Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Building a Strong, Local Food System

If you haven’t already done so, take a look at the new USDA website for the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative launched by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this fall to help reconnect local families to local family farmers and help build vibrant local and regional food systems.

With this new $65 million program (that includes $19 million for research into organic agriculture), the USDA hopes to provide new income opportunities for farmers, reduce the amount of energy to ship food, generate wealth to stay in local communities, help promote sustainable agricultural practices and provide consumers with a healthier food supply.

Some say the interest in local food has been helped by the Obama Administration (check out the Obama Foodorama blog), which appointed Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture with the directive to see that more local fruits and vegetables find their way into America’s schools and institutions. (You can comment on the initiative on the USDA You Tube page.) But consumers have increasingly shown their preference for local and fresh for the last decade – frequenting farmers markets and joining the local food movement – causing retailers to take notice (see Business Week, “The Rise of the ‘Locavore’,” May 20, 2008. Writer Pallavi Gogoi says the Department of Agriculture reported last year that after declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20 percent in the past six years to 1.2 million. And as many as 1,200 school districts around the country are working with local farms to provide fresh produce to students.

Market researcher Packaged Facts also reported recently that fresh, organic and sustainable food will continue to be a major factor in future consumer purchasing decisions. Some of the recent trends they reported:

• A search for the best, freshest produce was enough reason for nearly half of shoppers to change supermarkets in 2006.
• The number of farmer’s markets across the country grew by 40 percent between 2002 and 2006.
• The top three criteria that consumers use to judge where to shop for food is the quality of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and meat.
• More of today’s shoppers understand the environmental, social and economic implications of their choices, and will choose to pay more even in today’s economy.

What about here on Lopez Island? If you are a local food producer, seller or restaurant, you can help those in your community find your local products by signing up for a free directory listing on the Lopez Locavores website.