« FDA approves US production of milk production supplement | Main | Choosing sustainable does not always mean choosing organic »
March 20, 2006
Find local farmers and support them!
The New York Times has a great short article about how taxes and competition from industrial farms makes it hard for small farmers to survive. It means that many of the children of these family farmers are moving on into other professions that pay better. Farms that have been in families for decades are at risk from these forces. But why does this all matter?
Because families are invested in the long-term viability of their land, whereas corporations are only focused on short term profits. By shopping local at places like farmers markets, or roadside stands, you not only support local farming and contribute to your local economy, but you also help the environment by not supporting factory farming practices, and also conserve fossil fuels (since much produce and meat travels many miles before reaching your plate).
It's not that the younger generation doesn't want to farm, it's just that the current way our government and markets work makes it difficult or impossible for them to try and start farming. Add on top of this the fact that most consumers don't realize a value or difference in shopping local and organic, and you have a very difficult environment for neighborhood farmers.
Posted by at March 20, 2006 04:50 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.sustainabletable.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/451
Comments
I too have checked out local harvest, and it has tons of listings. I have also heard that some of the listings are not up to date, and some are not accurate so it's good to keep that in mind when searching.
The Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org) is a great resource for finding local meat and dairy farmers, though they don't focus on finding local produce. This is a project of Sustainable Table. I can say that the EWG is religiously updated daily buy our staff, so it may be the most accurate database so far, but there are many farmers who haven't listed there yet.
It seems that the options for finding local and sustainable food are indeed growing, but there's a long way to go as well. Perhaps the best way to find out about local sustainable food is to track down farmers markets, or just ask around locally. If you find a farmer, take a moment to post it online somewhere so others don't have to duplicate the investigation.
Posted by: mattmills at March 21, 2006 10:15 AM
I like to encourage people to use LocalHarvest.org. You just plug in your zip code, and you can find farms, CSAs, farmers markets, restaurants, and more.
(http://www.localharvest.org)
(Also, visit my blog about small farms--I love them.)
Posted by: Tana at March 20, 2006 09:54 PM
I was wondering, what in your opinion is the best local-farm database online? I've searched around and did several zip code tests on each of them to see which one lists the most overall, and in my limited quick study I found the best to be Local Harvest ( http://www.localharvest.org ). However, I don't know what factors to play in because some of the listings look really really old, and may be outdated... I just wish there was a more agressively updated database somewhere. Locally, here in Maine, the best place to get some of the most complete listings is the official Maine Department of Agriculture local food campaign "Get Real Get Maine - http://www.getrealmaine.com " but their search is archaic and not as configurable and dynamic as far as getting a useful list based on zip code and distance... However, they do provide a really really really good set of brochures listing all of the farms, farmers markets, mail-orders, csa's, apple orchards, maple season, what-have-you, in handy little booklets updated yearly. 2nd in line would probably be "MOFGA - http://www.mofga.org ", which I've been told had a near-complete listing, but again archaic in it's dynamic abilities.
But again, those are only local listings... Am I unaware of some larger database that can link some of the best ones together, and if so please do suggest away.
I also wonder what would be the best way to advertise local farms... I've thought of standing out on freeways and sticking phrases like "Local Food Not Foreign Oil - http://foodnotoil.blogspot.com/2005/10/local-food-not-foreign-oil.html " or going to supermarkets and slipping informational posters inside magazines and newspapers ( http://foodnotoil.0moola.com/fnord/agroterrorism.pdf & http://foodnotoil.0moola.com/fnord/politricks.pdf ) that try and shock people and start a decentralized movement that urges people to pass allong some of the information or participate in similar activities by offering printable posters on a website. I'm sure there are other more effective ways of informing & engaging people, but I just don't know what that is yet. It's hard to get people's attention for 5 seconds let alone 3-5 minutes to read a page and actually care about what's going on.
Posted by: Francis Scully at March 20, 2006 08:19 PM