Food increases could encourage home gardens, farmers markets

Dave Payne Sr.
PARKERSBURG ­- With the increasing costs of food, local produce and even home gardens could be an even more attractive to consumers this growing season.

Much of the increased cost of the food you buy is from the ballooning cost of fertilizer, or the increase costs for farmers to run their diesel-fueled equipment, or even feed grain to their cattle as the price of grain has skyrocketed partly because of demand for biofuel, said Ed Smolder, West Virginia University extension agent for Jackson County.

Smolder said farmers need to "sharpen their pencils" and figure out some things, how they can cut costs, but not production. If they can do that, they might find an advantage in local markets over produced that is shipped in from other areas.

"We really need to be shopping at our local farmerás markets. Itás a win-win situation to support our local growers and there might be more food raised here and not trucked in from who knows where. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture really ought to take advantage of this," he said.

Buddy Davidson, communications officer for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, said there might be something to it.

"It will certainly be helpful for local growers to replace things that have been shipped in from elsewhere," he said.

Much of the price increase has been from demand on corn for bio-fuels ­ the price of corn had remained steady since the Great Depression. With inflation factored in, the cost of corn to the average family had actually fallen a great deal, he said. The consumer should be prepared for that to change, Smolder said.

"The U.S. was founded on cheap food. Ever since the founding fathers, the government has felt that a full belly means happy people. When you get hungry people, you've got riots on your hands. Thank God we live in America. Weáre in much better shape than anybody in the world. Mexico is paying the exact same price for corn we are and they don't have the money we do.

"We still have the cheapest food in the world. In 2003, 9 percent of our income went to food. At the same time, in Europe, it was 25 percent and in China it was 50 percent. It has to go up.Wheat has gone up from $3.50 a bushel to now $12 or $13 a bushel. Corn has doubled. Eggs, meanwhile, have been a dollar a dozen since 1910. Something has to happen," Smolder said.

The price of fuel effects fertilizer prices in several ways. Fertilizer is comprised of nitrogen, phosphates and potash. Nitrogen produced from of natural gas, and natural-gas energy from which is also used in the production of the phosphates. Then, add the cost of transporting the phosphates mined in Canada, as well as the other ingredients, over long distances to the production facilities, plus the diesel fuel to transport the fertilizer to market. It all adds up to very expensive chemical fertilizer.

Belleville farmer Dexter Graham said he has skillfully fertilize his land to avoid waste. He applies fertilizer from his dairy cows to the soil, then has his soil tested to see what other nutrients it might need.

"We use all our animal waste for fertilizer, that's organic. Then the soil test tells us what commercial fertilizer we need to use to bring it up to get the yield we want. Manure is high in phosphorus, it has potash and has trace minerals in it, zinc, copper, all that is in it. If you manure heavy you can cut your fertilizer bill in half. Anytime we have manure it cuts our fertilizer bill down," he said.

Gardeners can cut their costs by using more organic matter and less chemical fertilizers and that doesnát necessarily mean add more manure, Smolder said.

"When you are talking about something small like a garden, it's real easy to turn it into a toxic waste dump if you aren't careful with fertilizer. Manure is too high in potash, you have to be careful not to put too much. The best way is to use grass clippings, egg shells, kitchen waste, like carrot peelings. Just donát use meat scraps, because it will attract every raccoon and opossum in the country. (Black and white pages of) newspapers work good for mulch.

Before putting any kind of chemical fertilizer, or even manure, in the soil, it's best to have the soil tested to see what it needs. In West Virginia, that testing is free, he said.

"Your county extension office will give you a kit where you take the soil sample send it to West Virginia University. That's been a free service that the Legislature has provided since the 1950s. It's the world's best-kept secret. The only cost is the postage to mail it to Morgantown. You can add fertilizer anytime, so it's best to wait on the test results. If you have too much potassium in the soil, you just compound your problem by putting manure on it," he said.