What does it mean to shop locally for food? Some people think it means to shop for goods grown within the United States, some think within their state, while others think it means to shop for items produced only within their own county.
Wendell Berry, American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer, explains "shopping locally" as "(buying) food that is produced closest to your home," because "the locally produced food supply is the easiest for local consumers to know about and to influence." This 1990 quote is a powerful statement. It means that when we buy local, we're commanding a great force and we're becoming active consumers in the process. An active consumer influences not only agriculture but also the economy.
By shopping locally, we can talk to our local farmers and gardeners about where our food comes from and how it is produced, and we can take an active role in the agriculture around us. In essence, we becomeagriculturists without ever turning the soil or tending to the animals. To make it fresher, safer and more secure, it's got to become our agriculture, and it's time we were all active in it.
National Geographic this year defined agriculture as "the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. It includes the preparation of plant and animal products for people to use and their distribution to markets." Based on this definition, we all play a significant role in agriculture, whether we choose to or not, because we're consumers.
Consumers are the whole purpose for this art and science. As active consumers, it is our responsibility to eat responsibly by learning about where our food comes from, how it's produced and how it gets to us before we eat it because we influence the food and it influences us.
It's time to take individual responsibility for our agriculture by learning more about it, protecting it and supporting it. There are so many ways we can guide this critical process that we collectively call agriculture. It's simple to help yourself and support agriculture: Start a garden and growing and preparing your own food. You can learn about commercial food production and about best farming and gardening practices, attending the various seminars held at extension offices, visit farmer's markets. You can join or start a food policy council to guide land-use ordinances in your area. Volunteer at food pantries. Take a culinary class. Encourage your children to join 4-H. Shop at local markets, and choose "Fresh from Florida" brands.
No matter how you do it, the most important step to becoming a responsible consumer is to have a relationship with your food. Let's respect the plants and the animals. Let's respect the men and women growing, processing and delivering our food for us to enjoy and live long, healthy lives. Let's respect the sounds, smells and sights of the agriculture that surround us and take responsibility for the role we play within it because of the choices we make when shopping.
When we smell the cows, let it empower instead of repel. When we hear the cannons in the blueberry fields, let us be reminded that those farmers are protecting our food with that noise by shooing away the birds. When we get stuck behind a slow tractor or semi full of produce, let us be proud of that crop and not annoyed by the delay.
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Explore all your optionsWe don't have to be rich, and we don't need to be the most popular or the loudest to have influence — we just need to think and buy food locally. Agriculture is the fabric of our bodies, our homes, our schools, our economy, our nation and our world. Let's all be agriculturalists.
Whitney Elmore is the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Pasco County extension director and urban horticulture agent. Contact her at welmore@pascocountyfl.net.