Blog

Election Day

October 20, 2010 by Suzy Badaracco — President, Culinary Tides Inc

During election season candidates jockey and vie for position - looking for the edge over the other candidates. Battle plans are drawn. Counter moves anticipated. But what happens if a candidate comes out of nowhere who has such a unique positioning that they are hard to argue against? Such a race has begun and, make no mistake, it is chock full of politics. Don’t look for it even though its everywhere, don’t Google it – it doesn’t exist quite yet. Welcome to the world of forecasting - before numbers and surveys exist.

A common mistake made is thinking of a potential adversary as another company. A trend can be adversarial toward another trend and knock it out of the spotlight also. Or it could act as a cousin who pushes the first trend out of the spotlight but leaves it relatively unharmed – it’s called a morph. The newest morph occurring is between the concept of eating locally and eating seasonally. Here is what a debate would sound like between the two rivals.

The Local candidate looked at his watch while the Seasonal candidate measured the crowd which was now shifting a bit after having to stand for awhile. It was time.

Seasonal: “So sorry folks to have kept you waiting, ripening delay – you understand. Shall we get started then?” He stepped aside to allow the Local candidate to speak first.

Local: “I am here to talk to you today about the importance of the environment. Eating local can cut down on food miles and therefore transport expense and fuel. It is the responsible thing to do and also helps to support the local economy.”

Seasonal: “While my opponent has a valid point, depending on where you live, eating local is not an option in the winter months if you want fresh food. It is true you can turned to canned and frozen local food during this time, but now you have contributed to processing efforts which can have a similar environmental impact as food miles. Eating seasonally, however, allows you to have fresh food year round and supports the growing regions for those crops. Studies have also been published which have found that crops grown in season are higher in nutritive value than those grown out of season.”

Local: “My opponent would have you believe that processing negatively impacts the environment but what about having to transport seasonal foods around the country?”

Seasonal: “By eating seasonally you could decrease transport fees by supporting those regions closest to your area. Growers can coordinate shipments to increase transport loads and decrease trips. There is also food safety to consider.”

Local: “Safety? There are no safety issues that I am aware of.”

Seasonal: “According to survey work, consumers mistakenly believe that local foods have a safety halo when in fact they are no safer than foods grown elsewhere. In fact, because of transport laws, seasonal foods may be safer since they go through one or more inspections. My advice to you is next time you are at a farmers market, ask the grower what microbiological tests they run or ask for their safety certificates and see what they say.”

Local: “But want about supporting community?”

Seasonal: “Seasonal does support community by supporting growing regions during their appropriate growing seasons. Producers from different regions could potentially form alliances or co-ops to share the profits throughout the year by supporting each other seasonally with their said crops. It’s like crop rotation but would be based on season instead of land use.”

Local: “Yes, I see, however I think there is room for us both.”

Seasonal: “I agree, in fact, if we run on the same ticket everyone can win. I am coming in on your coat tails as you have already set the stage. But now is the time for your platform to evolve and be more user friendly which is where I can help. The concept of local has limitations which don’t affect me and I bring freshness and nutritional value you may lack.”

And with that the candidates shook hands and agreed to join forces to increase their accessibility and cross promote each others offerings.