Arizona farmed shrimp marketed to those who think and buy locally
By Susan Felt and Karen Fernau
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 2, 2008 12:00 AM
Twenty-four hours into the new year, and you're scanning your list of resolutions:
Eat local. And that doesn't mean finding restaurants within your ZIP code.
If you want to join a growing movement of people who want to shake hands with the farmers who grew the tomatoes they're eating, provided the eggs they're frying and the shrimp they're dipping into cocktail sauce, this is the year.
Consumer demand is prompting big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and grocery-store chains such as Bashas' to stock their shelves with food that is grown, if not within the ZIP code, at least within the state, according to Julie Murphree of the Arizona Farm Bureau.
Eating local isn't just a preference for fresh-tasting, usually hormone- and chemical-free food. It also means sparing the environment.
Reducing the distance food has to go from the field to the kitchen is driving consumers to demand local, local, local, says Murphree, who grew up on an Arizona farm.
Such Valley chefs as Chris Bianco at Pizzeria Bianco and Chrysa Kaufman of Rancho Pinot may have been among those who began the drumbeat for local, fresh, seasonal food, but the consumer is following their lead. Buying local not only supports small farmers like Bob and Marsha McClendon in Peoria, owner Frank Martin of Crooked Sky Farms and Anya Owens of A Bar H Farm near Tucson, but it reduces pollution, fuel consumption and trash - and the food is fresher, more healthful and safer.
For Murphree, the locavore movement is also personal.
"I want the public to meet the farmer," she says, lamenting that, "We're two and three generations removed from the farm."
Children growing up believing that milk comes from a carton is what prompted David Schwake, food director and a registered dietitian for the Litchfield Elementary School District, to buy local whenever he can.
He feeds between 7,000 and 8,000 first- through eighth-graders daily, plying them with purple carrots and watermelon, and then working his way to cucumbers, cabbage and broccoli.
The district used to have farms across the street from its schools. Now housing developments have replaced the carrot, melon and cucumber crops.
"We buy as much food as we can that comes straight from the field," Schwake says. "Some farmers deliver directly to us. Others, we go pick it up."
Consumers may have a more challenging time eating food that comes directly from the field than Litchfield kindergarteners, but consuming locally grown food is easier now than it has been in decades, says Ed Hermes, public information officer at the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
In the last census of farmers (done in 2002), there were 711 farms that sold directly to consumers. Those farms reported annual sales of $3.9 million, Hermes says. Experts expect that number to increase in the next census, which was started last month.
People want to talk to the farmer eyeball-to-eyeball about what they feed their chickens, cows and goats, and what they do or don't put on their produce, Hermes says.
But even though Hickman's Family Farms eggs (the state's largest commercial egg producer) and Shamrock Dairy (a locally based commercial dairy) are available at nearly every grocery store, and local products are showing up on more retail shelves, knowing what's available and where to buy it can be a challenge.
In response to the mounting interest in locally grown food, the Arizona Farm Bureau has created a database on its Web site (azfb.org, click on "Fill your plate") of locally grown food that includes not only fruits and vegetables but also wine, artisan cheeses, beef, pork, olive oil, pistachios, honey and shrimp.
The University of Arizona Department of Agriculture also has a Web site, www.farmdirectory.org, where you can locate by growing season, ZIP code and product a list of farms near you.
Neither site includes all the producers, but Murphree says she expects to double the farm bureau's listing from 47 to 100 by March.
"I don't think (eating local) is a fluky trend," says Peoria farmer Bob McClendon, who has 20 Valley chefs on his waiting list.
SHRIMP
Shrimp farming on the desert floor seems as far-fetched as cattle ranching in the Pacific Ocean.
Except to Gary Wood, a visionary shrimp farmer who harvests nearly 300,000 pounds a year of the crustacean at his Desert Sweet Shrimp Farm near Gila Bend.
In 1995, the former cotton farmer began taking advantage of Arizona's shrimp-friendly environment. Heat and a safe distance from diseased seafood in the ocean make the state a prime location for farming the seafood best known as an appetizer. Shrimp require water in the 85- to 90-degree range, easy to achieve during the state's drawn-out summers.
Desert Sweets are pond grown in mineral-rich well water drawn from ancient seabeds. That, in turn, produces shrimp with low levels of iodine and free of mercury, antibiotics, hormones, preservatives and pollutants.
Compared with shrimp from China, Vietnam and South America, which may be tainted with chemicals and pollutants, Desert Sweets can be almost double the cost of imports. Safety-conscious customers, however, are willing to pay the price. The farm offers a wide variety of shrimp, the most popular being the easy-peel, $8 a pound.
Details: Desert Sweet Shrimp are available at www.desertsweetshrimp.com. The farm also accepts phone orders at 623-393-0136.
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