COMMUNITY
THE FOOD SYSTEM
SPIDER WEB The importance of regional food systems and how we should strengthen them.
BY LILY ROBY | PHOTOS BY JACOB DURBIN | DESIGN BY LAINEY DOUGLAS
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ne bunch of bananas from a big-box chain store like Walmart can travel over a thousand miles from farms in Mexico, Central and South America to reach a customer’s kitchen, according to Business Insider. Commonly grown at massive farms in South and Central America, this fruit is picked and packed into containers kept cool at a steady 56 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure freshness, even though it can take up to four weeks to reach your local Walmart. The process of growing and shipping food to chain grocery stores is complex and has been perfected by corporations over decades. This has left many accustomed to having almost any food at their fingertips, just a card swipe away. While the promise of fresh strawberries in the dead of winter may sound sweet, the corporate capitalization of America’s palate hasn’t just left regional food systems crumbling but has caused society to stop questioning where their food originates from entirely. Ohio University’s adjunct associate professor of environmental and plant biology, Theresa Moran, has always been alarmed by this consensus of lack of engagement when it comes to food and its origins. Originally, for the thousands of years humanity had walked the earth, food was chosen based on local availability — what people could grow, raise or find in their region. Only in the past few centuries have chain groceries and convenience stores become the norm, sourcing their produce, dairy and meats mainly from wholesale farmers. This prioritization of convenience over all else may make things easier, but Moran can’t help but see holes in the system. “What COVID has shown us is that our food supply chain is extremely brittle and fragile and can be disrupted with a single production plant going offline, or with a single outbreak of disease,” Moran says. “I think the value that has been made the clearest in this COVID time is that we need regional systems, and farmers markets are a very important instrument … because if you build a regional food
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system, we don’t have to rely on broccoli coming from California.” What Moran means by rebuilding a regional food system is that by buying produce, meats, dairy, grains and other groceries from local farmers and producers, consumers are able to know not only exactly what they’re putting into their bodies, but they’re also strengthening their regional food system and, in turn, their local economy. Think of it like a spider web: if purchases are made frequently between the same local sellers and buyers, the entire region will be stronger, versus if consumers ignore the origins of their food and put their money into wholesale farmers and corporations thousands of miles away. While there is obviously no sole way to shift society’s taste buds from preferring cheap, mass-produced and hormonepumped chicken over free-range, organically raised local chicken, farmers markets can be a good alternative. Local markets like the Athens Farmers Market (AFM) bring towns together, allow buyers and sellers to connect and meet in real life to discuss their products, send money back into the local economy and redirect community members’ thoughts on food away from convenience and toward the quality and impact of their purchase. “Going to the farmers market connects you to a person who’s making the food and I think psychologically and sociologically, that is critical because then children become aware of the fact that food comes from a person and there is an actual person involved with delivering food to their table,” Moran says, emphasizes that educating the youth is key in rebuilding our food systems. “Maybe that kid grows up and thinks, ‘Well, I don’t really want to go to Walmart because I don’t know where it came from.’” But the bottom line, Moran says, is that if people don’t continually ask about the origins of their food, corporations aren’t going to talk. And without paying attention to what we’re eating, we give chain stores like Walmart almost unlimited freedom to capitalize on the food industry and force local farmers to
