At the Table – COOL

Another good, crazy week of planning for the road trip. The main reason we’re touring the country is to promote local, sustainable food, and to let you know about communities and groups around the country that are promoting and living a sustainable lifestyle. (Well, that and to go around the country and meet as many people as we can! Oh, and to eat pie. Lots of pie.)

To prepare for the trip, I thought it would be good to read up on what’s happening in the eat local movement, so I’ve been doing as much research as I can – which, unfortunately, isn’t as much as I would like because the logistical planning takes so much time!…

But I’ve learned some interesting things. A recent study done by the Montreal organization Equiterre and reported in Sustainable Food News stated, “that 85 percent of respondents said buying local foods is important to them, and 77 percent said they make an effort to do so. Also, 72 percent said they are willing to pay more for locally produced foods, partly to encourage local producers (84%), partly because of the quality of the products (57%) and partly because they felt purchasing local was better for the environment (42%).”

And did you know that the number of certified farmers markets (not including roadside stands) has risen around 20% annually over the past few years? (source – the United States Department of Agriculture) Also, in 1920, 34 different commodities were grown or raised on at least 1% of Iowa farms – in 1997, that number had shrunk to 10, with corn (68%) and soybeans (62%) grown on the majority of farms.

What’s even sadder is that the bulk of the corn now grown in Iowa is not for public consumption – meaning you can’t eat it directly from the stalk. It’s mainly raised for animal feed or for processing into things like high fructose corn syrup, so Iowa basically can no longer feed itself. This is a place were in 1870 almost 100% of the apples consumed were grown in the state. By 1925, that number dropped to 50%, and, in 1999, Iowa only grew around 15% of the fresh apples eaten in the state.

And you might already know that a 1980 study concluded that fresh produce travels an estimated 1,500 miles to get from the farm to your dinner plate – oftentimes, when the items could be purchased locally.

This led me to country of origin labeling (COOL). How do we know if that tomato we’re buying is from down the road or from South America, unless we have labels on food stating where it comes from? And did you know that right now the meat you buy could have a USDA stamp of approval on it, but it could have been slaughtered and processed overseas, where regulations aren’t always the same? Because there’s no label saying where it’s from, you have no way of knowing.

And if China continues to put chemicals and poisonous substances into food products, don’t we have a right to know which products are coming from there so we can choose whether or not we want to purchase them? (See the May 11, 2007 At the Table column on the Pet Food Incident.)

The kicker to all this is that the government passed a mandatory COOL law in 2002, requiring that beef, pork, lamb, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, fish, shellfish and peanuts be labeled with the country that they came from. But except for seafood labeling, which went into effect in 2004, the industry was able to delay labeling until 2008.

And the good news is that COOL is back in front of Congress now, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call (and posted on the Organic Consumers Association site). It turns out that Representative Henry Bonilla (R-Texas), the former chairman on the subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration – who was defeated in the last election – had simply cut off funding for the measure in two-year intervals – in 2004 and again in 2006. But now that he’s out, the COOL issue is again being debated.

If you want to read more about COOL, check out Food & Water Watch’s handout.

If you’re wondering why industry might not want COOL to go into effect, I went into my local health food store a couple weeks ago and really wanted an apple (an organic apple, mind you…). As I was reading the sticker to see what type of apple it was, I noticed that they were all from Chile. I’m not going to buy an apple from Chile when I know they grow them in upstate New York. I mean, Washington State is even closer than Chile. And how do I know the organic standards in Chile are the same as our standards? And who regulates organics there?

Seeing that all the apples had been flown in from another continent, I settled on another piece of fruit – I didn’t need an apple that bad (though, I must admit, I think I got a banana – but that’s another story…).

So if you’re interested in eating local, you need to know where your food comes from. We always like to stress that you go to your local farmers market to get your food – you can easily find out where your food comes from – but that isn’t always practical. So we think it’s important that you be able to go into your local grocery store and know where the food you buy was produced. You then have more information to help you choose what you think is the best food for you and your family.

If you are observant, you might remember that I brought up COOL in my May 7, 2007 column – I don’t mean to repeat myself, but I can’t stress how important this issue is. It will be something we talk about while we’re on the road this August (in between bites of pie!)

If you’re interested in the Eat Well Guided Tour of America, you can visit www.sustainabletable.org/roadtrip to find the cities we’re visiting and what we’ll be doing. We’re still adding in events to the schedule, so what we’ll be doing is being updated regularly. If you’re interested in having us email you information about what we’ll be doing, you can sign up for our weekly Monday updates on the Sustainable Table website. The tour kicks off on August 2nd in Hollywood, California.