Category Archives: Food

Regional identity and wine walks in the Alsace region (Fr)

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I recently traveled to France for a short walking spring break. In the north eastern part of the country I visited the Alsace region. I stayed in the area left of the city of Colmar near the village called Munster (well known for its ‘smelly’ cheese). Although the break was a way of resetting my brain, I couldn’t stop myself from observing some interesting things.

The Alsace region
Although the Alsace is French, the area is characterized by many German influences. Not surprisingly because the area changed hands many times. The area has a strong regional identity which expresses itself physically, culturally and historically (architecture (timber framed houses), landscape, dialect, kitchen and regional products). The stork can be seen as the region’s main symbol and almost disappeared in the 1970’s. The region put a lot of effort in bringing baThe Alsace region (Wikipedia)ck the bird (by starting breeding programs) and now storks can be found on roofs of houses and public buildings everywhere. All these things are characteristic to the Alsace region.

Wine walks
An important and unnoticeable regional product is wine (Vin d’Alsace) like Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Blanc. Since Roman times the Alsace has a strong tradition in growing grapes and over time has developed as a centre of viticulture. The area has an excellent terroir: good weather, climate, fertile soils and sunny slopes. Part of the rocky hilltops every small piece of the area is cultivated for growing grapes. This viticulture can bee seen as the (historical) backbone of this region into which over time whole sets of other activities got interwoven: visiting historical villages, local products / food, touristic walks etc. Central to this all is the wine and the attractiveness of the region. On my break I explored one of these really nice walks near the village of Kaysersberg. The walk started in climbing a woody and rocky hill and lead through the village of Riquewihr and via extensive vineyards back to were we started. In the vineyards information panels were placed to give information growing techniques, pruning, different varieties and the winemaking process. During the walk we stopped at several wine farmers / cooperatives for some refreshments and wine tasting. 

These wine walks are an interesting way of using regional identity and products for regional development. The combination of activities, services and goods attracts tourists, strengthens the regional economy and contributes to the vitality and livability of this specific region. I got the impression the Alsace region is very succesful in this!

Wine walk

FOODTUBE – Corsicaanse varkenshouderij, verwerking en afzet

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Op FoodTube, met naar eigen zeggen de grootste en leukste online verzameling Nederlandse filmpjes over eten, staan ook aantal filmpjes over een excursie naar de Corsicaanse varkenshouderij, over het ras en de wijze waarop ze worden gehouden, het slachten en het uitbenen en verwerken, de moderne opslag van typisch Corsicaanse droge producten en bereiden van ragout. In de Boerderij  van 2 juni j.l. is een uitgebreid artikel ‘Leven van 120 dieren‘ verschenen over de Corsicaanse varkenshouderij van Monica Commandeur (monicacommandeur@yahoo.com), die ter plekke onderzoek heeft gedaan, en Boerderij-redacteur Leo Tholhuijsen.

The role of the state in the food system

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Last Friday, I presented ideas and examples of the state as emerging actor in sustainable food consumption to the sociology department of Iowa State University. In Europe, there are more and more examples of different levels of government, – state, region or city governments – taking initiative to integrate sustainability concerns in new ways of food provisioning. They realize that they are a very large buyer of food, for public canteens, in hospitals, elderly homes, schools and other public places. Their purchase behavior can make a huge difference in shifting our agriculture production and food consumption towards more sustainable practices.

Morgan (2008) has pointed out, that this is still largely a case of ‘untapped potential’. However there are examples, amongst others coming from the city of Rome, Italy and Copenhagen, Denmark which show that things can be done different. By using additional award criteria for catering contractors aimed at organic, fresh, regional or typical products, public sector buyers can cause a sea change towards more environmentally sound and healthier food menus in public canteens.

The current economic crisis might be a window of opportunity now neoliberal market fundamentalism has been discredited. A year ago, who could have imagined that the state would intervene so heavily in banks and the (car) industry? Things can change. Or will they? The lively discussion after the presentation concluded that change might not be expected soon from the US government.

The irony is that the US government is already a large buyer of food. They not only heavily subsidize farmers, they also buy large quantities of food commodities, at times when farm prices drop. The problem is that these practices stay hidden behind the strong illusion of market-ideology. It is not seen as procurement or as food purchase policy, but it is seen from the producer’s point; buying up produce is done to keep the farmer in place, while the bought food goes to public institutions such as prisons.

movie_poster-large[1]This is once again an illustration of the lack of connection between agriculture and the food that is eaten here. A number of critical documentaries, such as the film Kingcorn, have shown various aspects of the disastrous effects of this lost connection. And yet a new film Food, Inc by Robert Kenner is about to be released mid June, showing

“the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.”

