This is the fourth blog entry I have written that has been inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic. For me and many Ohioans, we really started to feel the impact of Covid-19 on Sunday March 15. That was the first day that bars and restaurants in the state were closed (starting at 9.00pm) for regular business. They would be closed for a full two months, reopening for outdoor seating only on May 15 and capacity-restricted indoor dining on May 22. During that time most bars and restaurants (including craft breweries) survived by selling food and beer for delivery and/or curbside pick-up. Denied taproom sales, many breweries experienced a significant drop in their revenues; surviving Covid-19 quickly became the primary objective.
Once craft brewery taprooms in Ohio were closed for business, and I realized that they were going to face a significant drop in revenues, I made the decision to drink beer from local breweries only. Before going any further, I should note that I am not a “Buy Local” zealot. I understand Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage, and the reasons why we purchase and consume products that are made in other places (be they other cities in the United States or other countries). However, for a couple of months at least, I thought it would be fun and interesting to drink only beers made by local breweries. That, of course, begs the question as to what constitutes a local brewery? Does the brewery have to be located in the city of Toledo to be considered local? Or could that be broadened to include the entire county (Lucas County)? What about defining local as any beer produced in the state of Ohio? An alternative to using political jurisdictions (City, County, or State boundaries) to define local, is delimiting breweries within a certain radius of where I live. But what radius should I use – 10 miles, 20 miles, 50 miles?
The question of what constitutes “local” is one that has been debated by both academics and policy makers. According to the 2008 Farm Bill any food produced within a 400 mile radius is considered locally or regionally produced. In Canada, food is considered local if it is produced in the province or territory in which it is sold or (if sold across provincial borders) is purchased within is 50 km (31 miles) of its originating province or territory.
After giving it some thought I decided to restrict my beer drinking from breweries located in the states of Ohio and Michigan. I live in Ohio, of course, but am very close to Michigan. From my house I can be in Michigan in approximately twelve minutes. I have visited a good number of breweries in Ohio and Michigan and feel a strong affinity to the craft beer movement in both states. Of course, some of the breweries in both states are pretty far from my home. For example, Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery in Athens, OH is 219 miles from my home, while Ore Dock Brewing Company in Marquette Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is 490 miles away – not exactly local.
Not surprisingly, I am not the first person to commit to consuming local food and drink. In 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon pledged to eat only dishes made from ingredients harvested within a 100 mile radius of their Vancouver, BC home. In 2007, Barbara Kingsolver moved her family from Tucson, AZ to rural Virginia, where they spent the year eating food grown/reared by themselves or by someone in their neighborhood.
Restricting myself to Ohio and Michigan beers has not exactly been a penance. According to the Brewers Association, there are 400 craft breweries in Michigan and 311 in Ohio. Of course, not all 711 sell their beer in the Toledo market, but enough do that I never lacked choice or got bored with the beers I was drinking. In fact, if I had to, I could probably drink Ohio and Michigan beers for an entire year and not feel hard done by. I did sneak in a few non Ohio and Michigan beers in over the last couple of months – but these were beers that were already sitting in my basement refrigerator and whose “consume by” date already here or rapidly approaching. Most of these beers were consumed on my back deck, while enjoying the warm rays of the spring sunshine. I have created a two galleries highlighting some of the Ohio and Michigan beers that I consumed.
