From Farm to Table: The Journey of Food & the Benefits of Shopping Direct

The ‘Farm to Table’ Approach
Buying directly from a farm producer is a pretty straightforward process these days. Farm to table is a loosely defined concept, that, at it’s heart is about a direct relationship between where a food is produced & where it is consumed.
If you think of the links between a producer like me & a consumer as being two ends of a chain, then the shorter that chain (i.e. the fewer the links) the greater the benefit to both the producer & the end consumer.
The Problem with the Food Supply Chains
As farms scale up in volume, this volume creates the need for middlemen somewhere in the supply chain. One or two links doesn’t seem to make much of an impact – we obviously use a provincially inspected butcher for example – when there are numerous links, however, such as secondary producers, packing houses, shipping companies, wholesalers & retailers then the relationship is fundamentally broken.
If you look closely at the labelling & packaging in a grocery warehouse you can see that they are desperately trying to connect on an emotional level with a customer. Idealized pictures of old farms, a rising sun in the background & a spry rooster on a coop roof all call back to a time that is long behind us. That free ranging rooster has little if nothing to do with the industrial agriculture that these products originate from. They are counting on an emotional connection that is inherently missing in industrial agriculture, but one that can readily be found in a farm to table relationship.
Organic Doesn’t Equal Local
Even if a product in a warehouse grocer is labelled natural or organic, you need to consider the scale that a farmer needs to be operating at to meet the minimum shipping requirements of these mega grocers. Either the ‘farm’ itself is a mega corporation or there is a packing house buying product from a smaller producer and consolidating it under one label.
Meeting shipping contract minimum with a mega grocer is no easy feat. It takes a scale of production I really have no interest in ever trying to meet.
Personally, as a producer, I would rather have 100 families to feed & feed them really really well. Our approach to raising animals is based on our motto, “fresh food on a first name basis”. This means raising livestock, delivering meats & getting to shake the hands of the people who support us. It also means if there are questions or concerns then those people can ask them directly. They can be confident they are getting a straight answer, this is central to the farm to table model.
The Industrial Food Chain is Anonymous – & Fragile
If you ask about the providence or origin of any of the meat at a mega grocer you’re going to get a vague & obtuse answer – if you get an answer at all.
The original producer, regardless of scale, is likely receiving pennies on the dollar for the value of the food they are contributing to the market. This was most recently evident in the wake of the Pandemic & the resulting collapse of national & multinational supplies chains. Food prices sky rocketed & yet despite this farmers reported that the value of the food they were raising had plummeted. A total lack of available workers created bottlenecks at processing facilities and a breakdown of shipping routes to get products to market.
This time also saw an incredible rise in interest for local farms as people became aware of how delicate of a system the food chain really and truly is. Many small producers who market directly to their client base reported increased demand and overall sales.
Short Supply Chains are Resilient
Direct to market producers don’t have to worry about shipping routes or minimum supply contracts. As for booking with our local butcher, in our experience it was much easier for them to fit one or two extra animals in rather than an entire semi truck of mature pigs or cattle.
Our local butcher is also a member of our community, so when a family in the city buys from us, they are also directly supporting our butcher’s small business. Indirectly, the farms that supply us with grain and hay, the feed store, and our vet all receive a portion of our sales as well.
If that family in the city had opted to buy from a mega grocer, their sale goes to a centralized corporation far removed from our local economy.
Shopping locally from small scale producers allows for your money to stay within your immediate economy, it allows for resilience in the face of unprecedented hardships, & it allows for genuine transparency. Valuable feedback can effectively be communicated face to face with the people growing the food you feed your family. Farmers have the chance to educate & inform in a way that anonymous large scale producers simply cannot.
History of Farm to Table & Criticisms
The concept of farm-to-table isn’t terribly new either. It’s been around since at least the 70’s though it certainly enjoyed a revival in the early 2000’s after multiple food-borne illness outbreaks cast a shadow of doubt on the safety of industrial agriculture. Most recently during the pandemic, farm to table provided an alternative supply route when larger chains began to break down.
