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November 2006 |
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In This Issue …
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more off-season foods from South and Central America increases so does the length of supply lines that bring us our food. The use of chemical based fertilizers and sprays has increased many times since WWII and today we are dependent on this kind of agriculture. If declining oil supplies in the near future create price spikes for fossil fuels and the farm inputs derived from them, then what impact will that have on our food supply? Will farmers who see their costs skyrocket from one season to the next continue to produce food when they are unsure of how much income they will get in return at harvest time? Will areas that produce the food we now consume decide to keep it to |
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feed themselves? Prudent people would begin now figuring out how they can assure their own future food security and how that food could be produced with little or no fossil fuel derived inputs. In other words, now is a great time to begin developing a sustainable food system.
The Orange County Cooperative Extension office thinks this is an important matter and will offer programs this winter to assist interested local churches and organizations start their own community gardens. Come learn about the different community garden models, find out what you need to be successful, and learn how to plan, organize, and run your garden. The first of these programs is scheduled for the evening of January 23rd at the Extension office in Hillsborough. To learn more about these programs please call Mark Danieley at 919/245-2062. If you are interested in registering for the program, call Kay Evans at 919/245-2050.
— Mike Lanier |
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What would the holidays be without the family gathering around the table for a turkey dinner? Turkey is uniquely American and it was the bird favored by Benjamin Franklin as our country’s national bird. Not to take anything away from the turkey, but aren’t at least a few of you ready for a change of pace? Although many turkeys are raised in North Carolina, how many that are consumed in the Triangle were produced less than one hour away? And now that we are all beginning to understand the need to conserve energy, wouldn’t it be better to use locally produced foods for our holiday meals anyway?
One meat that’s produced locally, but is |
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still used infrequently enough for it to be thought of as special, is lamb. Not only is lamb thought of as a treat by many, but locally produced lambs are generally produced on pasture with lower fat content, higher levels of omega-3, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid ), both healthy fats that are good for people. Furthermore, most farmers who raise pasture-based livestock don’t use growth hormones and use antibiotics sparingly, if at all. The animals are happier on pasture too, as they have plenty of space to move around and do animal things. For those interested in other benefits of pasture-raised livestock, please go to: http://eatwild.com.
Where to Go to Buy Local Lamb
The Pope family has been farming in Orange County since receiving a Land Grant from Lord Granville in 1754. A year and a half ago Bob and Tommy Pope started a grass-fed lamb operation at the Captain John S. Pope Farm that they hope will help extend their family’s farming presence in the county for years to come (Trey Pope, Tommy’s 8 year-old son, already has farming in his blood). In years past, the Pope family has produced a variety of food products, including chickens, pigs, beef and milk cows, apples, and berries.
Why produce lamb and why now? Bob, now retired, spent his life away from the farm in the business world. Tommy, Bob’s cousin, never left the farm and until a couple of years ago his main source of income was tobacco. With the end of the government’s tobacco program and with the profitability of tobacco in decline, there is a need to find profitable farm enterprises. The growing concern about food security, practices used to produce food and their impact on people’s health, the environment, and animal welfare all contribute to the growing demand for locally produced food. The direct connection between farmers and consumers has a very positive effect on the farmer’s profitability since it bypasses the middle men who normally get a sizable cut of farmers’ profits. Consumers benefit from this arrangement too, since they form a relationship with the farmer and have better insights into the farmers’ production practices. More specifically, the Popes’ new lamb enterprise benefits from the growing consumer interest in the health benefits of grass-fed meat, as well as, the business experience of Bob and the farming experience of Tommy. |
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military, creating greater food production needs at home. Realizing this, the federal government created a campaign to encourage the public to grow some of their own food. They attached the importance of this effort with its ability to help win the war. The government used slogans such as, “Our Food is Fighting” and “Sow the Seeds of Victory! – plant and raise your own vegetables” to drive the point home. Apparently this campaign was a success, because at one point during the war 40% of the vegetables consumed in the United States were produced in Victory Gardens.
Will these kinds of widespread public efforts to grow food be needed again? Based on our history since World War II most people wouldn’t think so. But, consider how dependent today’s food system is on petroleum for planting, cultivating, harvesting, processing, and transportation and on fertilizers and sprays made from fossil fuels needed during production. Even into the 1960’s much of the food consumed in the US was produced nearby. A few years ago, however, a study determined that food in the US traveled an average of 1500 miles to our dinner tables. As China produces more canned foods and as the demand for |
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There is no doubt that the interest in local foods is growing. The huge turnout for Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, during his recent visit to the Triangle and the response to this newsletter are evidence of that. Interest in community gardens, a very important aspect of local food systems, is growing too. The Orange County Extension office has seen an increase in the number of calls during the past year or two from people interested in the topic. More than one community garden has started in the last couple of years, one of those is the Anathoth Community Garden, a project of the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church. This garden has produced a wide array of vegetables and herbs for its participants, but just as importantly, people who come to work in the garden are realizing personal and community growth. Fred Bahnson, the Church’s Garden Coordinator, says that the garden is much further along than they would have expected after just one year. This is good news for those of you interested in organizing a community garden of your own. It is easy to see the impact that community gardens could have on the development of our local food system by reviewing the role of Victory Gardens during World War II. During the war considerable amounts of food were needed by the |
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Consumers who frequent restaurants in the Triangle see a word on menus more and more often. It’s definitely not corn syrup, nor is it trans. Local means from around here, and more and more restaurants are realizing that local ingredients on their menu can offer a whole world of benefits.
