Every week, Medium will post a story or review from the vault, #tbt style. This week: a love letter to local food, written by former Diversions staffer Bo McMillian. Originally published on the Diversions blog on April 17, 2013, this piece is in anticipation of Tomato Day 2015 this Saturday, hosted by Carrboro Farmers' Market.
I’m outside of Weaver Street Market among friends, with a cup of coffee, a very berry roll and a disappearing rind of goat cheese by my side. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and I’m blissfully munching away. This, my friends, is the ideal spring afternoon.
The food is what really puts it over the top. Every item is delicious, and they each carry a label that has recently risen to prominence amid much speculation. That label is “local.”
UNC has been celebrating Earth Day all week, but today’s event specifically deals with this term. The farmer’s market on the quad, put on by the student organization FLO (Fair, Local, Organic) Food and featuring local produce as well as other “straight-from-the-producer” noshes, pretty much exemplifies the idea.
But while that event will focus on the quantifiable health, environmental, cultural and economic values of local food, I think that there is another important feature that needs to be mentioned. Specifically, it is one that has both made the movement more popular and also opened it to the subject of debate: taste.
So, is local food really better — enough to qualify spending more for it? I’d say it absolutely is.
Living in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, we’re pretty blessed with a very locavore-friendly food scene. The menus of restaurants like Lantern and Acme are rife with the use of “N.C.” and “local” in dish descriptions. Jessee’s Coffee and Bar roasts its beans in house, and Carrboro Coffee Roasters does the same for other local establishments. Weaver Street Market makes its own breads and features a variety of local products from dairy to produce. The list goes on and on.
Whenever I patronize these places, they rarely disappoint. Jessee’s coffee is phenomenal. Lantern was one of the greatest meals of my life. Neal’s Deli, which makes sandwiches from scratch with local ingredients, is a mainstay of mine. Weaver’s breads are spectacular. And its cheeses — don’t even get me started.
Based on experience alone, I believe that I’ve more than quantified the question of taste. But being that this is a subjective concept, I understand that further speculation is possible. Therefore, after some careful thinking, I believe that I’ve come up with a logical backing to my sentiment.
Examine: Mass food producers have undoubtedly superior levels of capital in comparison to local businesses. This allows access to resources that can make their products as cheap and efficient as possible. And while some brands out there, such as Kashi and Starbucks, strive for quality, the general goal of big food producers is the same: provide consumers an attractive product, but produce it in a way that maximizes company profit.
So, if you are a local farmer, roaster or butcher, how do you compete with big businesses that will win the battle of prices? Focus on quality.
Local businesses even have an advantage in this department. Their sizes of operations typically pale in comparison to those of big businesses, which allows for better quality control of each product and a more intimate understanding of what is being sold.
Local food tastes better because ithas to. Otherwise, it would always lose out to cheaper products spawned by big businesses.
So, while FLO focuses on the warm fuzzies that eating local food can bring you, I think we should also celebrate what has kept the movement really going in the first place — a dedication to superior taste and quality.
I’ve been doing it nearly every weekend from my table at Weaver Street Market. I would encourage you to go anywhere I’ve listed and celebrate yourself as well.
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