I will definitely try to see it. (see also this interview)

Localising food in context; Marshall county

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“Over the past four years momentum has grown for sustainable agriculture” Angie Nelson said as part of the introduction to the meeting for interested people in the County of Marshall to start joining forces for localizing the food economy. The meeting was held in the Community College in Marshalltown and it was entitled ‘Finding Food in Marshall County’. It is one out of three meetings during the summer to build partnership and engagement for establishing a local food infrastructure. Invited speaker Ken Meter of Crossroads Research Center gave a very revealing overview of Marshall county, Iowa and US food economy through lots of figures and tables (see also his website for more details). Marshall county is one of the 99 counties of Iowa, with 39.000 residents and 928 farms on a total of 92.856 farms in Iowa (2007).

STA71628He convincingly showed how bankrupt the current monoculture commodities agro-industry is and how, corrected for inflation, there is no progress in farm income since 1969. The main commodities in Marshall county and Iowa in general are corn, soybean and hog production.

From census data, Ken showed that for Marshall county the total farming income was 175 million dollar, with 171 million dollar going to costs, leaving 4 million dollars income from farming, a positive figure because of a good year 2007, in 2002 it would have been negative. Other income (rents) counted for 11 million dollar. However, the biggest income source was subsidies, with 80% of the farmers receiving 18 million of farm subsidies in 2007. He also estimated that as much as 90 million dollar of the 104 million dollar Marshall county consumers spend on food is going to food from outside the county, bought in one of the 5 big groceries which have 49% market share nationally (Wall Mart as market leader). In total, he estimated that 166 million dollar is leaving the county each year through the current system of placeless production and consumption. He questioned why farmers are given subsidies to keep on farming while money leeks out of the community to the big corporations that are in the middle; the farm input industry and the retail industry and made a plea for localizing the food economy.

It is not the first time while being here that the strong emphasis on ‘local’ and on ‘community’ as part of the solution towards sustainable forms of agriculture strikes me. However, driving around in this state and looking at these figures, you get a sense of the overwhelming dominance of this industrial agro-food system, the vastness of its scale and the high level of vertical chain integration. In the heart of rural America, food production is an anonymous business with land purely as one of the production factors rather than as a meaningful connection to people and food. In constructing the practice and discourse of sustainable agriculture, therefore, scale matters a lot in this context. A more sustainable agriculture here also means a more humane agriculture, a more humane scale, through which people are able to relate to the food they eat. Only 43 acre (13 farms) is registered in use for producing vegetables together with 25 acre of farm orchards. No doubt there is grown a bit more than this in gardens and small unregistered farms but there seems to be room for locally grown fresh produce in Marshall County and Iowa without amounting to the size of one single agro-food industry farm, let alone ‘threatening’ the industry as a whole.cornfield iowa

Localising food in Marshalltown

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STA71629Today I visited the Community Gardens in Marshalltown for the second time. Last Sunday I went there with Jan Flora and Diego Thompson to meet with the group of migrant Hispanic growers to discuss their progress and needs.

The community garden project runs its first year and aims to diversify the availability of locally grown vegetables in this area, while giving new people a chance to start their (part time) business in agriculture through direct selling at farmers markets. The current group of growers, Hispanic and American, followed an eight week course at the Community College (in cooperation with Iowa State University, ISU) this winter called ‘The diversified farm’. After this course they had the opportunity to start growing vegetables on organic certified grounds for a symbolic 50 dollars a year. Each of the growers has a plot of land between 1 and 3 acre. Hispanic migrants, who came to work in the meat processing industry- also in Marshalltown, have agricultural knowledge as they often came from rural areas. One of them told me how he enjoyed being back on the land.

STA71585The neighboring Community College and colleagues from ISU support the project with facilities such as a greenhouse and the use of the tractor, with agricultural and technical knowledge as well as with (helping) to solve practical problems.

Currently, one of the practical issues is the supply of water for irrigation, which now has to come from further down with a small tank behind the tractor which is very labour intensive. However, in a month’s time, water might come from the fire brigade facilities directly neighboring the plots. By that time, pest control will be high on the agenda as crops start to grow now. The first year will be a steep learning curve for all involved, hopefully with promising results.