Why Choose Local?

Where are we?

Think back to breakfast. Imported Eggs, Bread, milk, tea, sugar, maybe some fruit? OK, now tell me where it all came from - and I don't mean your local supermarket.! Let me help: the Eggs from some battery chicken farm..chickens that never even had a chance to leave their allocated 50cm sqaure prison,Bread made from a genetically modified source in the USA; the milk from somewhere in the EU; tea and sugar produced under near slave labour conditions in some remote far eastern state; and the fruit flown in from a new plantation on former rain forest land in Latin America.

Do this for your other meals, your clothes, car, furniture, and you just might start thinking again. The 'ecological footprint' of Western buying patterns is out of all proportion to our own resource base. It has been calculated that if everyone on the planet consumed as we do in the West, we'd need three Earths. And this is as true for food as for anything else in this consumption mountain. Our insatiable demand for out of season fruit and vegetables can only be met by a mind-blowing global infrastructure of growers and distributors. The Port of Ibiza is now Ibiza's market garden....

How did we get here?

The global food chain which supports all this is the baby of transnational companies. They rely on opportunism and economies of scale. They need to place big orders with as few suppliers as possible; costs are forced down; and they look globally for the best deal. There is no loyalty to their host country or its people.

Trade liberalisation is forced onto developing countries by the World Bank and the IMF, and sewn up under WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules. What it means in practice is that countries have no control over their cuckoo-like transnational guests. Ownership is levered out of local hands; profits leave the host country; and environmental practices and labour conditions are locked into a downward spiral.

Agriculture in Ibiza has undergone a huge transition in the last half century. We have lost most of our small farmers, and with them, many of our local and regional food traditions and specialities.

Things are changing

But before we all get too depressed and reach for the comfort food - chocolate from West Africa produced by... you get the picture - there are some real signs of hope. A new, local food renaissance is underway.

Farmers' markets are one of the most visible signs of this renaissance, with just one certified organic producer on the island (Can Parades)established over the past three years. Of course, there's nothing new in it at all - it's simply about farmers selling their own produce directly to the people who are going to eat it. But the simplicity of the concept belies a change in thinking which is revolutionary.

Farmers selling locally are taking a crucial step to wean themselves off the system which has paid them to grow an over-abundance of food with guaranteed markets and huge subsidies. Instead these farmers are actually growing what the customer wants, relying on quality and human scale marketing, and cutting out a whole, and often global, chain of agents, packaging and distribution networks, wholesalers, and retailers. The farmer gets more money, the customer gets good, fresh food at a reasonable price, and the money stays in the local economy
There are other initiatives too which are helping find ways to support the smaller and specialist producers. Consumer based projects are being developed to help those with poor access to good fresh food (the flying aubergine box scheme)as one example. This might also be your local greengrocers - get into the habit of asking them where their produce comes from.

Secondly, grow it yourself. Most back gardens can produce a surprising quantity of the freshest veg and fruit you can find.

Finally, just go for it. Start taking personal responsibility for your actions. Its the Only Way forward to bringing back real and sustainable prosperity to Ibiza.