The Invisible Economy of Local Foods
What is invisible? What can we not tabulate?
It is beyond doubt that supporting local foods strengthens and enriches local communities. I keep returning to an article this summer from the Washington Post that talked about just how impacting local foods can be.
“Every time money changes hands within a community, it boosts the community’s overall income and level of economic activity, and fuels the creation of jobs,” DeWeerdt explains. “The more times money changes hands within the community before heading elsewhere, the better off the community is. And spending money at a locally based business has a greater multiplier effect, the theory goes, because locally owned businesses are more likely to respend their dollars locally.”
The article draws on pioneering work by Ken Meter, president of the Crossroads Research Center in Minneapolis, who has studied the benefits of local food for more than 20 years. The argument, Meter told me, is catching on. It’s not only foodies who are interested in local food. It’s state and county economic development officers. This is happening even in the Midwest, where production agriculture has long ruled supreme.
But beyond the normal economics involved I’ve begun to detect economies at work in the local foods movement for which, unfortunately, we do not possess the vocabulary to calculate. This is a consequence of an American paradigm that embraced physical metrics like jobs created, dollars earned, taxes generated and the like. I am convinced that the culture of local foods taps into and unleashes a torrent of activities that our metrics cannot tabulate.
Local foods carries with it an invisible economy
An economy we can neither see nor touch but which is just as valuable and perhaps more so than traditional accounting would have us believe.
When one participates in the world of local foods we tap into an entire realm of relationships and activites that are additive beyond how much of something we sell.
Taste
First and foremost the local foods movement is about quality food. When we engage local food communities we are embarking on a journey into better food with greater flavor and more nutrients. But we can’t really account for this can we? There is no firm value we can attribute to the fact that we are eating better food. Eating local foods does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, it reverberates through our lives in myriad ways. We are physically healthier, which leads to improved psychic and emotional states. These are just some of the examples of the invisible ways that local foods, and the lifestyle it speaks to, improves our lives. We are richer for it. But we cannot calculate this.
Relationships
Local foods is a small community which like any other niche gives it’s members something to feel special about. But local foods advocates and supporters move beyond that stage and actively look to build their community. That is because we are clued into the restorative effects of participating in this movement. Supporting local farms, fresh food, but also the people and places and activities that are sprouting up around local foods around the country.
Local foods advocates become evangelists on behalf of local foods very easily. I’ve seen countless occasions of near strangers discovering they have more in common besides their commitment to local foods.
How do we calculate this kind of connections and friendships though?
The Invisible Economy is the Real Economy
We’ve tried the other way. We’re still scratching our heads wondering what in the heck just happened. Our entire system journeyed to the edge of total collapse. And that is because the only kind of economics we valued, tabulated and considered was the “real economy.”
It is far past time we began to incorporate less tangible economics. The economics of the heart, of the soul. This is the economy that sees people helping each other for no reason other than to see good things happen. This is the economy of the GIFT, the economy of giving without expectation of remuneration.
This is the economy that asks nothing of anyone, that doesn’t ask for bailouts, for extensions, that does not seek out excuses for its limitations and its failures. It is an economy of invisibility. Where just having faith in the goals of the community is enough to enrich far beyond the accountant’s spreadsheets.
What are the other aspects of local foods that might be “invisible”? I welcome all comments as this is going to be a major theme for me in the next few months
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I believe there is a ripple effect emanating from the local food community. People who shop at farmers markets, eat at restaurants featuring local food are beginning to realize that in supporting other types of local businesses they get the same rewards. They find out that the owner of the local pet food store or independent garden center is their neighbor. Who doesn't want to support their neighbors and help them succeed. These businesses give back to their communities in many ways. They donate to school fundraisers. They teach workshops to help their customers/neighbors learn about new ways of doing things.
They help the person down on his/her luck who needs it because they realize he/she is a part of the community too.
When these businesses succeed the whole community benefits as more people want to move into a neighborhood where they can get quality goods and services and a friendly greeting and a smile when they come to shop.There is nothing better than going into a business where the person helping you knows your name, what street you live on and is willing to go beyond what is expected to be sure your experience is satisfying on all levels.
