Let Them Eat Carrots

A Simple Back-of-the-Envelope Exploration of Foodability

Foodability—which can be taken to mean the degree to which a community or region could be self-reliant for its food—is at the heart of the local food movement. It is a pursuit; we don’t know how far we can go in that direction, but we know that we have a long ways before we need to worry about trying to go too far. If local food is to live up to its promise of better diets and health, thriving farmers and ranchers, solid economic development, environmental restoration, biodiversity preservation, and a livable climate, we know we must ramp up this effort dramatically and soon.

20% local? A while back we posed a challenge in our high, short-seasoned, water-challenged community located in Southwest Colorado to pursue an initial goal of 20% of all our preschoolers’ meals and snacks coming from local producers. The idea was to think big, challenge ourselves, start with a very important age group, and have a more concrete goal than just “growing as much of our food as locally as possible.” We still, as most all communities, aren’t even close to this goal, so I think it deserves another, more specific yet expansive look. Let’s start with carrots for preschoolers and go from there.

The virtues of the carrot: Not a perfect food nor perhaps a super food, carrots are yet one of our favorites. They are relatively easy to grow in most areas, can be eaten raw, store very well, come with handles (if green tops are left on as kids like), and are in the food group that almost all of us need much more of—vegetables! What if we grew all the carrots our preschools need?

Can our foodshed do this? We start by looking at our foodshed—do we have the land, water, and climate to even consider this? Carrots do grow well here—I have seen a modest-sized field of them here in fact that would go a long way toward this goal. They also store well—local producers here supply carrots to our schools well into the spring. So how much land would this take?

In our case, we happen to have about 1000 preschoolers in La Plata County. A reasonable serving is one medium-sized carrot (about 0.2 pounds or half a cup). A review of yields from seed companies, ag researchers, and local carrot growers leads us to estimate a conservative yield—for back-of-the-envelope purposes—of 16,000 pounds of carrots per acre. This is a very rough estimate taking into account variations in climate, soils, grower skill, field layout, etc. As we will see, it is a good enough estimate though to answer this basic question.

To provide all our 1000 preschoolers one medium-sized carrot each day of the school week through the year would take just three acres! (Depending on yield, it could be closer to 2 acres or more like 4 or 5 acres—but a conservative estimate of just three.) We have the needed climate in our area, and finding three acres with water is quite doable, so our foodshed’s agronomic foodability for preschool carrots looks quite good.

How significant is a carrot a day? For perspective, eating the equivalent of a medium sized carrot each day of the school week is a big deal—in the neighborhood of a third of what USDA recommends daily for veggies for most preschoolers (double that for adults)—and more wouldn’t be bad. We actually need a variety of veggies, but average yields per acre of a diversity of veggies is still in the neighborhood of that for carrots, so do mix and match those colors, tastes, and shapes. And don’t forget that carrots come in different colors, tastes, and shapes as well.

You do the math: Now pull out those envelopes and adapt this to your community. Have 2000 preschoolers?—just double the three acres mentioned above. Carrots just one day a week to start?—divide that three acres by five. Want to go all out and grow enough for all three veggies a day (not just carrots of course) at school and at home seven days a week?—multiply that three acres by four for each 1000 kids.

Can our food system do this? The food system looks at all the factors, so we must consider having 1) a distribution system (not too hard in a small community), 2) the preschools’ ability to purchase, prep, and serve these carrots (not too hard for carrots), 3) kids willing to eat these carrots (not too hard, especially with the green tops on from our experience), and 4) enough producers receiving a market price that will keep them in business (not too easy these days!).

Keep in mind, these three acres of carrots could come from a single carrot farm of three acres or 15 market gardens with 1/5 acre of carrots each or a healthy combination of farms, market gardens, preschool gardens, and parents’ backyard gardens. Three acres of carrots is a lot of work, but this could provide these preschoolers with a third of all the veggies they need (as a minimum) during the school week. Is supporting farmers, ranchers, and gardeners to do this too much to ask of our community?

Tackling producer viability: It’s truly a whole community effort. Many preschools are financially strapped, but if those families, restaurants, retailers, and institutions who can pay what it takes to keep local producers in business actually do so and help scale up the local food economy, that food could become more affordable for those with fewer resources. For those families with limited incomes, we need to push for livable wages and find a place in food assistance programs for products from local growers and subsidize them rather than industrial/corporate ag. Policy and financial support for preschools, beginning and struggling farmers, and local food development efforts should increase in order to keep local producers in business.

Looking ahead to a vibrant local food future, as producers continue to encounter more and more problems with extreme weather, a warming climate, more frequent and severe and long lasting drought, pollinator and other biodiversity losses, we all must work to help them adapt to these changes, keep things from becoming worse, and double down on our overall producer support. To help the general public see the need to help producers in all these ways, we believe getting involved in growing some of their own food (and keeping an eye on nature in the garden) will open their eyes. This will be essential to ensure an increasing supply of carrots—and much more—in our children’s future.

Three acres of carrots is admittedly a lot of work, but a feasible and very significant start toward the 20% goal for all our preschoolers. Let them eat carrots—local that is!!!