CDS and Local Foods

Oberlin College CDS has been purchasing locally grown and produced food since the fall of 2001. CDS' local foods program began as a student-initiated effort four years ago to try to incorporate local and organic foods into the dining halls. We have achieved much success in the past few years: Just this year (August 2002-March 2003), CDS has spent $119,856 (5% of the total food budget) directly on local vendors. 35% of the local products purchased are organic. CDS has also purchased an estimated $100,000 of local foods this year through their produce distributor Premier Produce who purchases fresh produce from Amish produce auctions in Ohio.

What products are local?

All of the milk in CDS dining halls is from local organic farms in Amish country. CDS purchases only local Millers apples in season. CDS recently began purchasing local hydroponic lettuce year-round and strives to purchases all local produce when available. The on-campus convenience store, the DeCafe, offers a wide selection of local and organic foods: local Jorgenson Apiary honey and preserves, local organic Woo City ice cream and bagels, local Family Fresh milk and eggs, local Heini cheese, locally produced Judy's Oasis Middle Eastern cuisine, and local Gibsons donuts and pastries.

Why buy local?

• Taste. Local food comes directly to us from a much closer source compared to most supermarket food. It is thus picked and eaten at the height of its freshness, resulting in a taste that is unparalleled.
   
• Nutrition. Nutritional value declines dramatically as time passes after harvest. Since locally grown food is fresh, it is more nutritionally complete. Also, the local farmers in this area use very little, if any, pesticides and fungicides. Local food is therefore more pure and safer from chemical residue.
   
• Regional Economic Health and Food Security. By buying local foods, we keep money in the regional economy, improving the quality of life for our neighbors and ourselves. Supporting local agriculture also increases our regional food security by decreasing our dependence on far-away food sources. Importing from larger food sources tends to promote huge, industrial agribusiness, which has shown to have harmful effects on the land and to be more expensive and less efficient when all the costs, including long term environmental and transportation, are calculated. Transportation costs account for approximately 5 percent of America's food spending.
   
• Energy Conservation. From farm to plate, the average food particle travels 3,000 miles. Buying locally decreases this distance and, consequently, our dependence on petroleum, a non-renewable energy source. One fifth of all the petroleum used in the US is used in agriculture; again, buying locally conserves energy at the distribution level.
   
• Preventing Urban Sprawl. For the last fifty years, cities have been expanding into the countryside, eating up farmland and making small-scale farming exceedingly difficult. According to the American Farmland Trust, Lorain County is the seventh most threatened county containing prime agricultural land in the nation due to urban sprawl. It is wasteful to abandon existing infrastructure only to build on the outskirts where the act disrupts the environment unnecessarily. Buying locally keeps smaller farmers in business, preventing land from being bought up and zoned for commercial development.
   
• Passing on the Stewardship Ethic. When buying locally you raise the awareness of yourself and those around you about how food purchasing decisions, and indeed most everyday decisions, can make a difference in the life of you and your community.