In the book “The Art of the Commonplace” Wendell Berry explains rather well how local economies and communities were devastated by Big Ag moving farming practices from small local farms to large distant farms. In short, when small farms closed, small communities shut down. People were forced to move to cities, where they have more competition for fewer jobs. Capitalism perhaps in the end employs more people; consider the farm, the packaging, processing, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, oil, shipping, receiving, etc all the way to the “local” supermarket that food now involves. But the bulk of that “economy” stays in very few hands. Also, it isn't sustainable as the entire system is dependent on government subsidies and cheap oil prices.
Economists view a more sustainable economy like that found between small farm and consumer, etc, where no one becomes rich, as invisible. It is not invisible, it is just not glamorous.
[...] The Invisible Economy of Local Foods | Farm To Table [...]
Oh my. Ok, for starters, you don't have a CLUE what you are talking about. Here you are, the CONSUMMATE Capitalist, and you're trying put DOWN the very thing you ARE. WOW. We don't need any more proof than that that you don't even know WHAT Capitalism is. And then you blame our current mess on something you can't even define, so it's no wonder you're wrong on that too. America has not seen Capitalism since 1913. What we have had since, and with increasing fervor in recent decades is Corporatism. This is NOT Capitalism. It opposes Capitalism. It is ironic living here in Boulder, CO amongst so many Marxist-leaning liberals, who like you, don't have a clue what Capitalism is, and speak out against it, and then go shop at the Boulder Farmer's Market, which is one of the most pure unadulterated examples of Free Market Capitalism there is, and they lap it up while denouncing it. This is prima facie evidence why the “Right” labels the “Left” as utterly ignorant. They are. It's a pseudo intellectualism. Oh man, one has to laugh at the sheer ignorance of those trying to tear down the very thing we need – Real unobstructed Capitalism.
Watch this short video and learn what Capitalism is so that next time you write a blog, you might not come off as utterly ignorant. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6732659…
well thanks for the response. I mean, i agree that we haven't had free
markets in a very long time, but i also think that having absolutely free
markets is probably an illusion and not an actual goal. But yes I would like
to see a lot less regulation, particularly in the food world.
btw i am a conservative, and a free marketer, perhaps if you had done a
little research you would have discovered that. here is a link for
instance:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zachary-adam-cohe…
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zachary-adam-cohe…
thanks for the very bitter and nasty response
Z
Hey, you have a public blog, and you're posting nonsense. If you don't want serious rebuttals, don't write.
The Free Market existed for most of civilization. Believing that a regulated Free Market can work, is the only illusion.
Capitalism is the purest form of economic freedom for all. It is the fairest most equitable system. And if you're a conservative, then you ought to know that it's also the Biblical model. Perfect? No, nothing is, but it has proven to be the greatest eradicator of poverty the world has ever seen.
well thanks for the dialogue. i agree that capitalism is the most equitable
system and that it has lifted millions out of poverty and rather than being
the best system, is merely the least worst.
btw calling someone ignorant and declaring they know nothing of what they
talk about is not exactly serious rebuttal is it? i bow down before your
wisdom
i am sure you would agree that you could have gotten your point across in
earlier comment with far less hyperbole no?
Z
I am sorry, but I am TIRED of people redefining Capitalism and then crushing it. If we had real Capitalism today, we would simply not be in an economic meltdown with a collapsing dollar.
agree with you completely and appreciate your passion. the world is topsy
turvy my friend
this reminds me of an interesting aspect in the data on US food consumption. before the 50s, a lot of meat and eggs was home grown or gotten from neighbors. so when factory farms started making cheap meat and eggs, it suddenly appeared in the economy and gave the appearance that fat and protein consumption were on the rise. this set the stage for public health officials to claim the “changed” food consumption correlated with obesity, heart disease and so on.
Thank you so much for this post. I received an email from my meat and dairy producer saying, “When we sell to a local store, we see a 4% profit. When we sell to you at a farmer’s market, we reap a 12% profit.” I was so disheartened! Only 12%?!
But it is good to know that my dollar-vote has this invisible effect as well as my open support of my local producers.
.-= Peggy´s last blog ..Eating Cage Free Eggs? =-.