Assignment 16: Charlotte Kessinger

Persuasive Speech: Eat Local

What can one person do to make a difference in their community? An easy answer- simply immerse themselves into the network of local fresh produce. Eating local means that food you consume did not have to be frozen, packaged or driven 1000 miles across the U.S. to be put on the supermarket shelf. Eating local means the food you buy comes from nearby small food producers benefitting your friends and neighbors. You think about food, you buy food, you eat food therefore you are a major part of the food system: a consumer. The food system consists of anything from corn fields, pigs, tractors to supermarkets, McDonalds and the cafeteria lunch. This system links the local community, region, and state to the country and the rest of the world. However, this food industry is considered by some to be extremely corrupt. Owned only by few huge corporations, the food processing industry strives to produce large quantities of food at low prices to maximize their sales and result in large profits. Americans are easily manipulated by the cost and convenience of unhealthy fast food, especially when hungry, poor or tired. While the fast food industry easily keeps consumers fed, it is far from providing nutritious food or ethical work environments. American farmer Joe Salatin states, “We're willing to subsidize the food system to create the "mystique" of cheap food, when actually it's very expensive food when you add up the environmental costs, societal costs, health costs. The industrial food is not honest food.” (Food Inc.) Eating locally, on the other hand, strengthens the local economy, improves the health of its consumers and easily lets consumers know where their food is coming from. So instead of supporting the centralized power of the food industry that is used against farmers producing quality food, buy and eat local!

When you decide to eat local, its much more than just eating food from the farmer down the street. Eating locally strengthens the local economy. When someone buys food from an independent local food producer, they are supporting their community and their money re-circulates and is reinvested into other local businesses and services in the community. When someone consumes from large chains and companies, like Walmart, that money goes back to the company’s headquarters, enabling the manipulative food industry to produce masses of unhealthy food to stay in power of the industry. New Economics Foundation researcher David Boyle compares money to blood, just like blood moves through our body the money needs to keep moving around the community to keep the economy strong. Boyle explains that when money is spent at corporate-owned supermarkets instead of the small local corner stores, the money flows out of the community like blood from a wound. (Schwartz) Eating local also provides jobs for community members, as small local businesses are the largest employers nationally.Local jobs are essential to the community and have a more financially durable base than jobs provided by large companies. (Milchen) Eating from local producers also creates a more connected community. Eating locally connects people with farmers and food producers and creates strong relationships and more active communities. (Mellino) Local farmers and food producers can also preserve the community’s unique food culture and produce what they want because they don’t have to follow corporate guidelines or templates.

Local food is fresh food and fresh food is healthier food. Food that is sold on a supermarket shelf likely traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, over weeks, to get there. Due to this time traveling, produce is harvested prematurely and treated with chemical gasses to delay its ripening for two to three weeks to allow time for transportation across the country. Local food never travels long distances and is never treated with chemicals and typically arrives at the supermarket or farmer’s market 24 to 48 hours after harvest, allowing it to retain most of its nutritional values. (Ryan) Today chickens in industrial farms are raised in just 49 days compared to the three months it took in the 1950s, due to increased use of antibiotics, yet are twice as big, and proven to be less healthy. Today’s industrial chickens never even see the sun and live so closely together that antibiotics are necessary. (Food Inc.) Who wants to eat a piece of “meat” from a chicken that never had the chance to live and was genetically modified? Not me. Author of “The Omnivores Dilemma,” Michael Pollan writes, “Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.” (Pollan ) On the other hand, local farmers are much less likely to raise animals in such horrific conditions, or treat them with unnecessary antibiotics or genetically modified corn feed, and therefore local farmer’s poultry is much healthier for your body. Local food also is not processed food. The more processed an item is the more nutritional value it loses. Local small-scale farmers have more dedication and nourish crops and soils in ways to provide the highest quality, healthiest produce that they can.

Do you know exactly where all the ingredients in the frozen pizza you ate last night came from? Probably not. Can you pronounce the all the ingredients? I bet not. When you eat local food, you know exactly where your food is coming from and what exactly is in it. This allows the consumer to easily find out if the product was produced with pesticides, antibiotics or other extremely unhealthy methods. However, when you buy mass produced products, such as that frozen pizza, its nearly impossible to know where all the ingredients came from or how they were produced. The large scale food industry depends on the ignorance of its consumers and their decisions based upon only on a low price. Author Michael Pollan writes, “It's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring–to the carelessness of both producers and consumers that characterizes our economy today.” (Pollan) To make sure you’re not an ignorant consumer, support your local farmers and food producers!

An easy way for the people of Lexington to eat locally is purchasing a Community Share from Elmwood Stock farm located in Georgetown, Kentucky. Elmwood is a 6^th generation family farm that provides organic vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and cornmeal to the surrounding area. (Elmwood) All you have to do is sign up and pay for a share. Each week, the farm delivers its harvest to several distribution sites across central Kentucky where it can be picked up. Each week you enjoy a variety of fresh local organic food. In doing so, you are supporting a local farmer and incorporating the freshest unprocessed local food available into your diet. Way better than frozen pizza.

Are you convinced?  Why not support your local farmer? Help stimulate the local economy. Improve your health. Quit eating food you cannot pronounce. Do you want to support Walmart or Elmwood Farm? I know who I support and I know confidently exactly where my food came from – down the road – and I hope you soon will too. 

Works Cited

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser and Richard Lobb. Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Netflix.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Schwartz, Judith D. "Buying Local: How It Boosts the Economy." Time. Time Inc., 11 June 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Mellino, Cole. "10 Reasons Why You Should Eat Local." EcoWatch. EcoWatch 2016, 27 June 2016. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Milchen, Jeff. "Buying Local Yields More Jobs, Stronger Communities." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Ryan, Briana. "Why Is Local Food Healthier?" Greenopedia. Greenopedia, 10 July 2016. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

"Farm Fresh." Elmwood Stock Farm. Elmwood Stock Farm, Web. 11 Dec. 2016.