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In Cooperation With
August, 2015
Had the opportunity last week to hear Ken Meter at the FARRMS (http://www.farrms.org/)
Summit on Local Economies gathering. Ken is an agricultural economist who has been
looking at local foods for over 25 years. Every time I hear Ken I walk away energized but also
asking what can be done to move local foods forward.
Ken looks at available data, mostly from the U.S. Census data, on where we spend our food
dollars. Mostly we spend them for foods that come to us from outside of our local area. Ken
encourages us to take a baby step in our food procurement. He asks what would happen if each
person just spend $5 a week buying local foods.
Ken examined two regions, each about 8 counties. Currently each region spends around $110
million dollars on food with just over $100 million on foods sourced from outside the area. Ken’s
suggests small step would have an economic impact of approximately $10 million in each region
for local foods farmers. What could that do for them? And what could that do for the
communities where they are located?
I, like most people I suspect, enjoy foods and food products that come from outside our region
and in seasons when we can’t be producing fresh food. I also, in deference to full disclosure,
grew up on a commodity-based farm and that farm is still owned by my family. But I also am
driven by three factors: 1) I enjoy knowing my food producer; 2) I enjoy fresh and homemade
items; and 3) I believe in small businesses and supporting local.
In my mind, there is room for both local and the large-scale farm operations we now have.
Some on both sides will disagree and that’s okay. The goal is to start the dialogue, consider the
opportunities and encourage those working to grow the local foods economy. Many of these
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