Are Consumer Choices Enough to Make Local Food the Norm?
The Environmental News Network (ENN) reported yesterday on a study that found consumers are willing to pay more for locally produced foods. The same day, Air America Radio’s Thom Hartmann argued on his program that consumer choice is inadequate to achieve a transformation of our economy to responsible forms of production.
Can these contentions be reconciled?
The study on local food preferences, originally published by the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, surveyed shoppers at 17 locations in the Midwest, including grocery stores, farm stores, and farmers’ markets. According to ENN’s summary of the study, average shoppers at grocery stores demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium for locally produced foods. Shoppers at farm markets showed a willingness to pay a greater premium for local foods than supermarket shoppers did. Shoppers were also reportedly willing to pay more for foods that appeared to come from smaller farms.
Marvin Batte, a professor at Ohio State University and one of the authors of the study, says that grocery stores are already beginning to recognize that consumers are willing to pay a premium for local foods and are labeling food products accordingly. However, what constitutes local food is not clearly defined, and may need to vary by region. (Batte also states that he is not insisting that all food should be produced locally, a stance that I would agree with.)
Air America Radio’s Thom Hartmann had a discussion with John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, yesterday that touched on the topic of consumer choice. (The audio is currently available here under 6/4/2008, hour 3.) Perkins suggested that consumers have the power to end forms of production that they do not approve of by refusing to purchase such products. While Perkins gave the example of products made in sweatshops, presumably the same argument could be applied to food choices. Thom Hartmann asserted that, contrary to Perkins’ view, consumer choices are not sufficient to bring irresponsible forms of production to an end. Low-income consumers will, by necessity, continue to purchase cheaper products even if they are produced in sweatshops or other deplorable conditions, Hartmann argued. The same could be said of food consumption.
If we really want to replace production methods that are destructive or immoral, Hartman contends, we need to use our power as citizens, not merely our choices as consumers. Hartman tells John Perkins:
“I agree that we should buy with our best intentions. But to mistake our dollars for votes and to say that making economic choices is voting with your dollars — that’s not democratic. If anything, it’s the opposite. We need to use our democratic processes to change the rules of the game.”
Perkins replies that we need to use both our choices as consumers and our democratic process to achieve the changes we seek.
In the case of local food, we must recognize the ways in which the power of our government has served to undermine local food production. What are often thought of as unencumbered consumer choices in the free market are actually structured by government policy. Our nation’s farm and food policy has favored the production of low-cost “commodity crops” — corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans — over “specialty crops,” such as fruits and vegetables. It has also made things like the “3,000 mile Caesar salad” common features in American dining. To revive local food systems will require not only consumer choices, but also local community organizing, such as forming farmers markets and CSAs, and civic engagement to change public policy.
Evan
I disagree somewhat with Thom Hartmann in that consumers definitely have a say. And corporations recognize this. If someone recommends a boycott of a company for bad whatevers - that company immediately will take steps to change things. And it can be effective if done on a massive scale - in spite of the low-wage consumer not following along. Remember the grape boycott authored by the Chavez group protesting the rights of migrant workers. It took a while - but eventually, the Chavez people won.
The fact that people are willing to pay more - and want organics and/or locally produced goods has already changed even WalMart. They have organic products in almost every section of the grocery store now. And they include (in my local store) bread and bulk flour from a local producer. Shopping at WalMart - so you know what kind of consumer I am - one on a fixed and very small income. But I buy organics and local stuff at WalMart. The organics at WalMart come from the same place and are in the same packages that are available at the Good Food Store - and about 1/3 less the price.
If I could afford the prices at the Good Food store - I’d buy everything there - but I cannot. So I get the stuff I can get at WalMart - and save enough to purchase the stuff I can’t get at WalMart at the Good Food Store - like organic meat and poultry, fresh wild-caught fish, and some of the more unusual produce.