Sustainable, Local Foods in Upper East Tennessee:

Where it Comes From, Who Grows It,

and Why You Should Eat It

by T.H.,

for ENVS 4950 Seminar in Environmental Studies, ETSU, Spring 2011

***

At the Jonesborough Storytelling Center on the night of March 22nd, there I stood in front of a huge sign that read "Jonesborough Farmers Market - Order Online!" I was doing my part for the first annual Taste of Jonesborough- giving out free samples of goat cheese from a farmer who sells to the Jonesborough Farmers Market. A woman approached me and asked a simple question. "Why should I buy local?" she prodded. I could detect the skepticism in her voice. I answered to her question, "You should buy local because…."

I have always been interested in food- where it came from, what kind of soil it was grown in, who grew it, how long it took to get to the supermarket, how it was processed, or what specific ingredients went into it. These questions, if you are shopping at typical grocery stores, are getting harder and harder to answer. For example, the Twinkie. What the heck is it made out of? I would agree that it tastes pretty good, but I do not think I can name one natural ingredient that went into it- you know, something from the ground that only took water, sunshine, and dirt to grow. Michael Pollan suggests in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma a working definition for the industrial food chain: "Any food whose provenance is so complex or obscure that it requires expert help to ascertain." He could not be more right. I think only an expert could tell me what is in a Twinkie.

Of course if you grow all the fruits and vegetables in your back yard and raise and harvest all the animals that you eat, these questions are simple. You would only have to point outside and say, “There they are. Those are the ingredients that went into last night’s dinner.” However, most of us do not live on a farm.

It looks like we are faced with two decisions: to shop at the supermarket and be completely ignorant of our food’s origin, or grow and harvest everything on our own property. The answer to this dilemma is actually simple- buy from your local farmers market.

Welcome to the Jonesborough Farmers Market!

Recently, I have been hearing buzzwords like “localvore” or “local foods” and wanted to know more. Growing up, my parents never shopped at farmers markets so I wanted to learn more about them. That led me this semester to do my research alongside the Jonesborough Farmers Market so I could learn more about the local food movement. I found answers to the questions: Where it comes from, Who grows it, and Why you should eat it.

The Jonesborough Farmers Market was founded by Karen Childress in May 2008 after she and a neighbor worked together to lay the groundwork to start the market. She experimented growing her own foods, soon realizing her limitations as a gardener. She then decided that opening a farmers market in Jonesborough would be the best way for her and other citizens of upper east Tennessee to eat fresh, locally grown foods. Karen says knowing where your food comes from and eating more naturally means less processing, less additives, and less packaging. This will also mean the food is fresher and more environmentally sound because it is local and does not have to travel across several state lines to get to our dinner plate. The Jonesborough Farmers Market is dedicated to supporting local farmers, building the local community, and increasing access to fresh locally grown food.

What is “local”?

You might be wondering What exactly does "local" mean? In Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle she defines local as a 100-mile radius in fertile areas such as Appalachia. How does her definition stack up to the one at the Jonesborough Farmers Market? It is identical. Anything you purchase at the farmers market will come within 100 miles. Farmers are also not allowed to resale, which means they are not allowed to buy a box of apples from Pennsylvania to sell at the market. Everything has to come from their farm, and their farm has to fall within a 100-mile radius of Jonesborough. Every food item that is purchased from the Jonesborough Farmers Market has traveled less than two hours in a car.

Skeptics can access this information for themselves. Anyone can visit the Jonesborough Farmers Market’s website and view information for all the farmers who sell to the farmers market, something you cannot do in the supermarket. For example, I can go the website Jonesborough.locallygrown.net (or simply Google “Jonesborough Farmers Market”) and see that ArkAngel Farms and Clover Creek Farm are both in Jonesborough, Carson Creek Organics is in Limestone, and Gryphon Artistry Tomatoes is in Telford. These are only a few of the farms that sell to the farmers market. A total of 23 farms sell to the Jonesborough Farmers Market, all falling with 100 miles.

I could just about reach any farm that sells to the Jonesborough Farmers Market on a bicycle so I would not even have to start up the car. Riding a bike means not having to worry about burning finite fossil fuel resources while I was on my way to ArkAngel Farms or Clover Creek Farm. Better yet, I could just ride my bicycle to the Jonesborough Farmers Market to purchase fresh, locally grown food!

Even though local is popularly defined as 100 miles, criticism of this number still exists. Some people might not consider 100 miles local enough. While the number 100 in isolation might not seem very local, perspective helps. If you have recently looked at labels on your lettuce or strawberries then you might have noticed they are from California- a state on the complete opposite side of this country. To get from California to Tennessee a person would have to travel over 2000 miles! Food is no different, it has to travel the same distance.

