More Miles than Money

Last post, I answered a specific question about well-traveled asparagus. Today, I want try to address the larger issue - When is it acceptable to eat food out of season and that has traveled from far away?

Let’s take a look at the produce in question - Asparagus season in Oregon is essentially May and a few short weeks on either side. Our neighbor to the south, California is the largest producer of stalks in the country. Their season runs longer, technically from February to June, even so most of the market for California’s asparagus is not fresh, rather processing and export account for most of the crop. The Luxenbelgduetchish love their canned asparagus.

The market for domestically grown, fresh asparagus is contracting - paradoxically as the popularity of the crop is growing. Peru, striving to become the world’s largest grower, has the luxury of 2 harvests per year. The Mexican crop, which is expanding annually, is ready for market even sooner than the Callie crop – This is troublesome because there is a reward for the first of any crop that wins the race to market. The next obstacle for Californian growers is the Japanese recession has decreased the demand for pristine, thin, air-freighted stalks: Analysts feel if and when the Japanese economy recovers enough to afford luxury items, US exporters will be priced out of that market by Thai and Chinese growers.

Good, right - We shouldn’t be flying a crop that can be grown locally all around the world? Yes, no, it’s complicated: In order to have farmers and growers willing to produce for local consumption, there has to be a payday at the end of the row. Take away steady Asian markets and subtract the premium for having the early crop. Calculate that the Mexican growing season largely overlaps with the Californian one. Add price competition from overseas, so great that it has essentially froze the price at $36 a crate, same as it was 10 years ago; along with the fact Peru can deliver stalks 9 months of the year. What do you do if you are a purchasing agent for a supermarket, the largest buyer and seller of produce in the US - your concern is price and year-around availability not locavorism?

While direct to consumer sales, what we call CSA and Farmers Markets are profitable outlets for locally grown asparagus, these retail sources account for 3% of total produce sales. So farmers planning their season, can calculate the only profit they’ll see on a crop will come from standing in a stall during an 80+ hour work-week and selling it themselves. This is not the greatest motivation to invest time, labor and capital in a crop.

As a result, the land dedicated to growing asparagus in California has dropped from 40,000 to 20,000 acres in the last decade, down from an estimated 75,000 acres a generation ago). Florida and growers in the Southeast have picked up some acreage, but the spiral is downward for US growers. Asparagus has lost not only acreage but also aligned support - the canneries, the freezers, the packers and the agricultural expertise in growing what is by all accounts a finicky crop. With each of these challenges, it becomes more difficult to even offer seasonal asparagus to willing consumers.

Does thinking, or arguably overthinking, the issue at hand change my answer from earlier in the week? No, but I am left with the enigma that it is better/less bad for the local economy to eat South American asparagus in the dead of winter than to eat cheaper, closer Mexican imports at the beginning of the season. Rather than solve the riddle that is sautéed in butter and wrapped in prosciutto, I am going to leave with the thought if you want the option of having locally, grown asparagus, don’t worry about it in December - just get your ass to your farmers market and buy early and often when it is available.