Procurement Department

Published in Harrowsmith magazine, Summer 2024

Food shopping can give you indigestion.
Grocery shopping is a mundane task that is underestimated for its complexity. Culture, diet, budget, seasonality, convenience, emotion, habit, instinct, environmental concerns and more all come into play. Whoever runs the Procurement Department in a household has a big job when it comes to figuring out what to eat.
While we can all aspire to self sufficiency and grow as much of what we eat in our own garden, knowing where and how to shop can give you access to the best of the season year-round. According to Farmer’s Markets Ontario (https://www.farmersmarketsontario.com/), sales at farmer’s markets have been estimated to increase 10-12% for the last decade, and it’s easy to see why. In many places, the farmers market is a go-to destination for the freshest seasonal produce straight from the farm. We would argue that having a farmers’ market in your neighbourhood is a major contributor to quality of life.
Challenges facing farmers’ markets include limited hours, accessibility issues, exposure to the elements, and variable product origin. The truly local nature of produce has been contested at many markets, where resellers have been known to show up with imported produce to undercut vendors selling homegrown produce. Many shoppers don’t mind if it helps fill out their basket without adding another stop, but transparency is key, and policies vary between markets. We recommend that you ask the vendor directly as many farmers are happy to tell you.
Markets can also be tricky for farmers who can feel like being at a market is an additional business to the business of growing produce. Being at a market stall every weekend throughout the growing season is particularly demanding, and growers are frequently left with excess product when bad weather keeps shoppers home.
Despite this, we remain ardent supporters of farmers’ markets. Ben looks forward to the social occasion most Saturday mornings in Guelph and we both make a point of stopping when we travel for the best taste of what is local. Mark has a “local” farmers market at the end of his street, just 10 minutes away from his home.
There is a growing number of alternatives for households seeking the freshest local produce throughout the seasons. A pandemic boom in shopping from home enabled the growth of direct-to-consumer business models which have benefitted some small producers.
CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture”, which is an idea that has been around for a while and continues to build support. In a CSA model, the consumer pays at the start of the season for a subscription box of fresh produce. This upfront payment especially helps small growers access credit to pay for the early season costs of planting a crop, hence Community Supported.
In exchange for this early payment, the customer receives a weekly box of produce which varies with the weeks. This model also helps share the risk of farming, as the receiver is entitled to a share of the harvest whether that harvest is large or small. Many farmers offer eggs and meat in addition to the weekly vegetable harvest and maintain a relationship with the recipients through regular email newsletters and the weekly delivery. For foodies who crave a direct and authentic relationship with the farmers who produce what they eat it is hard to beat a CSA program, and it is a great way to support small scale and sustainable agriculture in your community.
Receiving food on the basis of availability, as in “you get what you get”, one farm might not grow the diversity of crops you need to meet all your needs. This can take creativity on the part of the household chef to work with a sometimes-random assortment that comes through the seasons though many chefs thrive on that challenge.
A good CSA grower will allow buyers to make customizations to what they receive, and they often deliver a superior value to shopping at a market or store as there is less waste and fewer intermediaries. By signing up for a CSA basket, you can often save 10-20% what you would pay at the market. It is good to think of a CSA subscription as an investment in local, sustainable agricultural communities and the dividend payment is the high-quality food you receive. To find a CSA grower in your area, ask around at the farmers market or check out community bulletin boards. Many farmers will leave posters at coffee shops or natural food stores with notices for their upcoming CSA program.
Grocery delivery services can offer some of the benefits of a CSA such as transparent, local produce, with the selection of a grocery store. Because these businesses do not require the premium real estate of a bricks and mortar store, they can operate efficiently at a smaller scale. Their direct relationships with both farmers and consumers also allows them to offer the transparency and seasonality of a farmers’ market, with the convenience of having groceries brought straight to the home.
Depending on the service, you can expect to pay a little bit more and there is typically about a 48-hour lag between the deadline to submit your order and the product being delivered at your door. Lufa Farms in Montreal offers an online retail marketplace that features the farmers behind each product, and delivers to their consumers with a fleet of electric vehicles. In Southern Ontario, Graze and Gather out of Clarington and Mama Earth in Toronto have similar services that combine grocery selection with an emphasis on sustainable small-scale producers, delivered to your door. (Disclosure: Lufa, Graze and Gather, and Mama Earth are Cullen’s Organic Foods customers).
With roughly one third of all food produced for humans goes to waste, contributing between 8 to ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the streamlined method of buying directly from farmers has the added benefit of minimizing much of the waste that is generated through the supply chain. A CSA that ships everything they produce to households, for example, gives consumers the opportunity to make use of everything rather than seeing it discarded as surplus after it has been in market.
Too Good to Go is an app where traditional food businesses, including major retailers and take out restaurants, post available food that is about to go to waste at end of day for a steep discount to regular retail price. Shoppers who can pickup during a specified window at end of day have the benefit of big financial savings while saving the planet.
With the help of technology and changing consumer habits, there has never been more options for accessing sustainable, local food in Canada.