

C o d began a three-year proj- re Conservancy and East End sive spawner sanctuaries in

stories (see Breaking Ground: East 1 1, New York, p. 155), a local school chef has built her

Eat Here When Eating Local Gets Personal 175

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" . cafeteria around locaI food, resulting in meals that taste better, are acid aud basic. You can do a whole chemistry courseP43 . > , , r .

more nuhitious, and begin the essential process of teaching stu- These efforts seem all the more uplifting since I see these peo- '(, ,, A ,

dents where their food comes from. At the Ross School in East ' I - -7 a regular basis. They are not characters in a newspaper , , .*; ,

Harnpton, Ann Cooper serves 1,500 meals each day assembled from -

4 I --2 or TV documentary. They are my friends and my n+- , ;

foods grown in New York state, and mostly from farmers and fish- ~rs. And the fact that my own actions-the food I buy, for . ers in Long Island Her lunch menus include standards like pizza stance, or what issues I bring up at town meetings-affect tbm ' . '

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\ . (with farmstead cheeses) and cold cut sandwiches (with organic RS me the sense that I, too, am involved in this resurgence. : ' '. ,

meats), but also more creative fare like Tuscan bean soup, black Of course, I'm not the only one concerned that all the farms . ,

bean chiTaquiles with green chile sauce and creme fraiche, and pasta tle Hole will be paved over or that the Peconic Bay scallop '

with scallops. She's gotten the cost for each student pretty close to ar from Peconic Bay. The satidadon afforded by local '

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the national average, which isn't bad considering that the meals es well beyond the preservation of the landscape and A

are hedthier, fresher, and better-tasting. (Cooper recently had to d taste. Several friends with young children have told me that '

start charging visitors because so many parents, friends, and ne@- el their kids learn more, in terms of practical knowledge, a bors were showing up for the best lunch around.) CoopeA kitchen and respea for life, during an afternoon at a local is already providing food for one nearby public school, several ot than during several hours perched in 6ont of educational ' , , . ers want to replicate her model, and she's started discussions with I s. (The multicultural chicken coop at Quail Hill Farm, a

, , I * ' I the New York City school system, the largest in the nation. As far munity supported farm in Amagmsett, contains 15 & h c t

' ' ' >I I as I can tell, she's the only lunch lady in America doing this. beautiful breeds, and is a favored destination for school

A highly active local chapter of Slow Food has just launched ps.) People in the food business still remember, with some '

a Junior Slow Food program to take children on bee waIks, visit arrassment, when the attacks of September 11 shut d m all firmstands and shellfish hatcheries, create edible schooJyards, and in and out of New York City, and many East End restaurants ", '

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teach children about how food is raised. W e think it's extremely because they were without suppliers. The sight of hdess . .4 -" - I

important to start them young in good food habits, and to know ouses surrounded by fishing fleets and salad-less restaurants , , - , j .'

that food doesn't come out of plastic containers," says Kate Plumb, unded by fields of lettuce and tomatoes prompted many ' ' ':

a manager at East Hampton's East End Community Organic Farm to visit a farm or do& I . > >

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and a slow ~ o o d chapter leader.42 Children who understand their rom the turnout at farmstands for the fitst ears of corn to ' - ' ,

connection to f ie bays, for instance, will be less likely to dump chem- . < lries in local papers about h e r s ' n e w businesses, there are . , , : ;, ..,

icals on their lawn as adults or pour paint down the drain, or wte signs that interest is spreading. Listed together* tbes efforts . .. '. d a , 1 r ,. '-

down funding for wetland and farmland protection. One school rn formidable, and it's easy to feel as if I'm living in the mid; >:;, : - 1 I' ',: , L I . ' ' > > .

is adding a new wing that pairs a science lib and a kitchen. "Cook- : d h a y renaissance. But the school cafeteria or restau- : - ; !( ; ,, ing and gardening are ways that younger kids can really get sci- enu offering local produce is still the exception. Most local ' ,J , .:, I ': I '

ence experience," says John Snow, artist in residence of carry the token local items in season, but little else 6om ' ', , , Bridgehampton's Hayground School. "What's better for teachine r. Their customers don't know any better. \:% , :;: . , . 9 . ;. ~

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science? Think about all the things that are immediately obser ,> < . ;;

ople struggle to make these connections between the?% ::::? :. . ; i;, i able in the kitchen: the results of heat and cold, sweet and sal ting habits and the state of the countryside because they ;s;l; .i":', i

+; I myc L + ,> I 1 > I . . . <. ,, . , >+ '" '. .,;; :I< >, .,

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Eat Here

are distracted by "the agrarian myth of rural areas as self-sufi- cient and removed from industrial, modern America that we live in," according to Joe Grady of Cultural Logic. Grady's group uses knowledge of language and culture to help organizations spread their message, and has analyzed how people perceive the loss of farmland and nearby farmers. "Most people don't have a schema in their mind that connects their actions to the country- side around them," he says.44

This schema is h d y firmly embedded in my own mind, and not only because I write about food and fanning but because my wife and I moved to the East End to be part of a rural commu- nity, to be closer to where our food is gnrwn, and to raise much of it oursel-. For me, the argument for eating local includes &e one-acse kitchen garden and orchard that Sarah and I tend.

It indudes the dkoverywe made last year that you can plant turnips in October and have baseball-sid tubers that store all win- ter. And that ripe tomatoes frozen whole in a plastic bag will keep their flavor for a late winter sauce. That potatoes stored in their own dirt won't rot-and that washed potatoes will. That mustard and bok choy and lettuce and kale can dl be sown with the fick of the wrist to come up thick, like an edible lawn, and that kim- chi and sauerkraut and oher mouth-watering dishes that preserve excess cabbage are easier to make than you might think. That our low-lying, sheltered garden and proximity to the bay mean that our peas flayer and fruit two weeks ahead of those at any surmund- ing farms. ("You've got the North Fork's climate," one farmer told me with -) That a gray catbird, Roping to snatch up the errant exposed worm, will trail the gardener like a dog. That the mix of a p i n g swamp day, and sand that m d t u t e s our soil is called "marl," and that the morning fog setthg on a bayside garden can be salvation for parched plants.

I admit it: I am one of he converted. But before local food will be a concern at the top of every shopper's priority list, right next to price, pzkaging, and brand, more people will need to grasp their personal stake in eating local.

When Eating Local tets krsonal 177

C e n t d e grocer in Lincoln, John Ellis (the all) had just hished the pIumbing on a mm-

kitchen in the back of the store. Farmers and caterers will space to pi& or freeze or otherwise prepare their crop.

chefs will demonstrate how to transform what is currently bk at the market into a saumptious dish-how to make a out of garlic, for instance, or how to can tomato sauce. This

be a big draw for shoppers and an easy way to reinforce the ilities of seasod cooking hofpmpk~nevermreal~blesoutdtheground irt on then$' Ellis said. He recently saw a report on televi-

w o n abut the obes'rty epidemic among the natiois school chil- n. "Maybe we're partpartof the solution," he said. "Maybe we can n avercoming people's desires for this junk food." en&e plans to turn its wallspace over to art from local

, creating an art gallery and a setting for kids to learn d. Ellis is applying for a Iiquor license so that he mn

eer from his neighboring microbreweries and Nebraska- e wine. (Yes, Nebraska makes wine. At last count, the state

wineries.) H e plans to add a coffee roaster and cafd can "sip some joe, listen to poetry, or buy a sand-

made from our bread and meat and veggies." she rolls up his sleeves to fix a leaky faucet in the store's bath- --one of the many little details that makes a store run-he bepond the mundane task at hand W~th complete coddence, F "The opportunities are endless?