Local often precedes menu items like leafy greens, strawberries, melons, and eggs. This trend is not new, chefs have been using local ingredients from area farmers for more than 20 years. Nevertheless, more and more restaurants have opened that make a deliberate effort to buy local over non-local ingredients. Given the choice of choosing a long-distance organic product or a local conventional, chefs will even choose the local.
Although chefs do desire local produce for a variety of reasons, choosing to buy a local product is not entirely cut and dry. Understanding more about the buying habits of area chefs will go a long way towards helping develop a local food system that increasingly shores up markets for local produce. More and more attention is being paid towards the food system, and for this those who work the land are grateful. Nevertheless, still only |
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about 1% of the food consumed in Orange County is produced locally. One percent in a county nationally recognized as a hotbed for local food.
More and more people eat out at restaurants, foregoing the careful and attentive process of cooking at home for the ease and luxury of being served. Restaurants have become an increasingly important link in our food system.
Learning about the motivations of the chefs who have been using |
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local ingredients for a while may help us understand more completely how to reach out to the chefs who are not using local ingredients, thereby creating more markets for local farmers already producing fruits, vegetables, and pastured meats. Those farmers still producing tobacco and hay might be more interested in producing alternate niche crops like sweet potatoes or heritage breed chickens, if they knew that consistent buyers for those products were lined up.
Conversing with local chefs is an excellent way to gain insight into the farmer-restaurant connection. I spoke with the chefs at Margaret’s Cantina, Lantern, and Elaine’s on Franklin and gained some valuable information.
Chefs choose local ingredients for a variety of reasons.
¨ Local ingredients are fresher, meaning greater quality and better taste. They are usually free from preservatives or additives, they have not been gassed with ethylene, and so on. Organic quality is more easily assured when a direct relationship with the producer can be established.
¨ Environmentally concerned customers are attracted to restaurants who make a point of identifying locally produced ingredients on the menu.
¨ Many chefs are concerned about the environment and do not wish to buy ingredients from the largest distributors.
¨ By establishing a direct relationship with growers, chefs are able to participate more closely in the food system, influencing the availability of different ingredients.
¨ Farmers can be restaurant customers too, and when chefs buy from farmers, mutually beneficial relationships are developed.
¨ In highly competitive restaurant markets, using local food can help distinguish restaurants from one another, increasing the appeal of certain establishments and creating niches.
¨ National and local press are becoming increasingly interested in the local food movement. Using local ingredients can increase media exposure for a restaurant.
Chefs most often choose to not purchase local ingredients for the lack of simple factors; consistency of availability, quantity, and quality, price, and convenience are all reasons to buy non-local ingredients. Typically an individual farmer cannot guarantee the long-term availability of a product in the same way that a huge distributor can. More experienced farmers are better able to plan their harvests in order to allow the availability of certain crops for the specific demands of restaurant purchasers.
Organizations like Eastern Carolina Organics (ECO) act as brokers for multiple farmers, and perhaps this type of arrangement could allow for a market increase for local farmers. Most chefs who have been purchasing locally for a while have worked out a simple system |
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An example of the WWII era posters used by the government to encourage citizens to grow their own food. |
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A scene from earlier this year at the Anathoth Community Garden near Cedar Grove. |
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Three generations of the Pope family are involved in the lamb enterprise: Tommy, Bob, and Trey. |
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Bob has already sold some of the farm’s lamb to a couple of the top restaurants in Raleigh and is also interested in selling at local farmers’ markets next year. The Popes sell their lamb by the whole, half, or by the cut. The meat is processed in a local USDA inspected facility and is packaged by the cut in vacuum packed plastic which extends its life in the freezer.
So, if you’d like a change in your holiday meal this year and would like to have a meal that includes meat that’s used in some of the finest |
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restaurants in the Triangle, why not give the Bob or Tommy Pope a call. Their farm is located in the Cedar Grove area of Orange County and they can be reached at 919/621-1150 or by e-mail at rpope23@nc.rr.com. You may also like to visit their website at: http://www.dorperscedargrovenc.com.
You may also be interested in buying from Everhope Farms. This farm is also located in Orange County and is run by Susan and Joe Hope. The Hope’s can be reached at 919/563-1781.
Have a great Thanksgiving this year, no matter the meat you choose for your meal!
Additional Lamb Resources
— Mike Lanier |
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Lantern Restaurant’s Pasture-Raised Foods Dinner. Local farmers and their families who provide food for the meal are pictured here. Those at the table are Charles, Cindy, and Eliza Sydnor, Mac and Peggy Baldwin, Noah Ranells, Ben Bergman, Flo Hawley, and Portia McKnight. |
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A llama guards the Pope’s sheep at their farm in Northern Orange County. |