by Dela Ends
In 1994 at Scotch Hill Farm in Brodhead we began raising vegetables for local families on a seasonal basis through the Community Supported Agriculture model. Recently, we transitioned to running a B&B called Innisfree Farmstay. I prepare farm-raised breakfasts for guests. These meals provide the opportunity to talk about where food comes from. It has been enlightening to both our guests and ourselves. I’ve become keenly aware that most people don’t understand our food system.
Until the 20th century most humans in the world survived on locally raised food. Now we live in a society dominated by a few corporations, mass-producing processed food where profits are more important than nutrition.
When I was visiting my mother in hospice care, a few years ago, I was shocked to read the label on pre-packaged fruit cocktail she was eating. This product was produced in Indonesia. with no mention of where fruits. Had come from. What had been done to that food to give it shelf life, to package it in a wasteful little plastic cup, to ship it across the ocean to the US then all around the country, to sit on shelves indefinitely?
Can this be healthy food? How many miles had that product travelled? This was being served in a healthcare facility where fruit loops were also a breakfast option.
Cheap and convenient does not mean good for your health. Consumers need to pay attention and speak up.
We have a serious problem with health and our food system.
Today, ultra-processed foods make up 73% of the United States’ food supply, according to Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute. Research has linked ultra-processed foods to diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other serious health conditions. These foods are designed to produce cravings and food addictions that sicken us.
Industrial processing of food dramatically changes the structure of the food. Experts say this affects how much you eat, what the body absorbs, your weight and risk for chronic disease. Ultra-processed foods are transformed from simple ingredients into highly processed products with unusual combinations of flavors, additives and textures, which are not found in nature.
“Extrusion cooking at very drastic pressures and temperatures is a kind of pre-digestion of your food,” said Anthony Fardet, a nutrition scientist at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment who studies the effects of food processing on health. “Ultra-processing breaks the links between nutrients, it creates new links that our bodies may not recognize, and by doing this it disturbs the digestive process.”
So what if each one of us started buying less processed foods? What if each one of us started buying fresh produce?
In the grocery store, do we know where the fresh produce and meat we buy come from, or how it was raised? Was the ground that grew the vegetables and fruits doused with fertilizers and pesticides? Was the “fresh” produce shipped from overseas and treated with chemicals to maintain “freshness?”
Is “fresh produce” really fresh? There is little to no transparency in our food labeling.
Local foods are fresher, contain more nutrients, and require less packaging. Supporting local food businesses makes stronger local economies. Purchasing locally grown foods keep farmland viable. When farmers can profit from food production, they are less likely to sell land for development. Purchasing locally also reduces the environmental impact of shipping food.
When you purchase locally produced food, the money you spend stays where you live. That money recirculates in your community. Local farmers spend their earnings in their community, supporting other local businesses like feed stores, equipment suppliers, repair shops, hardware stores, gas stations, butchers, and grocers.
When we shop at corporately owned stores like Walmart or Dollar General our money leaves the community to pad the pockets of executives and investors in a system motivated solely by profit and not by the wellbeing of consumers or their communities. We pay an unseen price for the convenience of big box stores.
Local foods promote a safe, shortened, and reliable food chain. Paying a little more to a local farmer not only benefits the farmer, it also positively impacts our personal health, our community’s financial health, and our environment.
Supporting local businesses and your neighboring family farmer. Go to the farmer’s market. Join a Community Supported Agriculture farm. Learn who in your community raises livestock, fruits, vegetables, grains. Read labels. Ask questions.
With a passion for transforming our food system, Dela Ends blends her farming experience with a commitment to leading change for the next generation. Pioneers in Community Supported Agriculture, Dela Ends and her husband, Tony have operated Scotch Hill Farm for over 30 years, near Brodhead, Wisconsin. Committed to collaborative farmer organizing, Dela is a founding board member of the South Central Wisconsin Farmers Union and has hosted many workshops and educational events on her farm.