In this video, I debate the current trend of overcharging for produce (and meats) labelled as “local”. As a farmer, I am obviously not against local food or supporting local farmers. I just want to raise awareness for an issue that I am seeing more and more in my area.
VIDEO: Should You Be Buying Local Produce?
In this video, I debate the current trend of overcharging for produce (and meats) labelled as “local”. As a farmer, I am obviously not against local food or supporting local farmers. I just want to raise awareness for an issue that I am seeing more and more in my area.
If people are willing to pay and the market will bear the price then it is okay to me. It's just economics. If the local people could produce more and they increased the supply the price would go down.
The only legitimate reason I could imagine for the higher price of local crops is the scale of the farms. Some guy with 40 tomato plants, working entirely by hand is "less efficient" than some 1000+ acre plot harvested by basically one guy and a big John Deere. Each harvest takes one man-day of labor. 400 tomatoes vs 10 tons of tomatoes.
But the local guy is only picking the very best fruits at the peak of freshness (hopefully). I agree there is definitely TOO much inflation in cost… It's tough to know where the line is between paying for small scale, and paying for greed.
I'm too scared to check my lettuces at night, I have giant Leopard slugs everywhere and it's just too depressing to see all them munching on my plants, lol.
I think the number one reason to buy local is the nutrient density. I always buy locally what I can't grow myself. But you are right about the costs, but I'd rather give it to my community farmer than the grocery store.
But people nowadays are so greedy for money, and now it's affecting farmers too. We have a farm that charges way toouch on everything. Corn for $2 an ear, it's just crazy, but luckily we have choices.
Jeff, Very candid on your part. Example when I run out of garlic which I grew, rather than buying from China I prefer to support local producers. Turns out decent garlic produced locally goes for about $1.50 per head versus $1.00 for 3 or 4 heads from China. Heck it's cheaper to buy from Spain or South America. It doesn't make sense it's pretty much pest free minimal effort to grow and harvest.