September 2, 2005

Fuel prices affect local food, too

It’s an often quoted factoid that the average food item travels well over 1000 miles to get to your plate.  In that scenario, it’s easy to see how fuel costs would affect the food price.  It’s less obvious how fuel prices affect local food. Our current agricultural system relies upon fossil fuels for a large part of it’s production, not just the transportation once it’s produced.

Let’s take beef for an example. While the cows roam open pastures year-round, the pastures are grown with the help of tractors.  The cows are also fed hay, oats and other grains that are grown with the help of fuel.  The grains are cut, raked and collected using tractors, and eventually brought to the cows using tractors.  When it’s time, the cows are brought to the butcher in a truck. So that’s a lot fuel used before the meat is even brought to the store, or in our case, to your door. 

On July 7, 2003 our organic beef supplier, Wheatfield Hill, paid $1.09 per gallon for off-road diesel fuel.  The last fillup came in at $2.17 per gallon, and that was before the recent price rise. That’s just about double the cost.  So each step of the process had a doubling of cost in fuel in just two years. 

The farmers, then, are faced with a tough decision – make less money or charge more for the product. Here at Just Local Food Cooperative we’re committed to sustainable agriculture.  That means we want the farmers we work with to be around five, ten, twenty years from now.  And that means they need to make a living at what they do.  We’ve worked hard at making the prices you pay as low as they can possibly be by working directly with the farms.  So when the cost of goods increases, our only sustainable option is to share that cost.

            For our delivery service, we deliberately chose vehicles that have fueling options beyond the typical fuel found at the corner store.  I’ve written about it before, explaining how our old Ford Escort runs on waste grease from a local restaurant. And our big truck often runs on biodiesel, made from soybeans grown right here in the US. A year ago, biodiesel was more expensive than regular diesel.  In the past month, though, the tables have turned. We can say with confidence that the increase in fuel prices does not affect our costs of delivery. We’re doing our best to share this knowledge and experience with our farm partners so that they, too, can decrease fuel costs and make their operations even more sustainable. I’ve been called by both TV stations in town and appeared last week with our old Ford.  On September 20 I’ll be a guest on “the West Side” of Wisconsin Public Radio (88.3FM, 5pm) discussing our use of alternative fuels and the connection to our commitment to sustainable agriculture.  If you or someone you know is interested in grease cars and biodiesel, this should be a good program to catch.

Expanded delivery area      

That said, we have been taking a long hard look at the costs of delivery, and we’ve found that the main cost for us is in the labor of driving around.  When we have a lot of customers in one spot, like the Third Ward or the East Hill, we’re delivering more than driving.  That’s great! But when we get on the outskirts of town we end up behind the wheel more. It has helped that most of our customers out there order as much as possible, making it worth our while to drive out there. We have decided to turn this into a policy with our delivery service, and thankfully the new policy won’t affect many people at all.  We have drawn a line around the city of Eau Claire (like just about every other delivery business in the city) and within that area all deliveries will remain free of charge, no matter the size.  Outside of that line, we are asking our customers to make their order above $25 – this ensures we’re making money on the stop and can continue to serve you into the future.  For orders under $25 we will be charging a five dollar delivery fee. By instituting this policy, we are able to extend our reach a little further out of town and expanding our delivery area by ensuring it is worth the drive. If you have questions or concerns about this new policy, please let us know. And remember, if you live in town there is no change and no charge – it’s just for folks living outside the central city, and most customers will not be affected at all by this change!