Why Food?

Why should we as a city work on a more resilient food system?  

Through many studies and assessments, it has become clear that Salt Lake City residents, community groups, and businesses show strong interest and involvement in an equitable, more resilient local food system. As taxpayers, we want this. 

As the city continues to evolve, City leaders have a critical opportunity to ensure that how we grow, distribute, access and dispose of food contributes to a thriving city now and into the future.  Important city work such as land use policy establishment, infrastructure and resource development, and long-term planning will be an essential part to supporting a more resilient food system. 

Why do residents and businesses want a more resilient food system?  

Food is in almost every aspect of city life. However, to keep it simple:  

Our Children’s Health and Their Future 

• Pesticides: Infants and children absorb more chemicals relative to body size than adults. And, because their organ systems are still developing, they are especially vulnerable to toxic exposure. Fostering a food system that prioritizes growing without pesticides is an important part of protecting our children from these chemicals.  

• Naturally grown foods and nutrition: Studies suggest that organically or sustainably grown produce may contain higher levels of certain nutrients, such as antioxidants, due to the stress response of plants grown without synthetic pesticides. 

• The environment of the future: Sustainable food production and food waste management is one of most impactful areas we can focus on to heal our environment. Additionally, increasing well-compensated food production jobs opens up a whole sector of meaningful career opportunities for the children of today (especially for those who don’t want to work in offices).  

• Skills that improve mental and physical health: Learning how to grow food, cook it, process it and compost it are essential life skills that improve mental and physical health.

Your Health

• Pesticides: People exposed to pesticides have increased rates of chronic disease.

• Naturally grown foods and nutrition: Again, studies suggest that organically or sustainably grown produce may contain higher levels of certain nutrients, such as antioxidants, due to the stress response of plants grown without synthetic pesticides. 

• Mental health: Gardening can help reduce stress and anxiety in many ways: mindfulness, connection with nature, increased Vitamin D through sunshine, self-esteem and accomplishment, gentle exercise. All of these contribute to calming the nervous system.  

Stability During Economic Uncertainty 

• Less reliance on global supply chains: More local growing improves local economic stability by reducing reliance on fragile global/national supply chains (e.g. during the bird-flu epidemic of 2022-2023, pasture raised flocks and genetically diverse flocks were significantly less affected than farm raised and mono-species flocks.)  

• Economic development: Enhancing our local food system supports economic development through business and job creation.

Water Preservation

• Water retention in our soils: Improving soils through sustainable practices increases the soil’s water retention. This in turn improves aquifer infiltration, absorption of greenhouse gasses and cooling of the local atmosphere.  

• Microclimate impact: 60-65% of land in Utah, about 33 million acres total, is under in agricultural use. 20% of that is farmland and the other 40-45% is rangeland. If we move towards soil improvement practices in both crop production and animal raising, we can have a huge effect on our immediate climate.  

Community Building 

• Salt Lake City’s robust gardening community: Salt Lake City has many organizations, farmers and home growers who support each other and care about the food we grow. Whether you join a community garden or grow food to share with your neighbors, you will find new relationships and meaningful interactions.

Quality of What You Consume

• Ripeness at Harvest: Sustainably grown produce is often harvested when fully ripe, allowing natural sugars and flavor compounds to develop. In contrast, warehouse-ripened produce is typically picked early to withstand transport, which can compromise taste. 

• Soil Health: Sustainable farming practices prioritize soil health through crop rotation, composting, and reduced chemical use. Healthy soil can enhance the flavor profile of fruits and vegetables. 

• Varietal Choices: Small-scale sustainable farms often grow heirloom or specialty varieties selected for taste rather than shelf life or transportability. 

• Freshness: Locally sourced sustainable foods typically spend less time in transit and storage, preserving more of their nutritional value. 

Improving Your Carbon Footprint 

• Food waste is a big deal: Food waste causes 25% of Utah’s household carbon footprint. If you care about reducing your footprint, eating sustainably sourced food and making sure the leftovers don’t end up in the landfill is a great place to start.  

• The agriculture/environment feedback loop: The way food is produced can either significantly increase greenhouse gases and harm our environment or it can heal environmental issues in many areas. See “Understanding the Current System”  

Understanding the Current System 

Growing 

• General Practices
  • Large equipment used to prepare soil and plant crops emits CO2 and damages soil. 
  • Large scale farms will use ‘monocropping’ practices, meaning they only produce one crop instead of growing a variety of plants. Monocropping can lead to soil degradation and increased food system vulnerability. 
  • Pesticides that are used in farming have been linked with decline in pollinators and soil degradation. Due to common improper use, pesticides have caused long-term contamination of soils, water sources and unintended plant and animal populations.  

• Specific role of current animal production practices  
  • Animal agriculture is responsible for 35% of the methane in the atmosphere. 
  • 92% of the water we use is hidden in the food we eat, meaning that the water it takes to produce the food is inadvertently consumed when we eat and drink. Eating one cheeseburger is the same as using 698.5 gallons of water.  
  • Every year, 58,000 square miles of forest are lost to create grazing lands worldwide. 
  • Proper rotational grazing and land management with cattle and other animals can decrease their methane output by 10%, regenerate soil health and even cause net negative emissions.
  • If all Americans skipped eating meat and cheese just one day a week and replaced them with plant based protein or sustainably grown meat, it would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road.  

Transporting

• Food is moved all over the world by truck, train, ship, and barge – all of which require fuel and emit CO2.  

• Depending on where the food was grown, it may travel for weeks to make it to its final destination. This requires more fuel and emits more CO2. 

Processing & Packaging

• Factories take raw foods and chop, grind, dry, boil, can, and freeze to make it more convenient for consumers. This requires the use of machinery to prepare and package processed foods. 

• Packaging helps preserve the altered food but generates packaging waste. 

Wholesale & Retail

• Wholesalers distribute large quantities of food to retailers, where the food is then sold to consumers.  

Eating & Disposing

• This stage of the food cycle generates a lot of waste. Waste comes from not using food before it spoils, making too much food and then disposing of it, and the packaging of the food that makes its way to a landfill.