According to Barbara Kingsolver, the average food item has traveled over 1500 miles to end up on our dinner plates. Therefore, buying local means slashing the average distance that our food travels up to 1400 miles. In fuel context this means saving over 70 gallons of gas for every food product, assuming that the food was transported in a vehicle getting 20 miles to the gallon. Most trucks do not even get nearly as much. This number does not even take into consideration the amount of petroleum that go into the pesticides, fertilizers, and mechanical harvesting required for growing food. Shew!

What is “sustainable”?

Like local, sustainable has also recently become a popular buzzword. Many people have a different interpretation of the word which is fine because it should not have a rigid meaning. A generic definition of sustainable would be “maintaining the current level of activity without depleting resources for future generations.” Basically, it means taking what we need right now without taking away the ability from future generations to satisfy their needs.

In Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma he reveals just how unsustainable mechanical, conventional farming really is. If you are not buying local foods then you are buying foods that are essentially destroying our environment. Something as innocent as a carrot or a tomato bought from the supermarket takes unseen amounts of petroleum to grow and harvest. Petroleum is what makes the pesticides and fertilizers that are sprayed on these foods. Petroleum is also what powers the equipment that harvests the food. Petroleum is what powers the facilities where the food is cleaned and processed. Petroleum is that plastic that the food is packaged in. Lastly, petroleum is what fuels the trucks that transport the food. Food from the supermarket is tainted by oil in every way.

This is alarming because oil is a finite resource- there is only so much of it on the planet. Once it runs out, what will we do? I try not to dwell on this question. If you are purchasing food from the Jonesborough Farmers Market, then you are reducing oil consumption by considerable amounts. Out of the 23 farms that sell to the farmers market, only two use synthetic, petroleum-based pesticides or fertilizers. Two! And of the 23 farms that sell to the farmers market, none used heavy equipment for harvesting.

No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers and no heavy equipment means using less oil. Besides the couple gallons of gas needed to transport food from the farm to the farmers market, almost no oil is consumed. Also if farmers sprang to buy electric cars, then that would reduce the Jonesborough Farmers Market’s consumption of oil by even more. Basically, when oil runs out, the farmers market will keep running. The farmers in or near Jonesborough will continue to grow fresh food and people will keep shopping at the farmers market. Oil plays only a small role at the Jonesborough Farmers Market. This is not true for supermarkets.

Who grows it?

Now we know where the food sold at JFM comes from, but Who grows it? I know that Chris Wilson owns Clover Creek Farm, Tanya King owns ArkAngel Farms, and Andrea Woodworth owns Ziegenwald Dairy. I know that Chris has twelve border collies that work on her farm, and she sometimes finds herself talking to the animals while she is in the barn alone. Tanya is always on-time to deliver her fudge, eggs, and jam but sometimes does not bring cilantro or scallions because she did not get off work early enough to pick them. Andrea sometimes runs out of time to chit-chat about the weather because she has to get home to “milk my girls!”

These are real people just like me and you, who happen to own farms. By working with the Jonesborough Farmers Market this semester, I have gotten the chance to personally know some of the farmers who sell to the market- one of who likes me so much she brings me free eggs! If you shop at the Jonesborough Farmers Market, you know where your food comes from. You can put a name, a face, and a place onto the food that you eat. If you put a little bit of effort into it then you can actually get to know the farmers on a personal level. I have never met a farmer from California who grows strawberries.

Why shop at the Jonesborough Farmers Market?

Now, you might be thinking This is all nice, but shopping at farmers markets is just not convenient for my lifestyle? Contrary to this thought, shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market is super convenient for anyone. Customers have two chances to purchase their fresh, locally grown foods. People shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market have the chance to shop at the Saturday market during the summer months and can also purchase food year-round through the online market.

Saturday Market From May until October every year customers can shop Saturdays at 8am at the Jonesborough Farmers Market Saturday market. The Saturday market is even open until noon for those who like to sleep late. It is located in Courthouse Square which is just off Main Street in downtown Jonesborough. What is nice about the Saturday market is the live music, in addition to all the fresh vegetables, meats, cheeses, and baked goods you can eat. The live music creates an open, fun, festival-like atmosphere where people can come enjoy their Saturday morning and socialize with friends and family and shop for local food! For those not wanting to leave the house on Saturdays, there is the online market.

