I loved the quote from my the local food coop manager, he said “I buy local and I still like my coffee, chocolate and curry. I make a conscious choice to support local producers and the way I do it is through fair trade commodities.” I appreciate his sense that we are a global society and we can support economies that are healthy for people and for the envrionment in all parts of the world. When what we want is not produced locally or even in our continent, we need to consciously choose the source of that item.
For example, coffee, one of the world’s most traded agricultural commodities, is grown in the tropics. The land devoted to coffee cultivation is equivalent to a 1 mile wide strip of land extending all the way around the equator. Those of us who consume 1 cup of coffee daily require about 10 coffee bushes to satisfy our annual coffee addiction. There are 2 general approaches to coffee cultivation – traditional is under a forest canopy on small family farms with chemicals used sparingly or not at all. The other approach is industrial in which coffee is grown in large company owned clearings and tended by hired labor. Coffee yields are higher on industrial plantations but so are environmental impacts – deforestation, water contamination and the loss of 150 bird species.
I’m not a coffee drinker, but I do cherish the teas I can obtain from all over the globe. Iowa’s climate can’t produce everything I have come to enjoy. I love my organic butternut squash and sweet corn that I can get locally in season. What local foods do you enjoy and what global products do you choose? Can you trace the ecological story behind each?
Kristi Cooper