Proponents of the movement had predominantly been high end chefs who recognize the value in purchasing the freshest , most flavourful and nutrient-dense ingredients available. The downside of this association though, is many consumers getting the impression that farm to table is an elitist and unattainable model for the majority of everyday home cooks.
When families are struggling now more than ever before in living memory to pay for the costs of living, asking a client to pay a premium for a small scale produced ingredient is challenging. Rather than asking a producer why they are so expensive when the grocery store offers a similar item for less, potential shoppers should really be asking how the mega grocer can charge what they do when the true cost is so much higher.
Industrial Food is About Volume – Not Variety
The answer is the mega grocer can set whatever price they think is right and its up to their suppliers to make that price possible. In persuing this race to the bottom inevitably something has to give. Most often, its achieved by consolidating and looking for efficiencies in production that allow a producer to benefit from economies of scale that are entirely out of reach for small scale, artisanal producers.
Those economies of scale come with costs of their own though – mainly flavour and variety. Operating at a scale large enough to supply a national company requires products be durable, but it doesn’t demand flavour, variety or necessarily quality. Sales like this require volume to be profitable & there is increasingly less and less room for the individual needs or preferences of the shopper. You simply choose from whats already been packaged and make the most of it & hope for the best.
Farm to Table Reduces Waste
The Farm to Table philosophy is closely related to the concept of ‘nose-to-tail’ eating. When the only demand in the market is for a boneless chicken breast, for example, those breasts must pay for the costs to produce that entire bird, and assumes that the feet, the wing tips and the bones are waste. Personally, I think that’s an offence to the animal itself, and a terrible waste of a great source of nutrition.
When I worked in a butcher shop over ten years ago, this was the model they committed to and the model we were taught as staff. Our commitment was to buy a whole animal, and our task was to educate a consumer base that was largely ignorant to the secondary cuts available when skilled butcher’s were behind the counter.
Industrial Supply Chains Are Limiting
The home cook’s dependence on a mega grocer that selectively purchases and displays only prime cuts like tenderloin and lower price point items like ground meat has left the majority of consumers completely unaware of how much variety there truly is, or how to properly prepare these uncommon cuts.
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive about our products is what a potential client is going to do with the cuts they are unfamiliar with. Cuts like shank, oxtail, hanger steaks and neck chops are some of my favourite & most cherished cuts. I forget sometimes that they aren’t a regular feature in most homes these days!
To begin addressing that, I drafted an e-book explaining the philosophy of nose-to-tail eating and a breakdown of which cuts come from, and how best to prepare them. If this would interest you, you can find it (for free!) right here.
Farm to Table, Fossil Fuels & the Future of Food
The plenitude we have experienced in North America for the last 75 years was unprecedented in human history. The arrival of refrigeration and the development of air freight released us from the constraints of seasonal and local eating, but its also inadvertently released us from the philosophy of farm to table & made us complacent about out food supply. It left us somewhat lazy when it comes to sourcing food and preparing it in nourishing ways.
I enjoy raspberries in January as much as the next person but I’m not certain the pressure it puts on local berry producers is worth it. As fuel continues to rise in cost, I’m also doubtful we will continue to enjoy imported produce out of season in the same way.
Keeping a supply chain short & locally distributed benefits not only the small scale producers, but also offers a consumer the option of choosing a producer that reflects their values, shares their priorities and responds to their needs. It elevates our cuisine beyond the bland and boring and introduces new flavors and possibilities that have been sorely missing from our plate recently.
Such a good article! I saw you mention you are wrting a book on nose to tail eating…. looking forward to it!
Hey! Thank you! It’s actually a freebie I’m offering that’s ready now! If you click the link in the post it will take you to the download. Really glad you enjoyed it!