Online Market By creating an account on the Jonesborough Farmers Market website, customers are able to access the market through the internet. All the customer has to do is create their free account on the farmers market website. Did I mention that creating an account is free? Customers can place orders from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon each week to pick-up their items on Wednesdays at 5pm at the entrance to the Jonesborough Visitors Center. All a customer has to remember is: order between Sunday and Tuesday, pick-up on Wednesday at 5.

Ordering food from the Jonesborough Farmers Market online market will eliminate the time spent at the grocery store looking for a parking space, weaving up and down isles to find items you forgot to place into your buggy, waiting in line to pay for the items, or even going back to the store the next day if you forgot something. With an online account, all the customer has to do is shop at the computer! It takes only a fraction if the time and can save you from a lot of headaches.

How to shop at the Jonesborough Farmers Market online market

With an account, you select the items you want to purchase in the comfort of your own home. If you forget an item or items you can log back onto your account and place another order which will be added to your amount due that week. The only thing that customers have to remember is to show up at the Jonesborough Visitors Center at 5pm to pick-up their orders. If a customer forgets, it is never a big deal. I simply contact them to let them know I have their order ready, and wait a few extra minutes for them to show up. They do not have to feel bad about forgetting their order and I get a few extra minutes to enjoy Jonesborough’s fresh air. Try to remember the last time you had that kind of customer service at a grocery store.

When customers show up on Wednesdays, I have invoices printed and each order is separated into individual baskets. This makes it easy for customers to find their name and pay for their order. All the customers have to do is find their order and hand me their check- an exchange that literally takes seconds. Picking out a toothbrush at the grocery store takes exponentially longer.

What about the prices?

Still not convinced? That might be because you are thinking that the food at the Jonesborough Farmers Market is more expensive. To answer this question, I wrote down seven items that customers can purchase right now through the online market and compared it to the same items that you can find at both Earth Fare and Kroger. I decided to compare the prices for eggs, apple jelly, goat cheese, ground beef, whole wheat bread, kale, and romaine lettuce because I thought that those were fairly common food items that people would eat on an everyday basis.

	Jonesborough Farmers Market	Earth Fare	Kroger
Eggs Dozen (12)	$3.00 - $3.50	$2.58 - $3.78	$1.99 - $3.99
Pure Apple jelly 8 oz.	$5	$4	$2.89
Goat cheese (plain) 8 oz.	$7	$9	$7.78
Ground beef 1 pound	$9	$6.99	$3.65
Whole wheat bread 1 loaf	$5	$6	$3.69
Kale 1 large bunch	$1.50	$2.99	$1.19
Romaine lettuce 1 large bunch	$2.50	$2.29	$2.29
Total	$33.25	$34.45	$24.48

I decided to total the food lists from each store (averaging any item that had a price range) to see how much each check would amount to. The above list would cost $33.25 shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market, $34.45 at Earth Fare, and $24.48 at Kroger. Surprisingly, this list shows that shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market is $1.20 cheaper than shopping at a natural foods store such as Earth Fare. Earth Fare did have cheaper ground beef, but it turned out that most of the other items had comparable prices and in some instances (for example, goat cheese) the items from the farmers market were cheaper. Compared to shopping at a conventional grocery store such as Kroger, shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market would cost $8.77 more if you bought everything from the above list. However, that extra money needs to be looked at from several angles. Just over eight dollars does not seem that much when you take into consideration all of the petroleum and energy that is wasted to harvest, package, and transport the foods you purchase from Kroger. Also, shopping at Kroger means you will lose the ability to meet the farmers who grew and harvested your food. You lose the sense of community you can get from the Jonesborough Farmers Market when you shop at conventional grocery stores. The $8.77 can be looked at more angles other than just price. This table proves that food bought from the Jonesborough Farmers Market is affordable, and not just something for elitists to purchase.

***

The next time someone asks you why they should buy local food, I hope you can give them a few answers. A few, but not all, of these answers might include the fact that they can put a name, a face, and a place on all of the food that they purchase. They are also decreasing their environmental footprint when buying from local farmers markets because the food does not have to be mechanically harvested, processed, packaged, and shipped the way it does to get to conventional grocery stores. Shopping at the Jonesborough Farmers Market is also really convenient because customers have the ability to order their foods through an online market. Lastly, despite some misconceptions, local food is not extremely expensive or something for only elitists to purchase. It may cost a little extra, but pinching a few pennies can make up for the difference.

If all this is still not enough, you should encourage them (as I am also encouraging you) to buy something just to taste it. Once they have tried it for themselves, they will realize that local food tastes thousands of miles fresher!

References

Kingsolver, B., Hopp, S. L., Kingsolver, C. (2007). Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of FoodLife. New York: HarperCollins Publishers

Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press.