Integrating Local and Global Food Systems

Michael W. HammC.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture

Depts. of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies; Crop and Soil Science; Food

Science and Human NutritionMichigan State University

336 Billion Pounds

Population 2000 - 2025

9.9 to 10.4 million

280 – 337 million

6.3 – 7.8 billion

2000 - 2050

54 countries water scarce or stressed (2050)

48 countries water scarce or stressed

(2025)

Community/Local in a Global/Concentrated Context

Community- a unified body of individuals;

the people with common interests

living in a particular area; an interacting

population of various kinds of individuals in a

common location;

Community Food Systems – Civic Agriculture

• Relationships between people in the food system based on a sense of place

• Includes market relationships but not exclusively

• A tool for “grounding people in common purpose”

Community Food Systems–

The Foodshed

• Four characteristics– A moral economy – restore mutuality, reciprocity and equity as a frame

for human interactions– The commensal community – respect for our relationships with one

another and ecosystems that support us– Self-protection, secession, and succession – carve out insulated spaces,

create alternatives, move from existing– Proximity – not explicitly define “local” but characterize as more local

rather than less

From: Kloppenburg, Hendrickson and Stevenson, “Coming in to the Foodshed” AGHV 13:3, p. 33-42 (1996)

Community Food Systems - Local Autonomy and Import Substitution

IMPORT SUBSTITUTION

Equity and Democracy

Fair Labor Trade

Environmental Stewardship

Community Food Systems - Community Food Security

All community residents obtaining a culturally acceptable, nutritional adequate

diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance

and social justice.

Hamm & Bellows (2002)

Farms Are Part of Communities

Farms Farming Farmers Farmland

The Challenge of Global - Environmental

What is a 2,000 mile tomato in the

Upper Midwest?

– A source of CO2 release

– A source of lessened nutrition

– A source of trans-oceanic water transfer

The Challenge of Global -Concentration

• e.g. of concentration in the food industry (Concentration % of biggest 4) (from Heffernan, Gronski, and Hendrickson)

– Beef Packers = 79%– Flour Milling = 62%– Dry Corn Milling = 57%– Soybean Crushing = 80%

• e.g. approx. 30,000 items on grocery shelves – 50% produced by 10 multinationals

The Challenge of Global - Hunger

• Projected by some to go from 774 to 694 million (2000 – 2010)

• But increase in disparity• Recent global economic slowdown

increasing hunger globally and so may not realize even the decreases above

• Potential for increased conflict over food?

American Farmland Trust http://www.farmland.org/farmingontheedge/downloads.htm

North Central Region Change in Number of Mid-Scale Farms (1997-2002)

50-179 Acres

180-499 Acres

500-999 Acres

>1000 Acres

Illinois 2.0 -13.0 -15.3 13.6

Indiana -6.1 -16.5 -14.7 10.1

Iowa -1.1 -14.5 -11.9 28.0

Kansas 14.4 -2.1 -10.8 -0.1

Michigan 6.7 -11.1 -10.8 14.7

Minnesota 11.2 -8.5 -8.1 16.3

Missouri 9.2 0.7 -7.0 4.8

Nebraska 4.3 -10.6 -12.5 1.0

North Dakota 45.6 9.5 -16.2 -8.5

Ohio 2.9 -10.0 -6.1 20.8

South Dakota 18.8 -6.3 -8.7 -2.4

Wisconsin 20.0 -9.9 -2.4 31.5

TOTAL 7.4 -8.5 -10.8 4.8

Michigan has the land capacity for:

Building/rebuilding rural communities around vibrant community-based food systems Export agriculture Non-food uses of agricultural land (e.g. turf, horses)

 Acreage Utilized for Production

Acreage Required for Production of

Current Consumption

Acreage Required for Recommended

Consumption

% of Michigan Farmland 36.4 35.9 43.2

Today’s Niche – Tomorrow’s Lost

Market

1966 Exported 63,000 tons of tomatoes 1996 exported 2,000 tons

of tomatoesAdapted from “Exploring the Tomato”

