Sustainable Thoughts and Ideas: Thinking outside the Soapbox about “Going Local.” Part 2: Food Sheds & Food Miles

July 28, 2010 
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By: Nathan Melson, MS Agricultural Sciences
Written for Living Natural First Magazine April 2010

As many of you know, and some of you may not, our family farm is located in the DFW Metroplex Food Shed. As I mentioned in the March article a food shed can be defined as a geographic zone around a particular population center that has the potential to or does supply a percentage of that populations’ food. The DFW area is currently estimated to contain around 6.3 million people, and I can’t think of a one of them that doesn’t eat and require food for nourishment. I have yet to meet a photosynthetic person. My point is that many counties surrounding the DFW Metroplex are rural, agricultural counties. In my home county, Fannin County, the 2006 Agricultural income according to the Agricultural Statistics Service was $67.5 million dollars making it the largest industry in the county. However, currently very few of the farms within the counties surrounding the DFW Metropolitan Area provide food directly to the consumers in their counties or to DFW. This is probably true for all of the more than 20 areas classified as metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by the US Census Bureau in the State of Texas. This is something that has the potential to change, and probably will change as America and Texas decide that “Going Local” is important. Bare with me as I try to explain the concept of food sheds and food miles as it pertains to producers and consumers here in Texas.

The average every-day American currently eats food on a daily basis that has traveled around 1500 miles, aka food miles. This kind of shipping is probably not good for long-term sustainability. Shipping will become more and more expensive as fossil fuel prices continue to rise unless a practical and good yielding energy substitute comes into play. Cutting fuel consumption in the entire food chain, will help in making our society and economy more sustainable. The whole concept of a food shed for a particular metro area hinges on these facts, and encourages local food production and marketing to provide quality, and hopefully affordable locally grown and made food products for a particular population. Development of farmer-direct-to-consumer infrastructure will play a huge role in how this new style (actually old style) of food system will play out as more and more folks become concerned about food, where it is coming from, how it is raised, how sustainable is its production and consumption, and how healthy it is for them. To get a better visualization of food miles see an example calculation for Canadian food miles at http://www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/cgi-bin/calculate.pl or for calculating your meal’s carbon foot-print see http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/.

The Dallas/Fort-Worth (DFW) metropolitan area consists of 12 counties in North Central Texas. They are in no particular order Johnston, Ellis, Wise, Parker, Tarrant, Denton, Dallas, Collin, Hunt, Rockwall, Kaufman, and Delta Counties. Some locations in these counties could actually be considered food deserts, which means minimal nutritious food is produced locally or is available in grocery stores. Grocery stores are virtually non-existent in some inner city and rural areas. Many of these counties would also be included as part of the DFW Food Shed because they do have the capability due to soil type and some available land to produce food. However, the main focus that I’m trying to relay here is the ring of counties just outside of the ones mentioned above which, like my home county of Fannin, are rural, heavy agriculturally based, and have land potential to produce copious amounts of health, local, and organic food for the DFW area.

These statements can probably be made for the 24 other metropolitan areas of Texas including the 5 county region in and around Austin, the 8 county region in and around San Antonio, the 10 county region in and around Houston, the 3 county region in and around Corpus Christi, the 1 county region in and around Tyler, the 4 county region in and around Amarillo, and all the other regions that I’m leaving out. All of this information can be found at www.wikipedia.org or with the US Census Bureau. These areas have huge potential for producers and consumers. I think Texas is about 5 years behind the East and West coasts in the local food movement. So hold on to those 10-gallon hats, because we’re just getting started. I see so much untapped potential in all of our communities, if we can just continue to keep people interested and motivated.

As an example, 5 years ago there were probably no more than 5 Farmers’ Markets in the DFW Metro area, today I have been able to reference over 15. This just shows the demand and how communities are clamoring to “Go Local” for a variety of reasons including revitalization, economic, social, health. I know if you are a direct-marketing farmer like me you might not want everyone knowing about the availability of business within the market. However, the more young folks like myself, or old folks for that matter, that are out there making a living from the land by producing good food, fiber, and fuel, the better off our country will be. So I welcome competition. The market is growing and I don’t think that it will be saturated for some time. If you are a consumer wanting access to locally grown food, support the farmers, the farmers’ markets, and other marketing venues like buyers clubs or CSAs, while encouraging your families, friends, and neighbors to to do the same.

Just think of how much impact developing local food, fiber, and fuel systems to assist in feeding, clothing, and fueling their respective food sheds could have, especially in this economic climate. More farmers and ranchers could actually make a living from the land. Sustainability could permeate society, and small towns could return to being hubs of commerce, good jobs, and activity. Many of our rural areas could retain younger generations due to the positive impact on the local economy in relation to money and jobs. Suburban and urban populations could become reconnected to the land, grow in respect for their rural neighbors and have access to local, healthy sources for food, fiber, and fuel. According to the 2007 USDA Ag Census US Data, farm numbers increased by 3.6% farmed acres decreased slightly by 1.7%, market value of products increased dramatically by 47.8% probably due to corn-based ethanol and possibly organics, and alarmingly the number of full time farmers declined by 13% nationwide. Some of the full time farmer decline can probably be attributed to several things including farm consolidation, financing, retirement, and old age attrition. If we have this kind of farmer decline in the face close to record market value it concerns me. Who is going to raise our food in the future if we don’t get younger generations interested in farming? We need to be able to show them that a living can probably be made in farming if your mind is open to doing the alternative things that are desired by a growing public demand, and that you don’t have to be a mega-farmer or a gentlemen farmer with another high-paying professional day job to make a living on the land.

Did you know that for every dollar spent in a local business it turns over three times in that community before it leaves town? So for every $1000 spent in the local economy, it actually ends up being $3000. What a concept and an impact. Developing food sheds are just another grassroots example of a way to help solve our countries economic woes from the farm up not Washington D.C. down.

As is being noted in my series of articles, America must change it’s mindset towards food, embrace the ideas of local and sustainable, support local farmers and ranchers, and encourage young folks to seek out one of the most noble professions I can think of “working with the land and stewarding Creation.” With documentaries like “Food Inc.” and Oprah’s praise of a changing food system, I think that the cart has begun to swiftly roll down the right track. One of the greatest things a farmer can do in this current day and age to make a positive impact on America is to start using organic and sustainable practices, and make an effort to direct market products in some way either directly or through a co-op or business. One of the greatest things a food consumer can do in this day and age to make a positive impact on America is to support those farmers and ranchers. Truly “Going Green” will require “Going Local”. Besides it is just the responsible and patriotic thing to do whether you are American, Canadian, Argentinian, Indian, or English. Farm on!