Remembering who grows our food seems, to me, the most forgotten aspect of recent conversations on local food. Without farmers, near and far, we would have no food. Though the high prices of good food are often maligned, we could do more to understand why farmers must charge these prices.
Food access for ALL people must be central to discussions of food, and fortunately, these conversations are happening with increasing regularity. But I think that food access for farmers is too quietly discussed. Even organic farmers, even farmers who charge $9 per gallon of raw milk or $5 per pound of tomatoes, have trouble making ends meet. Though it is easy to malign farmers for charging high prices, these prices are not pulled out of the sky. They go towards land, towards labor, towards food, towards family; they go towards the expenses each of us have, all components that we must consider when understanding “cost” in the food system and broader society. We must understand, and then change, this mismatched system where farmers must charge high prices, which cannot be met by all eaters, and still can barely recoup their own costs.
When we ask for cheap food, I think we must be specific about what we are going to sacrifice. Would we prefer food from farmers who don’t pay laborers, or who skirt protecting our water, soil, and sky? Feeding ourselves carries costs: monetary, social, and environmental. Like much of the food discussion, I don’t think there are simple answers to changing these costs. We need system change, everything and all of it at once.
To start understanding these costs, to place ourselves in a way that gives us the right to complain about them, we must ground ourselves in understanding. To start, I think that everyone should grow food. In a backyard garden, or at a farm, try it for just a day in order to understand the work that goes into each seedling. Preferably follow the full cycle through, from germination to harvest, because only then can everything (the labor, the love, and the cost) that goes into each plant be understood. Only then can we complain about paying $5 for a pound of brandywine tomatoes or $4 for a bunch of carrots. Only then we can start thinking about getting those carrots in the hands and mouths of everyone. Farmers included.