By Jennifer Evans
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

Under gray skies on an early Saturday winter morning, locals seek refuge at the Wisconsin Senior Center at 330 W. Mifflin St for the winter farmers' market. Here, the all-ages crowd is met with the warm, sweet aroma of a home-cooked breakfast, the cheerful sounds of a local bluegrass band and table after colorful table of local produce and food products.

Behind one table of sprightly dressed tomatoes and greens stand Mary and Don Uselman. For more than thirty years, the Uselmans have participated in Madison's year-round farmers' markets.

What began as a small roadside farm stand business by Don's parents in the early '60s has since blossomed into Don's Produce of Arena, Wis., a controlled-environment greenhouse which supplies a variety of vegetables to local stores such as Willy Street Co-op and Whole Foods Market, and local restaurants such as L'Etoile. Uselman says he has seen an increase in consumer demand for local foods over his thirty-five years as a farmer.

"People realize what they get (with local foods) and they expect better quality," Uselman says. "People are becoming more conscious about what they are buying and its impact on the environment."

While the one-hour drive from Arena to Madison may mean very early Saturday mornings for the Uselmans, the distance is a fraction of what it takes to transport food across the country each day.

The Cost Of CO2

"The number one thing you can do as a consumer to cut your energy expenditure and CO2 output is to eat food produced as locally as possible," says Pete Anderson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer in nutritional sciences.

According to Anderson, a lot of food is high in water content and requires refrigerated trucks to be transported across the country. As the distribution trucks burn gasoline moving from city to city, they pump carbon emissions into the atmosphere and more carbon dioxide in the air. The result: possibly more global warming.

Anderson says buying locally to help the environment is far from a sacrifice. In fact, local foods are better for consumer health and diet, and help support the local economy.

Without the long days spent in transport, local produce ends up in consumers' hands fresh and packed with vitamins and phytonutrients, a plant substance that's good for humans because of its protective health benefits. Eating local foods also helps consumers diversify their diet by experimenting with seasonal fruits and vegetables.

"Variety is one of the key concepts to giving you a nutritionally adequate diet," Anderson says. "The more variety [of foods] you eat, the more chances you have for being covered on all of the nutrients you need."

A Year-Round Cornucopia

Luckily, Madison is bursting with local produce options throughout the year.

"The idea that there are no fresh vegetables in Wisconsin in the winter is a myth," Anderson says. "There are actually a lot of things that grow in the summer and fall and store well through the winter."

Lynn Olson, cooperative services manager at Willy Street Co-op, agrees. "In the winter, we celebrate root vegetables," Olson says. Turnips, celeriac, beets, potatoes, carrots and onions represent a few of the favorites local farmers have to offer during the winter months.

And root vegetables are just the beginning of the local produce Willy Street Co-op offers its customers. Throughout the year, the co-op carries produce from over thirty local farms and food products from over forty local vendors. According to Olson, buying local foods is a top priority for co-op members.

"(Willy Street Co-op) is concerned with the community and part of the community is the agricultural sector," Olson says. "By buying locally, we support our local economy."

The concept of buying local foods appears to be catching on. While Willy Street Co-op has carried local produce from farms like Don's Produce for more than thirty years, Olson says other stores are moving to carry more local produce and products on their shelves. Woodman's, Whole Foods Markets and Regent Street Co-op are a few of the local grocery stores that offer shoppers the option of local produce and products.

To make a long-term investment in local produce, consumers can also join one of thirty-four community supported agriculture farms serving the southern half of Wisconsin. CSAs allow community members to purchase shares of the farm's harvest during the average growing season, which typically runs from May through mid-October.

"CSAs are important because they give food a connection to place," says Erin Schneider, coordinator of the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.

Though each CSA farm differs, Schneider says all farms are "ecologically-minded," and work with consumers to help transport food, educate on farming practices and provide tips on how to store and cook seasonal produce.

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