The Benefits of Local Farming Essays -- Food Science

It used to be that fine dining establishments featured imported ingredients on the menu. These days, many chefs in high quality restaurants take pride in featuring locally grown, seasonal items. Even some large chain grocery stores now offer meat and produce from local farms. While most Americans probably would not feel the need to be as close to their meat as Makenna Goodman describes in â€Å"Ever Wonder if You Could Kill What You Eat? We Did the Other Night†, there is growing support for Goodman’s ideas that being closer to the food results in better food quality (246). Many Americans seem to concur, as they are now willing to pay more for locally grown and organically raised food. Having seen countless local farms plowed under to become housing developments or shopping malls, and having dealt with several epidemics of tainted food, Americans are more conscious of the ‘support your local farmer’ movement. If this new ‘food fashion’ cont inues to grow in popularity, it will help strengthen local farms that in past years have suffered at the expense of large commercial farming enterprises. According to Michael Pollan federal policy has promoted industrial agriculture, or agribusiness, since the Nixon era in the belief that keeping food costs low by obtaining maximum production of commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice) was in the best interest of the national political agenda (186). In â€Å"Farmer in Chief†, Pollan asks President Obama to change federal policy and instead promote local farming, asserting that how Americans grow, process, and eat food impacts the health care crisis, energy independence, and climate change (187). Goodman, Pollan, and others agree that more local, small-scale, farming will be better for th... ...ge.html?res=9500EEDC143EF936A15757C0A9619C8B63>. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). EPA, 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 07 May 2012. . Goodman, Makenna. â€Å"Ever Wonder if You Could Kill What You Eat? We Did the Other Night.† Acting out Culture: Reading and Writing. Ed. James S. Miller. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 246-248. Print. Pollan, Michael. â€Å"Farmer in Chief.† Acting out Culture: Reading and Writing. Ed. James S. Miller. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 186-203. Print. Sustainable Table. GRACE Communications Foundation. Web. 07 May 2012. . United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Marketing Service. USDA, 2012. Web. 07 May. 2012. .