A Director's Chair

by Jim Monsonis

I learned a new word recently: locavore — i.e. a person who eats only (or almost only) foods that are locally grown. This came from the New York Times, which has published a whole section devoted, respectfully, to the local foods movement. As The Times pointed out, the average foodstuff travels 1,500 miles from farm to market, and the paper acknowledged that local products are often of higher quality and taste better. (Buying local also supports our local economy, and provides aesthetic value: I’d much rather live among farms than truck warehouses.) Now that The Times has blessed us, I guess we no longer have to think of ourselves as crazies or fanatics. Eating locally is now respectable since The Times has approved. 

Of course, Honest Weight was way ahead of the curve, as is often the case. Several years ago the Collective Management Team (CMT), with the strong support of the Board, began to emphasize local foods and sought out local suppliers, and has moved strongly in this direction. As you walk through the store you’ll see the “local” label at many points, not just in produce; and more labels will come soon, since a new labeling system is being planned. But The Times articles got me to thinking about the extent to which one could “eat locally” by buying everything at the Co-op, as urged in books like Smith and MacKinnon’s Plenty (the Canadian title is The Hundred Mile Diet); or Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; or Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. How well can we do? What would one have to forego? Let’s take a walk through the store…

Bad News / Good News 

For the purposes of this article I’m going to use the word “local” loosely. All of New York State is OK, as is all of New England. No need to check the map. There is good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad news so that we can end on a positive note. Many foodstuffs of course cannot be grown in this part of the world. (Though with global warming proceeding apace, who knows about twenty years from now?) No coffee. No tea. Ditto citrus, mangoes, bananas. No chocolate. No olives and olive oil. Most nuts are out. The Co-op management can’t do much about these, and the best one can do is to buy products that are at least processed in our area with raw materials from distant climes. Vermont Coffee, Café Alta Gracia, High Peaks Java, all at the Coop, are processed here and are fair traded, though the only tea that I could find on the shelves that is packaged nearby is Long Life, from Long Island. Another example: Nantucket Nectars produces a line of juices made from tropical fruits … not really “local,” but better than juices shipped from California. We carry many kinds of dried tropical fruits processed by Tierra Farms, over in Columbia County, plus many nut butters which are processed locally.

Then — also on the bad news end — there are products that could be produced locally and once were, but not any longer. Did you know that New York State was once a major producer of salt? Most of us realize that grains could easily be produced in New York and New England, but only recently is there a bit of a comeback of this item. 

Under the guidance of the Cornell Cooperative Agricultural Extension service, have there been extensive trials of growing wheat in New York, with 45 varieties grown experimentally. Champlain Valley Milling buys all that is produced, and the Co-op carries a wide variety of flour from them in the Bulk section. But production is far short of the demand. And we’re not even talking about wheat and other grains used by our pasta and bread suppliers; even when they’re made locally it doesn’t mean the grains are produced locally. If you want to eat completely locally, grains might be the hardest item to supply for yourself, and you’ll have to do your own baking as far as I can determine.

While we’re in the Bulk aisle, I might mention dried beans — white and red kidneys, black turtle — all grown in New York State. The canned beans that we carry all come from elsewhere, though. Ditto the chips in the same aisle as the canned beans, even though potatoes grow nicely here! And the only salsa I found produced locally is Drew’s, which is made in Vermont. Now the good news. When we think “local production” we might first think of fruits and vegetables, and there has been a major effort by Gail and the CMT to recruit local suppliers. In spring, summer and fall, it’s pretty easy to eat locally from our Produce section, though with some limitations — cherries and apples and pears rather than bananas and mangoes, potatoes rather than tropical grains like rice. The Co-op used to carry a locally produced rice, but the farmer has stopped growing it. 

In winter though, the choices become slim: winter squashes, potatoes and onions, local mushrooms, a few greenhouse products. The CMT and the Board have been talking for a while about subsidizing, if necessary, some local farmers to produce and store stuff we can eat in the winter, but nothing definite has developed.

There is fine local honey in bulk and in jars, local grape juice (Glendale Farm) and apple cider, locally processed marmalades and jellies, though often made from distant raw materials. The sweet tooth need not be entirely neglected. Where the Co-op really shines, though, is in the meat and dairy sections. There are many local suppliers, including Evans’ Farmhouse and Meadowbrook for milk, Hawthorne Valley and Stonyfield for yogurt, several suppliers for butter. Gustav has found a wide variety of great local cheeses (you may have to give up your favorite French or Spanish cheese, but there are substitutes; ask him). We at the Co-op have no need to go to California for milk and yogurt. 

Since the Co-op began to stock meat a year or so ago, the guiding principle has been meat and poultry from local producers, sustainably raised. If you’re a meat eater, check out products from Kriel Farm or Sweet Tree Farm, or poultry from Misty Knoll. There is no store in the area that can match us in this category.

Tough Choices 

I’m sure I’ve missed many products already in the store and am unaware of many suppliers. If you know of local suppliers that the Co-op should be in touch with, please let us know. So what does this all mean? How important is it to us to buy and eat locally?

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