What I Learned Today - Best Article I Read Today

11th September 2009

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Best Article I Read Today

Big Food vs. Big Insurance - Michael Pollan

Actually it was yesterday. Great article. He mentions research done on foodsheds, a term with which I was heretofore unfamiliar. I wanted to learn more, so I did..

A foodshed is the region between where food is produced and where it is consumed. Our foodshed is basically the entire world, as the food we consume is from all over. The foodshed to which Pollan refers, however, describes local farmland surrounding a city. The goal is to utilize a city’s regional foodshed to provide as much food to feed its inhabitants. This helps

the environment - by decreasing transportation costs
public health - as food is fresher, less processed, less subject to pesticides
the local economy - by creating local employment opportunities

Interestingly, about a third of all of America’s farms are located near a metropolitan area. Yet you stroll through a typical city market, and all you see is produce from elsewhere in the country and world. A perfect example of this disconnect - New York is the second largest apple producing state in the US with about 700 growers producing 25 million bushels each year. But 75% of the apples consumed by New Yorkers are imported from the West Coast or overseas. Why is that?

Beyond foodsheds, the recent marketing campaign against soda, and the mandate for displaying calories at chain restaurants, there are some great ideas out there for fixing that disconnect in New York. More on those later.