Once again, we have to cancel our sweet potato gleaning
event, the Sweet Potato Round-Up, this year. We are really bummed about it. But the crop is just not big this year,
and growers are picking up everything they possibly can for sale. There just
really isn’t anything for us to glean.
It is sad for us because we love hosting this event! But it
is even worse for the growers. They have not had a good year since 2008. They
were due one this year, but not enough rain fell on the east Texas fields to
help the potatoes grow to any size. Irrigation is just too costly. Fruit and
vegetable growers do not receive crop subsidies.
This situation just can’t go un-discussed any longer. The
hardworking families that grow our food are struggling. These days, we as
consumers expect low-cost food. We want the best deal. But what we don’t think
about is who is on the other end of our food purchase. With the way in which
the vast majority of our fruits and vegetables are grown, pack, shipped, and
distributed, the farmer who actually grew them gets a few dimes for every
dollar you pay. They can barely afford to pay wages for their workers to
harvest for them, but they can’t do it without the extra help.
Those who once produced food in the North Texas area can
usually no longer afford to do so. We once had a vibrant truck farming system
(as did most places in the US) in which growers grew a few crops really well.
Harvested them once or twice a week, took them to the nearest town or city, and
sold them to local grocery stores and restaurants. Today, so many of our fruits
and vegetables are raised in huge mono-cropping environments all over the
world. The fields, groves, and orchards are owned by or contracted to
multi-national corporations. They are often picked well before they are ripe –
ever wondered why that peach from the Superstore never has any flavor?- ,
packed and shipped at least 2000 miles, if not more, before it gets to the
store where you buy it.
This system brings us low-cost food, but it hurts anyone
left in North, East, or Central Texas trying to produce food for the DFW area.
When you purchase from local producers, you can get tree-ripened fruit and
veggies picked just the day before. And the money stays in our local greater
North Texas economy. Buying from the growers or through a local co-op or
delivery system removes steps from the distribution system, and growers earn
more money. We are helping support our neighbors down the road, not some CEO in
another part of the country who you will never meet.
I don’t like to listen to the stories of struggle from these
growers who have become my colleagues. Each year, they plant again. They
understand that we can’t control the weather. They know the tricks to growing a
good crop. We have to be willing to purchase locally grown foods, ask for it in
stores and restaurants, and know that it may cost a little more, but we are
supporting our neighbors and eating really fresh food!
