Artist wants residents to dine on foods from nearby farms

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006

With the abundance of farm markets and produce in Frederick County, Sarah Irani wants residents to think about what they’re serving for dinner and to start eating more locally grown foods.

The Frederick resident and artist is encouraging people to support agriculture and small farmers in Frederick County through participation in a grassroots project, Eat Local Challenge.

The program encourages residents to eat foods by shopping at farmers’ markets, organic food stores, community supported agriculture groups and businesses within 100 miles of their homes.

For the 28-year-old Irani, the challenge’s approach is holistic rather than simply eating homegrown foods during summer’s bounty. Eating locally helps to sustain the local economy, she said, and provides greater food variety and healthier alternatives to an industrialized food production that has kept people disconnected from their food sources.

‘‘America is becoming so homogenous in industrial cuisine, so I’m interested in preserving regional foods,” Irani said.

Several farmers’ markets in Portland, Ore., started the Eat Local Challenge last year and the idea has spread across the country. Irani said she learned of the program through her online blog after she met several Californians who were active in their local challenge.

Growing up on a farmette in North Dakota, Irani became interested in organic foods and global food production in high school after she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome.

It wasn’t until this year after a long conversation with a local farmer that she decided to bring the Eat Local Challenge to Frederick.

Irani said she is not preachy about her food choices and the challenge. She wants to raise awareness in the community and have people be mindful of their choices, since every food choice has political, social and economic consequences.

Irani used the example of purchasing a cup of coffee to make her point. That cup of coffee provokes questions about where the beans were harvested and how much of the profit from the sale would benefit the coffee grower, she said.

‘‘I’m not going to say I’m conscious of everything,” Irani said. ‘‘The Eat Local Challenge isn’t a call for everyone to live in the 19th century, but it’s a call for people to think.”

According to Colby Ferguson, an agricultural specialist for Frederick County’s Office of Economic Development, a project like the Eat Local Challenge would benefit agriculture in the county and would also complement the Homegrown Here: Buy Local, Buy Fresh campaign. That project, which was established in 2002, is aimed at raising awareness about the benefits to consumers and farmers when local foods are eaten. The campaign uses stickers to identify restaurants, farmers and retailers that use or sell foods grown in Frederick County.

‘‘I think it would be a very large boost,” Ferguson said. ‘‘You would see an increase in locally grown products and, indirectly, it would increase the number of farms that sell directly to the consumer.”

According to the 2002 census by the National Agriculture Statistics Service, there are 1,273 farms in Frederick County. However, only several hundred sell products directly to the consumer, Ferguson said. These products include everything from produce, flowers, baked goods and wine. For county residents, Ferguson said, eating and buying local foods offer them product security and fresher and healthier choices.

Irani eats all her fruits and vegetables through farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture organizations, like Mountains to Meadows in Frederick County, which include three local farms. For a total cost of $400, Mountains to Meadows provides a basket of in-season produce, such as beets, potatoes, greens and Asian pears, that is delivered once a week for 18 weeks to families who have a subscription.

According to Rick Hood, owner of Summer Creek Farms in Thurmont, the organic farm’s involvement in Mountains to Meadows and other community supported agriculture groups provides nearly 20 percent of its income. Hood also said that supporting local agriculture is vital to the county and to the families that depend on farming.

‘‘There’s tremendous development pressure in Frederick County and unless local agriculture is preserved, the open space will not be preserved in farmland,” Hood said. ‘‘By supporting local agriculture, you support those families on it.”