When students compile their grocery lists, they face the decision of where to buy their food and what type of food to buy, how much to spend and how far to travel. What students may not know is that the origin of their food largely drives their decision, because the source of food sets the quality, health effects and cost.
Author of In Defense of Food Michael Pollan's visit to the university spurred the recent advocacy on campus surrounding food and health. His push for supporting local farmers and eating natural foods brought to light what students should consider when grocery shopping.
""It's the exterior of the food chain that we need to work on,"" Pollan said when he spoke at the Kohl Center on Sept. 24. ""When we shorten the food chain we take back control of our food and our pills, and doing that is the best thing we can do to be healthy.""
Although those who sell their crops at farmers' markets across the state raise livestock and crops on small-scale facilities, Wisconsin contains a diverse collection of farms, from small-scale to conventional. Conventional farm products will often be sold to grocery stores, rather than directly to consumers. Moreover, a cheaper form of farming has been increasing over the past decade: Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or factory farms, that raise 1000 or more livestock at a time.
According to the Department of Natural Resources, there are currently 163 CAFOs in Wisconsin, which is up from roughly 90 CAFOs in 1999.
When students consider the origin of their food, two main farming practices will be considered.
Health issues
Those who support local farming believe it is healthier and it allows consumers to be more in charge of the quality of their food.
According to Jon Hummel, a local vegetable farmer from Delavan, WI, buying local benefits students because the food simply tastes better.
""Quality is really the number one thing for us, just making sure that what we sell is the best,"" Hummel said. ""You can get things that are fresher, everything here was picked yesterday.""
Brittany Bethel, the market manager of the local farm JenEhr Family Farm, agreed students should buy their food locally because the food has better quality.
""We harvest it the day before we sell it,"" Bethel said. ""We focus on the taste, not the shelf life.""
Pollan advocates for buying local because it allows consumers to eat a natural diet, like the crops farmers like Hummel bring to the farmers' market.
""Food is a relationship between people and between bodies and the plants and the animals and the soil,"" Pollan said. ""Food is not just a product. It is less a pile of nutrients than it is a relationship between species and people in the food chain.""
Yet large scale farmers, like local farmers, also strive to provide the healthiest product, according to Bill Bruins, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation is a nonprofit organization that advocates for agriculture in general, small and large farms alike.
""There's a perception by some consumers that there's a difference in the milk [between large scale and small scale farms] and that's absolutely not true,"" Bruins said. ""As dairy producers, we're all held to the same standards when that milk goes to market.""
Despite standards being the same in terms of quality, Hummel said locally-produced food is less of a threat to consumers because conventional farms often use pesticides to keep their soil bug-free. Instead of using pesticides, Hummel plows down plant debris and returns it to the soil to keep it healthy.
Hummel admitted both local farms and large scale farms can have E. coli outbreaks, but diseases can be monitored and therefore controlled more efficiently by local farmers.
""What it is is the management,"" Hummel said. ""I am right there; I know what's going on. It is not like I live 20 miles from my field and there are wild pigs running through and that kind of stuff.""
Bruins disagrees that using pesticides and antibiotics in farming is always dangerous. When farmers use antibiotics in producing meat, it is not a danger to consumers because a certain amount of time must pass between the injection of penicillin for an infection and sending an animal to slaughter.
""The health officials, the FDA, has strict regulations as to that very thing,"" Bruins said. ""They know when traces of that drug will be all flushed through the kidneys of that animal and that milk will be again safe for human consumption.""
The environment
Another criticism local farmers have to large-scale farming is the pollution it produces. But according to Bruins, large-scale farms as well as small-scale farms can be guilty of pollution.
""[CAFOs] have a few bad actors, we certainly will admit to that, but for criticism to be focused only on CAFOs is not warranted,"" Bruins said. ""You have to drill down into exactly what it is they do and how they do it and what systems do they have in place to protect the environment, like water quality and air quality.""
Jon Vrieze, a conventional farmer who owns three large-scale dairy farms with approximately 2,500 cows, said in a panel that he actively minimizes pollution in his farming techniques.
""I'm worried about our fossil fuel use. We don't buy commercial fertilizers,"" Vrieze said. ""We also have a lot of information on the cows, so I can tell you from womb to tomb what happened in their lives.""
Animal rights
Raising animals in cages draws consistent protest from activists. In October 2008, California passed the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act that, when enacted, will ban the use of small cages for calves raised for veal, pregnant pigs and hens used for commercial egg production. The 20 million battery-caged hens in California were the majority of the animals affected by the law.
According to Bruins, battery cages do have benefits for hens even though their living quarters are smaller.
If Wisconsin took away battery cages, it would pose a health risk for consumers, Bruins said.
""If [hens] are allowed to walk around in their own excrement and walk around in the outdoors, there's a much greater chance in chickens picking up salmonella, which could be a very serious health threat to the general public,"" Bruins said. He said the chickens are kept cleaner in battery cages because their excrement passes through the porous floor of the pen.
The local economy
Bruins said California's law will hurt the economy and, ultimately, consumers.
""If you throw away laying cages, it drives up the cost of laying eggs by about 20 percent,"" Bruins said, adding that any state that passes the law will simply continue to import eggs from other states that use laying cages. ""If there would be a ban nationwide, probably consumers would bear the brunt of it. That is, if consumers would accept paying more for eggs.""
However, Lehner said another reason students should buy local is to keep money within the community.
""With many of the larger operations, the money does not stay within the local environment,"" Lehner said. Moreover, buying local supports the farmers themselves.
""[It] pays the person who did the hard work a living wage,"" Lehner said. ""That's so important. Yes it costs more, but in the long run, it costs less,"" adding he is unsatisfied with farmers getting paid less while grocery store products maintain the same prices.
""To me it's much more about what were the farmers' practices,"" Lehner said. ""Are they producing with integrity or is the bottom line making money?""
Bruins considers the economic aspect of farming in terms of how it would benefit the community in the job market. He said CAFOs provide an important economic infrastructure within communities.
""If we don't have a certain level of agricultural activity in a community, we're going to start losing machinery dealerships,"" Bruins said. ""We're going to start losing vet clinics, processing facilities for the products we produce and the more of that infrastructure we lose in any given community, the more jobs we lose, and the more jobs we lose, the less opportunity for the younger generation.""
Moreover, in reference to one of the CAFOs in his area, he said the plant grosses between $400 and $500 million a year.
""Not all of that money obviously stays in the community, but a lot of it does,"" Bruins said. ""I'm not saying anything bad about CSAs and locally produced food. But in terms of economic activity being generated, there's no comparison between those.""
A community bond
But those who suggest students buy locally continue to emphasize the community farmers' markets build the trust that exists between consumers and farmers.
""My most important job is to encourage people to spend more and to source where their food comes from,"" Lehner said. ""If people come back because they like my cheese, that's just a bonus.""
