What IS a Foodshed?

By Jade Greene

So here you are reading a blog post from the Bucks County Foodshed Alliance but what is a foodshed? Similar in concept to a watershed, a foodshed is the geographic area between where food is produced and where it is consumed. It encompasses the land that is used to grow the food, the routes the food travels, the markets it is purchased from, and finally the tables where it is eaten.

In today’s globalized world, our foodsheds can span the entire globe. In fact, most food products purchased at a grocery store travel an average of 1,300 miles before being consumed! OR it can travel from a local farm to a market to your home. 

Imagine the journey a jar of Italian tomato sauce takes to get to you. A farmer grows tomatoes on a farm in Italy – the tomatoes are driven in a truck to a processing plant where processed into sauce. Next, the jar is driven to a cargo ship on which it sails across the Atlantic Ocean. Then to another truck at the port, where it is delivered to a distribution center, and finally to a grocery store where it sits on a shelf. You then drive up to the store, pick up that world-traveling jar and bring it home for dinner. What a journey! 

When you go to the grocery store and purchase tomato sauce made in Italy, your foodshed is the size of half the planet and includes farmers in Italy, Italian roads, international cargo ships, roads in America, your grocery store, and finally your pantry shelf.

Now, let’s say you purchase tomato sauce from a vendor at a local farmers market. A local farmer here grows tomatoes on their farm. They drive the ingredients to a local commercial kitchen to process and can. Then they drive the finished jars to their stall at the farmers market and sell it to you. You can learn this person’s name, ask them about their growing and processing techniques, shake their hand. Your foodshed is only a few miles wide.

Why does this matter?

The choices we make to put food on the table really matters. Choosing to keep your foodshed as small as possible has huge benefits to your health, the environment, and local economy. Briefly:

• Improving food security: local food is secure. If an issue shuts down a food supply chain, local food needs to be an option. We need to strengthen our local food system to be resilient in this changing world.  
• Eating nutrient dense food: local farms produce more nutrient dense and healthier food due to their growing practices and the time from harvest to your table.
• Reducing carbon footprint: buying local reduces the amount of energy and resources needed to transport your food (see Italian tomato sauce example).
• Supporting Local Economy and small business: purchasing food from small farmers puts money into the local economy rather than big business. Local farmers create local jobs and make purchases from other local businesses, making our communities thrive.
• Protecting soil, water, and biodiversity: local farmers often practice regenerative farming techniques which maximize soil health and use less water for irrigation.
• Know your farmer: supporting a local farm is a great way to get to know the incredible people who grow your food.

How to keep your foodshed small?

• Check our food map to find local farms
• Shop at a local farmers market
• Get a CSA farm share
• Shop directly from a local farm stand or market