Robert Pore's Ag Blog

Four California women decided in 2005 to make up a word. They used it to start a movement. Less than three years later, the Oxford University Press selected the women’s coinage – “locavore” – as its Word of the Year. This almost guaranteed its surprise entry into the slow-to-change world of dictionaries.

At first, “locavore” was part of a challenge for San Francisco residents to alter their eating habits for a month. They were to try being a “local-vore” – to only eat foods grown within 100 miles of home.

“An increasing number of Americans already were going to farmers markets because fresh-picked produce has more nutrients, as well as better taste. But, just hearing the reasons for the locavore challenge brought a quiet revolution across the nation. People started reevaluating where all their food comes from,” said Jana Beckman, coordinator of the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

Fruits and vegetables start to break down as soon as they’re picked, losing both flavor compounds and nutrition content. Everything from texture to color also starts to degrade, said Ted Carey, Kansas State University horticulturist.

How fast produce actually goes bad can depend on species, variety and storage conditions. Even with the best storage, the time can range from many months to just a few days, said Carey, who is based at the university’s Olathe, Kan. horticultural crops and forestry center.

“Plant breeders are always working to develop varieties that do a better job of retaining quality through days of shipping, handling and storage,” he said. “They’ve made some great strides. Still, you’re usually better off buying produce picked locally this morning, rather than somewhere else a week ago.”

Beckman said, “Besides, there’s something really reassuring about buying food that’s been grown by someone you’ve come to know and trust on a personal level.”

Local Farmers Set the Stage

A nationwide move among fruit and vegetable growers was already in progress by the time locavores appeared on the scene.

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, the Kansas City Growing Growers program got started in 2003. Its leaders were university experts and local farmers who wanted to expand the number of market farmers in the Kansas City area “foodshed” (again, within 100 miles). The program also offered workshops to help the area’s existing growers improve their organic and/or sustainable production practices.

“The demand for locally grown and organically grown foods was increasing faster than the supply,” said Carey, who is the Growing Growers coordinator.

The rise of modern supermarkets almost wiped out farmers markets after World War II, he said.

But, interest in farm-fresh foods emerged again in the 1970s. In turn, the markets where farmers could offer their fruits and vegetables for sale began a comeback.

“Undoubtedly, one reason for that was taste – which remains the No. 1 reason people buy from local farmers,” Beckman said. “Back then, lots of folks could still remember eating tomatoes and corn, fresh from grandma’s rural garden. Nothing they could buy had ever tasted that good.”

The growth in farmers market numbers rose through the 1980s and beyond. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest “National Directory of Farmers Markets” (www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets) indicates that between 1994 and 2006 alone, the number of sites jumped 150 percent.

“Each new market, of course, is a sales outlet for a number of small-scale farmers,” Carey said. “In many places, the farmers also have expanded their product lines to include locally produced meats, bedding plants, honey, nuts, jellies, garden art – all kinds of things.”

The farmers began trying other marketing channels, too, such as selling direct to restaurants and school kitchens, he said. Some reopened roadside stands and U-pick operations. Others sold up-front shares to local residents who wanted a part of a farm’s expected harvests. In time, another buyer turned out to be local grocery stores, because their customers also wanted fresh, local produce.

Safe Food No Longer Guaranteed

Over the past 12 years, food-related fears became another reason for interest in local produce.

“Food safety became a big issue in the ‘90s,” Beckman said. “Tainted berry imports from Guatemala in 1996 and Mexico in ‘97 caused widescale health problems that got lots of news coverage.”

The Guatemala imports caused recurring and seriously debilitating diarrhea. The 1997 problem was hepatitis A, spread by tainted frozen strawberries sold mostly to the federal school lunch program.

“U.S. growers hadn’t been at fault,” Beckman said. “Even so, we had at least a 50 percent sales drop for U.S. strawberries shipped out of state. California’s strawberry industry was particularly hard-hit.

“People started wanting to know more about the farmer who grew their food – what the Japanese call ‘teikei’ or ‘putting a face to your food.’”

Kansas farmers even saw a sales increase in 2006, she said, following a national recall of spinach contaminated with E. coli. Spinach wasn’t available then on Kansas farms. It was the wrong time of year. Yet, shoppers acted as if what really mattered was their ability to buy food from a trusted local grower.

A different kind of impact developed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Almost overnight, Americans got interested in national food security. A North Carolina State University study first identified this result. The study also found that farmers were the only people that two-thirds of Americans thought they could trust then on the subject of food safety.

Americans’ new food-related worry came down to the potential for a deliberate or an accidental introduction of diseases, contaminates and/or crop-destroying pests.

“Fortunately, when I heard about the two suspected U.S. cases of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or “mad cow disease”), each one just made me wonder whether I’d remembered to get out the meat to thaw for supper,” Beckman said.

She buys her family’s meat directly from a local farm and knows the producer who raises the beef. When first shopping for a supplier, she had asked the farmer about his production system. After that, Beckman visited his farm, too.

Locavores Fail Some, But Succeed More

In spite of Americans’ growing interests and concerns, San Francisco’s first locavore challenge failed as it succeeded.

Simply put: People cheated. Many found they just couldn’t do without such non-local items as coffee, chocolate, salt, pepper, baking soda and vanilla extract.

Even so, the month-long attempt became a highly popular annual event.

And, the idea quickly attracted imitators, as well as reporters and columnists who discussed the movement in terms of local foods’ taste and nutrition benefits. Online blogs developed. Related books hit the press. The movement itself became a Time magazine cover story.

By 2007, for example, Kansas City had its own “100-Mile Diet” recommendations and a September “Eat Local Challenge.” It had a host of Internet aids that now include a directory of local producers, harvest hotline and organic chef’s Web site.

Ben Zimmer, dictionary editor with the Oxford University Press, went on record as praising two more benefits that locavores soon realized: Fresh, local foods don’t come with preservatives. Their transportation from farm to table generally requires minimum fuel use, thus putting minimum carbon dioxide in the air.

"The word ’locavore’ shows how food lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment. It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way," Zimmer said.

As customers meet and chat about food with market farmers, they often begin to recognize yet another advantage, Beckman said.

“They discover they like keeping their money circulating in the local economy, helping support their hometown and local farmers,” she said. “I suspect that kind of appeal is just going to get stronger as residents, towns and states are having to come to grips with our current financial challenges.”