‘Dark Side of Local Food’ explored

A PANEL DISCUSSION ON "The Dark Side of Local Food" was held Wednesday night at AS220. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN
A PANEL DISCUSSION ON "The Dark Side of Local Food" was held Wednesday night at AS220. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN

PROVIDENCE – A growing and widespread interest surrounding the economics of the local food system was the focus of a well-attended panel discussion on Wednesday.
The event, dubbed “The Dark Side of Local Food,” filled out the meeting space at AS220 in Providence and was the inaugural jamboree for ecoRI News new “Happy Hour Speaker Series.”
The panel, comprising Matt Tracy, of Red Planet Vegetables in Johnston; Ken Ayars, chief of the state’s division of agriculture; Lisa Raiola, founder of Hope & Main; Jesse Rye, co-executive director of Farm Fresh RI; and Cassie Tharinger, founding member of Urban Greens Co-op, fielded questions from panel moderator and ecoRI editor Frank Carini and the crowd on a variety of topics, including what it means to buy local, the misuse of “local” labeling and how to expand access to locally-produced food to demographics of all socioeconomic levels.
“It’s all about trust,” Rye said, when asked how Farm Fresh monitors farms that provide produce that the nonprofit delivers to businesses and consumers throughout the state. Two producers in the past four years were found buying and selling products not grown onsite and are no longer a part of the nonprofit’s system, he added.
The buzz surrounding the local food system has grown in the past decade, as a growing number of consumers, restaurants, nonprofits and regulators have advocated for a more balanced regional food system. Only about 1 percent of food consumed in Rhode Island is produced here and in all of New England that amount still falls short of 10 percent, with most of the region’s produce coming from the West Coast. But advocates face an uphill battle, as entrenched global food systems and a finite amount of expensive farmland work against them. Advocates throughout the New England area are trying to raise that amount to 50 percent by 2060.
“There’s a lot of catching up to do to make growing food locally more efficient,” Tracy said, adding that while the local demand consumers has shifted somewhat, the infrastructure and tradition around farming has not, and a lot of the equipment and fertilizer and even grain used to grow food locally is sourced from outside the state and region.
Tharinger and Rye talked about how farmers markets and Urban Greens, which could open in Providence as early as next year, are working toward making fresh, local food – which is typically more expensive than what’s available at the supermarket – available to less affluent populations through collaborating with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other support programs. Raiola, whose food incubator has helped start dozens of local food businesses in fewer than two years, says growing a sustainable infrastructure isn’t going to happen overnight, but is something advocates should work toward standing up together.
Ayars, who has worked in agriculture for more than 28 years, says he’s never in his career seen such a high level of interest in the local food system.
A nonprofit news organization that focuses on the environment, ecoRI is tentatively planning to hold three speakers series events per year, basing each one on topics of high interest.

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