Comparing apples and oranges
I love it when old-fashioned phrases click into my brain and I understand what they meant. "A stitch in time saves nine" meant something about getting on top of problems early, until I actually went to mend a hem and realized it would have been much faster if I'd done it when it first just needed a single tacking down. A ha!
I live in New England, within about 50 miles from where Johnny Appleseed was born. I have two apple trees in my yard (grafts, so I have about five different kinds of apples) which give me an occasional trophy apple, but for bulk buying I go to my friend Ben, who has an orchard two miles from here and he sells at the farmer's market 1/2 a mile from me. I put up my own applesauce and dry apples to use in my cereals (and as snacks) and I bake storage apples into pies and eat fresh apples in slices as a snack. When I buy an apple I usually pay cash, but occasionally write a check if it's the big applesauce-to-be buying expedition. There are no middle men: my cash is handed to Ben, the guy who grew the apples. No one shipped it, no one processed it, no bank got a cut of the transaction fees. Ben has workers, including Jamaican migrant workers ("Cider House Rules" is also a local story filmed around here). I'm sure not all of his income stays local, but I'll bet you a dollar that more of it stays local than when I buy oranges.
Oranges are a treat. I know people who drink orange juice every day, but we rarely drink juices of any sort around here - it's mostly water, coffee, tea and milk. But we do like oranges in the winter. I grew up getting an orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking, and my Thanksgiving table isn't complete without cranberry-orange relish. I love that you can section them out to hand to children clamoring for a snack. They're delicious. I have at times found juicing oranges or used grated orange peel in a recipe, but for the most part the only use we have for oranges is to eat them whole. There are no oranges in my root cellar.
When I buy an orange it's usually at a national grocery store chain - I think they sell them at the Food Co-op but I wouldn't be likely to shop for them there. I use a credit card and the store is stuck with the 3% transaction fee (but I get 1% cash back! plus a fairly worthless float!). When I purchase an orange I am paying a vast and unknown stream of growers and their employees (were they abused?) and truckers and wholesalers and retailers. I have a Downs Syndrome client who works at Stop & Shop as a bagger and buying from that store has the benefit of encouraging them to employ non-traditional workers like that. It's also good to keep a store with a national supply line in town. But buying an orange is a substantially different economic event than buying an apple.
I've just done a comparison of my food purchasing habits five years ago and this year. I was a bit stunned. Five years ago, before this localvore schtick got started, I spent about 8% of my food dollars locally. Now I spend about 35% of my food dollars locally.
The two things that stunned me are that I'm actually spending LESS on food now than I was five years ago, despite inflationary increases of 14.4% in that time period. It's comparing apples to oranges, as they say, because now one of my family members has moved out for 2/3 of the year. On the other, now I have a 16 year old son and the stories are all true about how much they eat. Also, five years ago I ate a lot more salads and chicken breasts and Myoplex Protein Powder and salmon. Now I eat a lot more sausage from pigs whose name I know and potatoes that either I or my friend Skip grew. (Coincidentally, I also stopped losing weight. Imagine that.)
But the other surprise is that I'm still getting 2/3 of my food from nationally-sourced retail chains. I am not buying most of my dairy or any of my grains from local sources. I knew I'd have to trade out of the area for table sugar and spices and coffee and chocolate and scotch whiskey. But I'm a bit stunned to find that I'm still SO reliant on bringing food to our valley by truck. Boy, that'll suck if the trucks stop rolling. But not as much as if I were only getting 8% of my calories from local sources. I've looked in the mirror lately. I bet I could live on 1/3 of my calories for a good long while. But I couldn't live on 8% of my calories.
When I think it through, I realize the difference between apples and oranges is whether I starve to death.
I live in New England, within about 50 miles from where Johnny Appleseed was born. I have two apple trees in my yard (grafts, so I have about five different kinds of apples) which give me an occasional trophy apple, but for bulk buying I go to my friend Ben, who has an orchard two miles from here and he sells at the farmer's market 1/2 a mile from me. I put up my own applesauce and dry apples to use in my cereals (and as snacks) and I bake storage apples into pies and eat fresh apples in slices as a snack. When I buy an apple I usually pay cash, but occasionally write a check if it's the big applesauce-to-be buying expedition. There are no middle men: my cash is handed to Ben, the guy who grew the apples. No one shipped it, no one processed it, no bank got a cut of the transaction fees. Ben has workers, including Jamaican migrant workers ("Cider House Rules" is also a local story filmed around here). I'm sure not all of his income stays local, but I'll bet you a dollar that more of it stays local than when I buy oranges.
Oranges are a treat. I know people who drink orange juice every day, but we rarely drink juices of any sort around here - it's mostly water, coffee, tea and milk. But we do like oranges in the winter. I grew up getting an orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking, and my Thanksgiving table isn't complete without cranberry-orange relish. I love that you can section them out to hand to children clamoring for a snack. They're delicious. I have at times found juicing oranges or used grated orange peel in a recipe, but for the most part the only use we have for oranges is to eat them whole. There are no oranges in my root cellar.
When I buy an orange it's usually at a national grocery store chain - I think they sell them at the Food Co-op but I wouldn't be likely to shop for them there. I use a credit card and the store is stuck with the 3% transaction fee (but I get 1% cash back! plus a fairly worthless float!). When I purchase an orange I am paying a vast and unknown stream of growers and their employees (were they abused?) and truckers and wholesalers and retailers. I have a Downs Syndrome client who works at Stop & Shop as a bagger and buying from that store has the benefit of encouraging them to employ non-traditional workers like that. It's also good to keep a store with a national supply line in town. But buying an orange is a substantially different economic event than buying an apple.
I've just done a comparison of my food purchasing habits five years ago and this year. I was a bit stunned. Five years ago, before this localvore schtick got started, I spent about 8% of my food dollars locally. Now I spend about 35% of my food dollars locally.
The two things that stunned me are that I'm actually spending LESS on food now than I was five years ago, despite inflationary increases of 14.4% in that time period. It's comparing apples to oranges, as they say, because now one of my family members has moved out for 2/3 of the year. On the other, now I have a 16 year old son and the stories are all true about how much they eat. Also, five years ago I ate a lot more salads and chicken breasts and Myoplex Protein Powder and salmon. Now I eat a lot more sausage from pigs whose name I know and potatoes that either I or my friend Skip grew. (Coincidentally, I also stopped losing weight. Imagine that.)
But the other surprise is that I'm still getting 2/3 of my food from nationally-sourced retail chains. I am not buying most of my dairy or any of my grains from local sources. I knew I'd have to trade out of the area for table sugar and spices and coffee and chocolate and scotch whiskey. But I'm a bit stunned to find that I'm still SO reliant on bringing food to our valley by truck. Boy, that'll suck if the trucks stop rolling. But not as much as if I were only getting 8% of my calories from local sources. I've looked in the mirror lately. I bet I could live on 1/3 of my calories for a good long while. But I couldn't live on 8% of my calories.
When I think it through, I realize the difference between apples and oranges is whether I starve to death.