Locally grown food: good for you, good for the planet
by Vicki Wolf, April 2005

Houston may be one of the best cities in the United States for the availability of locally grown food. This area has one of the most extensive community garden programs in the country. An abundance of local food also can be found at farmers’ markets and food co-ops. Eating local food can benefit the planet, the local economy and your health.

The average meal in the United States travels 1,500 miles from farm to table, and the distance is increasing, according to the International Society for Ecology and Culture . Many of those foods have been imported from other countries. The transport of food from abroad and across the United States consumes large quantities of fossil fuel. One way to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and the pollution that comes from burning it is to eat locally grown food.

“Millions of people depend on a food chain that is dependent on oil that is being depleted,” says Bob Randall, co-founder and executive director of Urban Harvest, a Houston area non-profit organization that supports farmers’ markets and community gardening. “We need to rebuild local agriculture and make it financially rewarding,” he adds.

Local food is fresher and more nutritious
The food grown in your own community is fresher and more nutritious. Produce transported thousands of miles that sits on a store shelf for a week or more, loses a significant amount of nutrients. Locally grown food requires less packaging, fewer preservatives and no irradiation. Also, it is easier to know if chemicals and other harmful substances are used in the growing or processing of local food. Food shipped from other parts of the world may be covered with harmful chemicals.

Farmers that grow produce to be shipped long distances are limited to varieties that resist squashing and rotting. To be economical, varieties that can be mass produced are selected. Local farmers, who do not have these limitations, can make taste and nutrition a priority when choosing varieties of fruits and vegetables.

No GMOs in local food
Local food is grown without being genetically modified. Biotechnology companies license genetically modified fruits and vegetables only to large factory-style farms. Local farmers do not have access to genetically modified seed and most don’t want to use them.

More dollars for local economy
Buying locally grown food helps the local economy because more of the money goes to local farmers rather than large, multi-national corporations. The number of family farms in the United States is dropping rapidly. Commodity prices are below the cost of production. When local farmers sell direct to consumers through farmers’ markets and co-ops, they cut out the middleman and get full retail dollar.

People come together at farmers’ markets
The Bayou City Farmers’ Market, supported by Urban Harvest, offers organic food grown by local farmers and gardeners. The enthusiasm for fresh food is contagious, especially when you see fresh blue berries and peaches, juicy red tomatoes, bright yellow squash, green beans and many other foods displayed in the open air market.

“The markets tend to build community,” Jim Bundscho, market manager, says. “They are meeting places where people exchange ideas and families can bring children.”

The Bayou City Farmers’ Market is open every Saturday, 8 a.m.-12 noon, at 3000 Richmond.

The Houston Farmers Market, started spring 2003 by Susan Cobb and Portia Leyendecker, is a growers-only market. Growers-only means the produce you buy at the market was grown, picked and sold by the same person. Saturday market is 8 a.m.-noon in the Heights behind Onion Creek Coffee House, 3106 White Oak. Tuesday market is 5-7 p.m. in the Rice/West U area in the parking lot of Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice at Greenbriar.

Midtown Farmers Market is open 8-noon, Saturdays, at Monica Pope’s T’afia Restaurant, 3701 Travis Street. The market offers locally grown fruits, vegetables and herbs, artisanal chocolates, fair trade organic coffee and more. The restaurant features delicious meals made with locally grown food.

Join a food co-op
Locally grown food also is featured, along with organic produce from national distributors, at Central City Co-op. The mission of the co-op is to make high quality, organic food available to the community at reasonable prices.

Members place orders a week in advance. Payment is required when the order is placed. Orders are picked up on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Organic produce also is available in a “fresh market” setting Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-6:45 p.m., and Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Central City Co-op is expanding to facilitate partner co-ops throughout the Houston area as distribution points for gardeners and farmers who have excess organic food, according to Patricia Greer, who co-created Central City Co-op with her daughter, Jennifer Georgantas.

Get back into the kitchen
Two goals of the co-op are to create community and help people prepare more food at home. “Seventy percent of the people eat out 90 percent of the time,” Greer says. “We want to get people back into the kitchen and help them learn how to prepare food,” she adds.

Greer offers tips for preparing locally grown food in nutritious and delicious ways:

• Look at what is in season. If it is green and leafy, marinade it in olive oil and organic soy sauce; sprinkle with nuts and other seasonings.
• Add any kind of fruit to a salad.
• Encourage children to eat fresh spinach by dressing it with peanut butter mixed with orange juice. Or wrap an apple slice and nut butter in a spinach leaf.
• Pick five fruits, five vegetables and five spices (select some you have never tried before) and play mix and match.

“You know we played with our food when we were kids,” Greer says. “It’s time to do it again.”

Start your own garden
Another way to have locally grown food is to start your own garden. Urban Harvest offers classes, information and volunteer opportunities for people interested in learning how to garden in the Houston area. Urban Harvest involves about 2,000 people in about 150 gardens. The gardens are located at parks, housing projects, religious institutions, vacant lots and on private properties throughout the Houston area.

Bundscho says, “Growing your own garden, even if it is only to supplement what you buy in the store, gives children connection to the food they eat and gets you outside.”

School gardens – laboratories for learning
The Urban Harvest supports about 100 school gardens in the Houston area. School gardens help children learn to appreciate the source of their food and the work required to grow food. The garden also provides a natural laboratory for learning in all subjects.

Urban Harvest’s community and school gardens use the organic method of gardening to enhance the ecosystem’s natural process for controlling pests rather than using toxic pesticides. Gardeners use natural fertilizers, such as compost, because they have a broader range of nutrients and stay in the soil longer than chemical fertilizers. An organic garden is safer and is more sustainable. It costs less and requires less maintenance than a non-organic garden.

Looking to the future
Gardening and buying direct from local farmers and gardeners help ensure there will be people caring for the land in a sustainable way into the future; the beauty of open spaces will be preserved; and an abundance of nourishing, flavorful food will be available to future generations.