Consumer Attitudes

• 71% willing to pay more for food grown locally

• 71% willing to pay more for food if meant it could be produced in ways that protected the environment

• 77% thought government policies should be oriented towards helping family, owner-operated farms

• 59% thought that family farms should be supported even if it meant higher food prices

Food from Our Changing World: The Globalization of Food and How Americans Feel About It by Ronald C. Wimberley,et al (accessed at http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/global-food/foodglobal.html

Attracting Consumers With Locally Grown Products Food Processing Center, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska- Lincoln (2001) (Phone survey of 500 consumers in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin

Why Community-based and Local?

• Economics

• Public Health

• Environmental restoration

Jobs in Rural Communities

*1992 Management Information Records

  Contract Farrowing-Finishing

1992 MIR Hog*

Production Units 1.00  4.50 

Sows 600   

Pigs/year 11,900   

$Investment B&E 1,005,000  1,192,500 

$Total Assets 1,005,000  2,452,500 

$Sales 1,368,500  1,306,071 

Total Labor 4.25  12.60 

Jobs Displaced 8.35   

Multiplier 2.22  2.22 

Total Employment 9.44  27.97 

Jobs Displaced 18.54   

John E. Ikerd, The Economic Impacts of Increased Contract Swine Production in Missouri (accessed at http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/con-hog.htm)

Purchasing Power Creates

Opportunities

 

Population or Households

in Michigan1

Basis2 10% from Michigan2

Consumption relative to dollar expenditures ($) (food at home-family)

3,785,661 $7,336,050,740 $733,605,074.02

Consumption relative to dollar expenditures

(ideal $) (Food at home- family)

3,785,661 $9,231,805,856 $923,180,585.60

Difference between current and recommended

  $1,895,755,116 $189,575,512

1From U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000

2Poundage based on Table 1 current poundage intake; Dollar expenditures based on U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2002)

Ratio of Fresh Vegetable Imports to Exports in US

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Taken from http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/bico/bico.asp?Entry=lout&doc=1270* C. Benbrook “ Minimizing Pesticide Dietary Exposure Through the Consumption of Organic Food: An Organic Center State of Science Review” (2004)

•And on average imported have higher levels of pesticide residues than domestic in a particular product category*

Sprawl and Obesity

Most sprawled vs. Least Sprawled Metropolitan Areas

6.3 pounds differential of body weight

Ewing, R., Schmid, T., Killingsworth, R., Zlot, A., Raudenbush, S. (2003) Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and

Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity. Am. J. Health Promotion Vol. 18 47-57.

Opportunity – Rural Urban Mutual Development

Create relationships based on mutual trust, benefit, and

respect

Rural Development & Health

Urban Development & Health

FOOD FROM FARM TO URBANCONSUMER

Rural Farming Communities

Urban Communities

Select Michigan

Community-based as a Vehicle for Rethinking the Global/National -

Fair Trade

Taken from Fair Trade Federation http://www.fairtradefederation.com/2003_trends_report.pdf

Scale of Farm and Marketing Strategies

• Smaller Scale- Direct Marketing Primarily

• Medium Scale- Potentially mixture of direct marketing and

wholesale/institutional/processing• Larger Scale- Primarily

wholesale/institutional/processing

There are Numerous Strategies to Increase Economic and Social Vitality While

Improving Individual Health IndicatorsDirect to consumers Farmers Markets Farmstands Community Supported Agriculture Farms Indirectly to consumers Institutional Buying Restaurant Connections Supermarket and grocery stores Farm to School Either Urban Farms Value-added Processing

“…You can’t predict the future, but you can create it...With this principle, we can make the future’s inherent unpredictability become a positive, not a negative. We just have to create the future from the future instead of predicting it from the present.”

Paul Dolan True to Our Roots

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