FARM TO TABLE

Many area food purveyors provide fresh, delicious
fare that benefits our health, environment, and
future. But there are many challenges to the local
foods movement. Why is it so important for us to
change our diets? Because we are what we eat.

WRITTEN BY STEPHANIE STIKA, PHOTO BY JEFF ROSS

It seems like wherever we turn these days someone is advertising organic or natural products. It is the bandwagon of the times, gaining momentum and popularity. Eat local! Grow your own! Never trust a tomato in February! From school gardens to farmers’ markets, the fresh-food fervor is growing.

It’s easy to argue that this trend is good for our health, our local economies, and our communities. But what if it’s just a fad— one that, like most fads, too may pass? Making sure that doesn’t happen would be, like Mom used to say about that plate of broccoli, good for us all. Perhaps if we look at the rationale behind the movement and understand that it has lasting importance, it will become an enduring way of life rather than a passing fancy.

Our current means of feeding people is bad for our health in every respect, from the toll it takes on the environment to the bland, nutritionchallenged, hurried-through meals on our dinner table. In the grand scheme, the cheap food we have come to rely on is not produced in a sustainable fashion. It is time to start making changes for ourselves, our community, and our future.

HEALTHY CHOICES

Over the past 50 years, Americans have shifted their spending habits dramatically. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, the percentage of our income spent on food dropped by more than 7 percent from 1960 to 2008. This sounds like a positive change— until you consider that we increased spending on health care by more than 10 percent from 1960 to 2005, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If input is directly related to output, it stands to reason that we may not be making the best food choices for our health. “Four of the top 10 killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer,” said author Michael Pollan in a New York Times Magazine article published Oct. 12, 2008.

A May 2009 study entitled Nutritional Quality and Safety of Organic Food conducted by the French Agency for Food Safety concluded that organic plant foods contain more minerals and antioxidants, and that organic animal foods contain more polyunsaturated fatty acids, than their conventional counterparts. In addition, plants naturally produce phytochemicals that protect them from pests. These chemicals are the antioxidants we need from our food. But when pesticides are applied, the plants decrease production of those essential chemicals and we no longer reap the benefits.

Heather Graham, a nutrition professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, cites one study comparing organic to conventional berries that found the organic berries to have “58 percent higher levels of polyphenols, which act as antioxidants that can assist in the prevention of heart disease and possibly cancer.” Graham adds that the maximum amount of nutrients is found when food is picked ripe and eaten right away. As soon as food is harvested, oxygen and light exposure begin to degrade nutrients. The sooner food gets from the ground to your table, the more nutrients it contains, she says.

“Food that is local is definitely best,” she says.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

The Environmental Protection Agency contends that many of the 20,000 pesticides on the market pose serious risks to human health as well as to the environment.We are exposed to these chemicals daily in the air that we breathe, the water we drink, and in our food choices. Children are at even greater risk, as their immune systems are not fully developed.

“The EPA and the USDA have standards set for limits of certain pesticides,” says Leslie Allen, an ecologist and horticulture program coordinator for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. “What are not studied by them are the synergistic effects and long-term effects of multiple pesticides being sprayed on your food. That’s a pretty compelling reason not to want to have any pesticides in your food at all. It’s risk management. You want to manage the risk of what is being put into your body.”

Along with concerns about the pollution from chemical pesticides and fertilizers, we also are losing our topsoil at an alarming rate.Why should we care about losing soil? In the United States, soil is disappearing 10 times faster than it can be replenished. And the bulk of this tragedy occurs on farmland. According to a 2006 study by Cornell University, about 60 percent of this soil ends up in our waterways, burdening them with fertilizer and pesticide residues. Soil particles are carried by the wind, contaminating the air we breathe with particulate matter and infectious- disease organisms. Conventional farming methods deplete the soil so much that over time it is rendered sterile. The 2006 study found that “as a result of erosion over the past 40 years, 30 percent of the world’s arable land has become unproductive.”

Contrast this to an organic farm, where the focus is on building soil, where “no till” methods virtually eliminate erosion and where it is understood that sustainable farming practices begin with healthy soils. In addition, a recentWorldwatch Institute report demonstrated that soils on organic farms act as carbon sinks, meaning that a great deal of the atmospheric carbon responsible for global warming is trapped in these healthy soils.

