August 7, 2008

Buying local is good for you, good for your community

CHARLOTTESVILLE—The benefits of buying fresh, locally grown foods are obvious on the family dinner table. But they extend much farther.

That’s what speakers emphasized at an Aug. 6 news conference at which Virginia Farm Bureau launched a new awareness campaign, Save Our Food, at the weekly Farmers in the Park market at Meade Park. The event was timed to mark Virginia’s Farmers’ Market Week, which will run through Saturday.

The state has 134 known farmers’ markets, according to Matt Benson, a community viability specialist for Virginia Cooperative Extension.

“There is a huge market potential for fresh fruits and vegetables, and many Virginia consumers are already taking advantage of those opportunities,” Benson said. “Additionally, many Virginia farmers are finding their sales of fresh fruits and vegetables are growing as they tap into the fresh-and-local trend.”

As Charlottesville residents shopped behind him for fresh tomatoes, sweet corn and cantaloupes, Benson cited a study conducted in Iowa that found 72 percent of that state’s farmers’ market sales were generated by five urban markets. He also cited the 2002 Census of Agriculture finding that Virginia farmers sold $16.8 million worth of foods directly to consumers in that year.

“From this,” he said, “we asked, ‘What if?’”—specifically what if each Virginia household annually spent $10 a week on Virginia-grown and Virginia-produced food and other farm products?

According to Extension estimates, those purchases would directly add $1.65 billion to the state’s economy.

In the Charlottesville area, Benson said, that could add $50.6 million to the local economy. In the Roanoke Valley, it could add $65.2 million; in the Richmond area, $203 million; and in the Fredericksburg area, $15.4 million.

“As you can tell by these numbers, expanding the sale of locally grown foods in Virginia has tremendous potential to boost local farm income—and thereby help more of our hard-pressed farmers stay on their land and remain profitable,” Benson said.

Farm Bureau’s Save Our Food campaign was created to encourage consumers to buy local and American foods whenever possible and to recognize the wealth of safe, fresh, locally grown products available in Virginia.

Jonah Bowles, agricultural risk management coordinator for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, noted that Americans pay less for their food than citizens of any other developed nation. But, as a nation, he said, “we may be approaching the tipping point where we’ve become so efficient at shipping in cheaper imported food that we risk pushing out the last of our own farmers. There are real, tangible risks when we start depending on outsiders to produce that most basic of all commodities, food.”

He noted the recent salmonella scare linked to Mexican-grown peppers, as well as the mad cow disease scare traced to cattle brought into the United States from Canada.

“Say what you will about the limitations of our food safety and regulation system,” Bowles said. “It’s still the best in the world. We have food safety scares, but we found the causes. Do we really want to turn the supply of our food over to other countries?”

The marketplace will always seek the lowest price, Bowles said, and consumers will always be attracted to low prices for food, “but as we’ve seen at farmers’ markets all across Virginia, many, many consumers also value the quality and taste of locally-grown foods—and are willing to pay a little extra for them. These folks already agree with what we’re promoting here today. They’re willing to help Save Our Food.”

Farm Bureau will hold three additional Save Our Food events at farmers’ markets: Aug. 8 in Roanoke, Aug. 14 in Hanover County and Aug. 15 in Fredericksburg. The organization also has launched a new Web site at SaveOurFood.org.

Contact Greg Hicks, VFBF communications director, at 804-290-1139 or Kelly Pruitt, VFBF special projects coordinator, at 804-290-1134.