Lawrence residents find benefits in local food
The Lawrence Farmers’ Market has become a popular shopping option for local residents. A discussion tonight will focus on the benefits of locally-grown food.
By Mary Sorrick (Contact)
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Photo by Mindy Ricketts
Megan Paisley, from Crane River Farm in Stillwater, packages up some pastries for Sarah Crawford-Parker, associate director of the Honors Program, and her husband, Doug, and daughter, Isabella, 5, Saturday morning at the Farmer's market on New Hampshire between Eighth and Ninth Streets.
Local foods dinner and panel discussion
Today at 6 p.m.,
Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 12th and Oread Streets
—Local organic greens will accompany a panel discussion moderated by Kelly Kindscher. Gary Nabhan and Rhonda Janke will speak.
Geography of Food Endangerment: Strategies for Renewing America’s Food Traditions
Tuesday, at 7 p.m., “The Commons” at Spooner Hall
—Gary Nabhan, an ethnobotanist, naturalist, MacArthur Fellow and Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments will speak about endangered foods.
—Food from grocery stores travels an average distance 27 times longer than food from local sources
—Forty percent of our fruit is grown overseas
—Nine percent of our red meat is shipped from overseas sources, including countries as far away as Australia and New Zealand
—Three and a half percent of the revenue from food sold at the grocery store goes to the farmers; the rest goes to suppliers, processors and marketers
—Eighty to 90 percent of the revenue from farmers’ markets goes to the farmer
Source: sustainabletable.org
Megan Paisley spreads fresh bread, cinnamon rolls, scones, cookies and homemade soaps across three tables at the Lawrence Farmers’ Market.
Paisley, Stilwell, resident, woke up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare her homemade Crane River Farm products. She is one of dozens of local food producers whose goods are available for Lawrence residents on Saturday mornings at the Farmers’ Market.
The market is one place Lawrence residents can go to support local farmers and help create a more environmentally sustainable community. And in honor of Earth Week, the benefits of buying food grown locally will be the focus of a panel discussion and lecture taking place tonight and Tuesday.
Gary Nabhan, author and ethnobotanist, and Rohnda Janke, associate professor of horticulture at Kansas State University, will conduct tonight’s panel discussion. Tuesday, Nabhan will speak about endangered foods and cultural importance of local food and diets.
Brian Sifton, Kansas City, Mo., senior and president of KU Environs, said the events would draw attention to people’s growing separation from their food.
“As we have industrialized more and more, people are more disconnected from how they get their food,” Sifton said. “They don’t think about how it’s grown, transported and how much energy that actually takes.”
Jeff Severin, director of the Center for Sustainability, said one benefit of buying local foods was avoiding the carbon footprint attached to shipping food across the country.
According to a study from Iowa State University, produce travels an average of 1,500 miles from where it was grown before reaching grocery store shelves.
Buying locally grown food helped lessen the carbon emissions linked to shipping that food cross-country, Severin said.
Other benefits of buying local food include supporting the local economy and developing a sense of community that comes from knowing the source of the food on the dinner table.
“If you just get food from a package at a store, you don’t know what’s been put on the food or how it’s been processed,” Sifton said. “There’s food security in knowing the seller’s name.”
Jennifer Kongs, Topeka junior, said she tried to eat local food as much as possible.
Kongs spent the month of September eating only foods from within a 100-mile radius of Lawrence.
Though buying local food can be more expensive, Kongs said the taste of fresh vegetables and meat made it worth the price.
“As someone who loves to cook, the freshness of the food is really important to me,” she said. “It just tastes better.”
Kongs said local milk, meat, and produce were all available at places such as Local Burger, 714 Vermont St., The Community Mercantile, 901 Iowa St., The Casbah Market, 803 Massachusetts St., and the Lawrence Farmers’ Market.
Paisley, while manning her table at the market, said she also tried to buy locally produced foods when possible.
“It’s more of a human thing for me,” she said. “It builds friendships and relationships. Even though you live miles apart, you can still feel like neighbors.”
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
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