“Soil doesn’t get enough respect,” Allen says. “We are the only nation that calls it dirt.”

It is not hard to see that our most common agricultural practices are unsustainable.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

Kim Swearingen is a Reno mother of four who has been growing organic food for her family for more than 20 years.

“I firmly believe in the connection between what you put in your mouth and how you feel and I wanted [my kids] to feel good,” she says. “My family has been incredibly healthy and they all have a very solid respect for the environment.”

In addition, she notes, “conventional agriculture so depletes the soil that there will be nothing left. Organic is the only sustainable way.”

LOCAL SUPPORT

If we know where our food comes from and who our area’s farmers are, we will be building healthy relationships along with healthy diets and a healthy planet. This more holistic approach to health also builds community.

Mike Johnson, vice president of community health at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Reno, and his wife, Sandra Beckett, farm ¾ of an acre where they grow high-quality, organic food for local restaurants. Through his job at Saint Mary’s, he has been involved in helping to establish a new Great Basin Basket community-supported agriculture (CSA) pickup location at Saint Mary’s. (A CSA allows consumers to pay a fee upfront in exchange for a weekly box of produce through the season. For details, see page 9.) And he helps with a program that offersWomen’s, Infants, and Children’s (WIC) nutrition certificates that can be redeemed at local farmers’ markets. He says theWIC program has introduced local, healthy food to different socio-economic groups that otherwise do not tend to frequent the markets. He believes this is even more important for these people as they are in groups that tend to be more exposed to toxins and diets full of processed food. He sees now that they are developing a relationship with the farmers, expanding not only their health but their community as well.

“Health is not just about vitamins and exercise; it is about lifestyle,” Johnson says. “Health is directly linked to social relationships.” Susan Brumm, chapter leader of Slow Food Lake Tahoe (a group that advocates for access to good, healthy food that is sustainably grown. See page 8), believes in finding the people in our community who are producing food and supporting them.

“I really believe local food is tied to economic revitalization,” she says. In addition, she notes, in the bigger picture, local foods have a smaller carbon footprint since they were not trucked, flown, or shipped as far to get to your table. In terms of risk management, Shelley Brandt, author of a blog called Local Food Northern Nevada and a Slow Food Reno member, offers a compelling statement.

“On the scary side, in a situation where someone wanted to harm your community, if [he or she] attacked the routes that your food traveled through, the average city would only be able to feed their population for 72 hours.”

To help make a change in our food system, one of the most important things people can do is to start asking questions, Brandt says. It’s as simple as talking to your waiter or the produce person in the supermarket, and asking where the food comes from, if it’s local or organically produced. This not only builds our awareness, but also shows business people what we want.

HERE AND NOW

Marcia Litsinger, co-owner of Churchill Butte Organics with her husband, Steve, and vice-chair of the Nevada Organic Council, has been growing organic food for as long as she can remember. She says every time there is an oil crunch, food prices go up.

“If we support our local organic growers, we are using very little oil to produce and transport food,” she says. “The more people who want good stuff, the lower the price will be.”

So the real question is, why would we wait? Not many people will argue that they would rather lead unhealthy lives or pass the burden of bad choices on to their grandchildren.We have the opportunity right now to take a stand for our health and world, and to reconnect with the complex web of life in which we are but a small part.

The good news is the impacts of our current practices can be reversed, and the way to do that is to start making good food choices. If we raise our children on healthy food they will desire healthy food. A child who grows their own vegetables suddenly can’t wait to eat that carrot.

“Considering the prevalence of convenient food over the last few generations,” Marcia Litsinger says, “if we don’t pass on the skills of growing and cooking whole foods to the next generation that knowledge may be forgotten.”

See below to learn what you can do to eat better and support the local food community.

Reno resident Stephanie Stika is a horticulturist and avid gardener. She also has a landscape design and consultation company called Your Plant Guru (Yourplantguru.com). She believes everyone has a right to healthy, nutritious food. She grows as much as she can in her backyard garden to eat, share with friends, and donate to her community.