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Jan Greenberg

Jan Greenberg writes about food for a number of publications, including Food Arts, National Culinary Review, Time Out NY, and Hudson Valley Magazine. She has won the Association of Food Journalists award for Best Food Feature in a Magazine and has twice received writing awards from the New York State Agricultural Society. Greenberg is the author of the recently published Hudson Valley Harvest: A Food Lover's Guide to Farms, Restaurants, and Open-Air Markets (THE COUNTRYMAN PRESS, 2003).—Susan Piperato SP: What was the turning point for you in moving from appreciating Hudson Valley agriculture and admiring local farmers to viewing eating as a political act?

JAN GREENBERG: It was a very gradual process for me, [involving] two things: my own personal view and the world view. When I lived in the city and the green markets began (I believe the first one was under the 59th Street Bridge in 1976, following the Bicentennial, with two or three flower growers and two or three vegetable growers), I had never thought before about where food came from and how it was raised, or organic versus non-organic, or anything like that. All I remember is that the greenmarket produce tasted incredibly different—it really did!

When I came up here to live [in 1988] there was a resurgence of interest in Hudson Valley agriculture at the time. Farmers had to really change how their food was marketed, and do it themselves, and there was a lot of discussion among farmers about how difficult that was. Traditionally, the farmer has stayed home, worked his fields, grown his cattle, and sold his products to a middleman who's taken everything to market. The other important thing was that restaurants suddenly became interested in local produce, and would order things because they have to plan their menus in advance.

The Hudson Valley is a prototypical endangered agricultural area which provides the basis for both local and national discussion about the value of small-scale, family-friendly, environmentally healthy growing and production. Agriculture is part of the reason we actually choose to live here; it's what makes it so wonderful and so beautiful. We have to ask ourselves [if local farms disappear], do we really want to live in an East Hampton?

SP: How can the average Hudson Valley resident help ensure that local agriculture not only survives but flourishes?

JG: Most importantly, buy local, buy local, buy local, and do it whenever you have the opportunity. We should really be pressuring large supermarkets and supermarket chains to make changes, to include sections for local produce and meat. It's outrageous that when I go to the store the apples available are from Washington state, when two miles from my house are grown the best apples in the world for eating.

We have to be relentless. We have to go out of our way to buy local. A lot of people don't because they think it's easier to do one-stop shopping, and that local produce is too expensive. We have to realize that in this country we spend about eight percent of our gross income on food. It's cheap, cheap, cheap. In Europe, the cost of food is quadruple what we pay here. Buying local might be more expensive, but you're paying the true cost of food.

We have to be very active politically about saving our farms. Every year the legislature votes on how much money to set aside for agricultural easements, which basically makes sure farmland is kept for farming, not sold for development. But there are just not enough funds available. We need to pressure the legislature to put more money aside for preserving farmland.

SP: Are you optimistic about the future of Hudson Valley agriculture?

JG: I'm optimistic in the sense that I think that people are really beginning to value agriculture as the thing that most sustains this region and its economy. Certainly farming is important in terms of the whole appearance of this place and why we choose to live here. But I'm not optimistic in some ways because land is worth more for development than for farming. Taxes make it difficult for farmers, and we all know about the effects of the vagaries of weather. If our farmers got subsidies the way the people who grow grain out West get them, they'd be in much better shape.