Buying direct from local farmers supports the local economy.
When you buy direct from local farmers, your dollars stay within your community, and strengthen the local economy. More than 90¢ of every dollar you spend goes to the farmer, thus preserving farming as a livelihood and farmland.1
This is important because as mergers in the food industry have increased, the portion of your food dollar paid to farmers has decreased. Vegetable farmers earn only 21¢ of your dollar; the other 79¢ goes to pay for marketing, distribution, and other costs.2
How can we eat local? You don't have to take drastic measures to eat local. Start off small. Here are 10 ways you can start.
How to Eat Locally
8 Ways to Eat Locally
1 Shop weekly at your local farmers market or farm stand
2 Buy from local grocers committed to stocking local food
3 Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food
4 Preserve food from the season — freeze, can, dry — to eat later in the year
5 Throw a "Locally-Grown Party" and serve all local food
6 Grow your own food in your yard or community garden plot
7 Visit local farmers and "u-picks"
8 Ask your grocer or favorite restaurant what local foods they carry
1 Like CSAs, farmers' markets provide farmers with close to 100% of the food dollar (minus a fee or small percentage paid to the market for maintenance) and a direct connection between farmer and consumer." In the words of the peach grower and writer David Mas Masumoto, farmers' markets are 'one of the saviors of the family farm. All those barriers created by the conventional marketing system are torn down. The consumer sees it isn't just a commodity — it's a peach, or a carrot, or a cabbage.'
Spector, Rebecca. “Fully Integrating Food Systems: Regaining Connections between Farmers and Consumers" Edited by Kimbrell, Andrew. (2002) Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. Foundation for Deep Ecology. P. 353
2 In 1967, fruit farmers earned 31% of retail expenditures. In 1997, they earned only 18%. The fall for fresh vegetables is from 32% to 21%. These changes are accounted for by the increasing share of food expenditures spent on processing, marketing, and corporate profits, and most importantly by the concentration of power in food retailing which enables corporate buyers to drive down farm prices. [Elitzak 1997]
Starr, Amory; Card, Adrian; Benepe, Carolyn; Auld, Garry; Lamm, Dennis; Smith, Ken; Wilken, Karen. Barriers and Opportunities to Local Agricultural Purchasing by Restaurants and Institutional Food Buyers. Colorado State University, Department of Sociology. April, 2002. www.eatlocal.net
