Food Justice and the Role of Local Farmers

Fast Food Delivery

Green Bean Delivery delivers fresh produce to the door of customers who sign up for deliveries. So instead of purchasing produce (fruits, vegetables, dairies) from the grocery store (and not knowing where they come from -- Mexico, California, South America), Green Bean Delivery does all the work for you. The only question is: where do Green Bean's products come from? To find out, some investigative work was needed. This paper will show who is behind the produce that Green Bean Delivery delivers straight to the door of its customers, how it is produced, what goes into the process of growing, harvesting, transporting and preparing the items that are then sorted and shipped to customers.

The number one claim of Green Bean Delivery is that it uses organic produce and natural groceries to please its customers. This is a great claim and one that makes a lot of people happy to see -- but as Schlosser (2012) points out, the "organic" and "all-natural" label is one that can actually be misleading. His trip to the jelly bean flavor factory highlights the ways in which corporations are able to get away with the suggestion that they are using "all-natural" ingredients in the manufacturing of their products (through a subtle twisting of the meaning of words and the usage of rather legalistic definitions). But is that the case with Green Bean? According to the Green Bean website, all their food is locally grown and/or produced by local farmers and artisans. So whether one is ordering in Kentucky or Colorado, the shipments are made after tapping local producers. Sounds good -- but is it?

For example, if I want to order organic limes, which "local" grower is producing them? -- certainly not farmers in Ohio. If I click on the limes, all I'm told is that they come from Mexico -- so is there any difference between these limes and those I might pick up at the local grocer if both are hailing from south of the border? To understand a little better, I go to the About Bean tab on the website. According to the section entitled "Our Farms," Bean owns and operates two organic farms -- one called Feel Good Farm, which is 60 acres and certified organic in Sheridan, IN, and another 60-acre certified organic farm in Mason, OH called Ecohio Farm.

That means that Green Bean does account for some of the products it delivers -- but certainly not all of them. To cover more ground, it partners with other providers like Homegrown Organics, Krema Nut Company, Limelight Coffee Roasters, Provence Breads, Simplicity Juice, and many more, continually adding to its registry of independent producers. Thus, some food may be grown in Ohio, some in Indiana, some in California; some items may be produced in other states and towns: the point is that they all connect and funnel down into the vans of Green Bean.

Thus, every product may have a different origin -- but the idea is that every originator is dedicated to providing all-natural, organic foods. But -- what about those limes? After talking with a representative, it turns out that Green Bean engages independent organic farmers in Mexico too. Therefore, it can be surmised that it takes a lot of locally produced items by independent producers to network and come together to form their own delivery system that is Green Bean Delivery.

So while some products, like local vegetables and meats may travel short distances, others travel long distances. If, for instance, I order chicken in Cincinnati, it might come from one of several places, like Tewes' chicken farm, for instance. Where it won't come from is the Green Motel, as Clarren (2005) calls it: the exploitation fields where women are harassed and underpaid by corporations looking to wring every last cent out of a turnip that they can.

As Gottlieb and Joshi (2010) point out, one way to work towards food justice is to go local. But sometimes people cannot get what they want when they want it -- and to that end, Green Bean fills the gap -- by bringing the local, organic, hormone-free meat and produce to you.

However, based on the course readings, it may be presumed that at least some of what writers like Claren and Gottlieb and Joshi and Schlosser describe goes on in the fields that are separated by miles and miles around the world in the Green Bean system. Someone has to transport, someone has to harvest, someone has to prepare.

I've talked to delivery drivers at Green Bean. They don't complain about their wages -- not too much. They know they could be working a lot harder and making a lot less somewhere else. But does the cost of the item reflect the labor that went into producing it? Not really. If I paid what I thought it was worth, I wouldn't be able to afford it. The fact is that all organic farmers are stilling competing with the Big Agra, who can afford to set prices low. Thus few independent growers and farmers are making what they deserve to make. Is the consumer to blame? Partly. How much do people really care that they can get hormone-free food at cheap prices? If the price goes up, will people continue to shop? Or will they give in and feed the Big Agra machine?