Homegrown Grub Flub

ROOTS OF ORIGIN: Is there any way to tell what state these spuds grew in? Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Tax funds earmarked to support Pennsylvania farmers can be spent on out-of-state food.

by Bruce Schimmel

The state's food-voucher program is regularly touted as a win-win proposition. It's a blessing for low-income seniors and children, because it puts fresh fruit and vegetables on their tables. [Food, "Off the Menu," Juliet Fletcher, July 22, 2004.] And the $5 million Department of Agriculture program helps farmers across the state because the food is grown on farms in Pennsylvania. Or so we are told.

Administrators of the 15-year-old program admit there's actually no way to know whether produce bought with vouchers actually comes from farmers in Pennsylvania.

In practice, a voucher recipient can take his or her entire yearly allotment, hand them to a Reading Terminal Market vendor and take home tomatoes from New Jersey, carrots from California and grapes from Chile. Program administrators do not dispute this fact but say nutrition and fresh-food availability are reason enough for the program's existence.

"A lot of people appreciate that they can buy fresh produce right in their own neighborhood," says Kelly Morrison, a nutritionist for the Philadelphia Corporation for the Aging.

Morrison admits that some tax dollars — though it's impossible to put an exact number on it — meant for local farmers are going elsewhere. But, she says, at least in the city, more money is now making its way into local farmers' pockets. Vouchers can be exchanged for food at 29 farmer-type markets in Philadelphia. At nine of them, including the Reading Terminal Market, fruit and vegetables sold by some vendors can, and do, come from anywhere.

The good news, says Morrison, is that the number of "grower" markets featuring only farmers who grow their own has risen dramatically. (That includes the market at Second and South streets.)

"When you see the increase in the number of grower sites," says Morrison, "you can pretty much assume an increase in the amount of produce grown locally."

Still, as the program is currently administered, recipients of the fresh fruits and vegetables don't necessarily have to buy anything grown in Pennsylvania. Each voucher recipient receives a long list of fruit and vegetables that are eligible to be purchased with vouchers. The produce must be grown in Pennsylvania or — and here's the loophole — "growable" in the state.

Lettuce, for instance, is "growable" here, but if iceberg is not in season, lettuce grown anywhere may be purchased. Even when local lettuce is abundant, there is no requirement that only Pennsylvania lettuce be bought.

Barry Shutt administers the farmers market voucher programs for the state Department of Agriculture. Last year, the department issued more than $6.6 million worth of vouchers statewide; some 300,000 families redeemed them for $4.97 million worth of food. (The difference was never spent.) If not for the loophole, more of that money would be making its way back to Pennsylvania farmers.

Vendors must demonstrate to Shutt's inspectors that they grow at least $1,000 worth of food annually; if they want to sell more food than they've produced, they must buy enough Pennsylvania-grown food to cover half the amount of vouchers submitted to the state. (For example, if a vendor turns in $100 worth of vouchers, he must show that $50 was spent on food grown in Pennsylvania.)

Shutt, who notes that he "can't tell a Pennsylvania tomato from a New Jersey tomato," says the current system has weeded out some unscrupulous vendors. Still, Larry Breech, head of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, a 1,400-member trade association that supports family farming, says it's important to spend on local produce.

"If we are going to have Pennsylvania tax money support the purchase of food, it should come from Pennsylvania production," he says. "If we spend $4 million dollars on Pennsylvania food from Pennsylvania farms, then that money will generate a downstream economic activity of $28 million worth of economic activity."

Other studies found that local produce, bought locally, generates up to 10 times its price.

To keep food dollars from leaving, the state Agriculture Department announced a new program this winter called Pennsylvania Preferred, which is supposed to make it easier to track food from the farm to the market, and even to the tables of Center City restaurants. The program, still in its infancy, is the brainchild of Book and the Cook organizer Drew Keegan. But in the meantime, while it's clear neither Pennsylvania farmers nor taxpayers are getting the full benefit intended by the program, at least low-income people are eating fresher food from an increasing number of grower markets.

"Half a loaf, says Morrison, "is better than none."