Bolster the Local Food System

Secure sources of food: 

Your foodshed is big when you buy products that originate from many states away, or from overseas, and is subject to issues like supply chain disruptions, tariffs, transportation problems, climate, and diseases. 

When your food system is local, fewer of these issues impact local farmers and create a more secure and dependable source of food. Growing food in your backyard, patio or community garden is one way to provide high-quality nutritious and delicious produce, herbs, and flowers for your table at a reasonable cost. The joy of smelling tomato vines from your own garden and tasting the sweet, tangy flavor of a fresh, juicy cherry tomato warm from the sun is a true meditative moment. If you aren’t a gardener, there are farmers’ markets, CSAs, and local farms to fill your fridge, counter and plate. When you do shop at the local grocery store, ask them if and where they showcase their locally produced meat, produce, dairy, eggs, and baked goods. 

If we do not support the local food system, we risk crippling this very essential and sustainable resource. Food deserts are an example of locations without a local food system in place.

Better quality and food safety:

When you buy from local farmers, you know exactly where your food is coming from and how it is being produced. Farmers will listen if you have a quality issue. Animals on local farms are also much less likely to develop communicable diseases, like avian flu, since local farmers do not have Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) in which animals live confined in close quarters where disease breeds and spreads (read more). Safe and quality food creates a secure food system.

At our Summer Farm Tours, BCFA and our members have spent time with many local farmers and learned the stories of how they began, their challenges and successes, their innovations and whether they are first-time farmers or the current generation of a multi-generational family business. All of these farmers work hard to farm their land, managing crops through droughts, early frosts and pest attacks; birthing animals in the middle of the night and paying for veterinarian bills; providing warm safe places for their animals to bed, locally procured nutritious food, and big open areas for the animals to graze and explore, even providing toys for pigs’ active minds. Many of the animals improve the fertility of the farm: goats, chickens, and sheep are moved to different grazing areas every few days to break up and fertilize the ground for planting. Farming is their passion and our farmers are proud of the products that they can supply their family, friends, and community. Join us this summer for our Summer Farm Tours!

Variety:

Diversity in crops is important to help prevent diseases and protect the soil. Planting monocultures of the same crop depletes the soil and requires artificial amendments (like fertilizers and pesticides) to produce crops. Like CAFOs, monocultures of the same plant promote diseases. Our local small farms plant a wide diversity of crops, many farms plant over 70 different varieties of produce over the course of a season – this protects the soil and minimizes disease. Crop diversity creates a secure food system. 

Small farms can explore new and unusual varieties and respond to consumer’s interests much quicker than large farms and corporations. By frequenting local markets, you can find locally produced mushrooms, vegetables, and fruits that are never found in a grocery store – like pawpaws, which cannot be grown commercially because the fruit ripens too quickly to transport. Pawpaws can only be purchased from local growers in autumn.

Environment: 

Small, local farmers often practice regenerative farming techniques that maximize soil health and use less water for irrigation. Compare that to large traditional farms that input tons of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce crops but destroy soil and biodiversity in the process. These crops have either been covered with pesticides and herbicides or have absorbed them through their roots and into the vegetables, grains, and fruits that we eat, which means that we ingest those substances as well. Because of constant tilling and chemical fertilizers, the soil does not contain the biodiverse, living organisms and nutrients of natural, healthy soil, so it cannot provide all the minerals, vitamins, and other benefits to these crops like those grown in healthy soil. A carrot grown in depleted soil is not nearly as nutritious as a carrot grown in soil that is rich in organic matter and living organisms. Healthy soils create a secure food system.

Supporting Local Economy and small business:

Purchasing food from small farmers puts money back into the local economy rather than a large company headquartered across the country. Local farmers create local jobs and make purchases from other local businesses, helping our communities to thrive. Strong local economies create a secure food system. 

Need another reason to buy local?

For Lorraine, it is the sauteed spinach, mushroom and goat cheese omelet that she cooked this morning with eggs that had deep golden-colored yolks, sprinkled with freshly cut microgreens and paired with toasted sourdough bread smothered with melted butter and wildflower honey. She set her table with a lace tablecloth and a vase filled with locally grown foliage.  All the ingredients, except for the salt and pepper, were grown and produced within 46 miles of her home, many as close as two miles. 

For Jade, it is knowing her  farmer. She can talk to the person who grew the food, learn about the process and their struggles. She can feel the knowledge and love that goes into producing the food that she feeds her children.