College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Healthy Behaviors Translate into a Healthy Workplace
Tall, Hardy Grass May Be Energy Crop of the Future
Poultry Industry Steps Up Biosecurity Efforts
Student Team Debuts Decadent, Convenient Banana Dessert
Crop Improvement Technology Provides Benefits to Developing Countries
A Pearl of Wisdom for the Chesapeake
Getting to the Root of the Matter
Process Verification: A Boon for Beef-Cattle Producers
Microbiologist Works to Better China's Water Quality
Students Adopt Strawberry Mutants
Teaching Character and Learning from It, Too
Building Partnerships with Urban Boarding Schools
What Do Biodiesel and Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have in Common?
EQIPping Growers to Protect the Environment
Timely Notifications Ward Off Vegetable Foes
How Important Are Locally Grown Foods?
How Important Are Locally Grown Foods?
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There is no doubt that consumer interest in locally grown foods is at an all-time high. A conference in March 2008 on the effects of Virginia agriculture on local economies and health attracted more than 200 participants. Tom Stanley, agriculture and natural resources Extension agent in Augusta County, says he cannot drive on I-81 without seeing a bumper sticker in support of local foods. And new farmers markets are opening shop in communities that had no access to local foods only a year ago.
Although Virginia Cooperative Extension cannot take credit for all of the excitement surrounding the local foods movement, its campaign on behalf of local foods for the past year has generated considerable buzz among the commonwealth’s farmers and consumers.
“We are trying to be a linkage between farmers and the community in the region,” says Amber Vallotton, an agriculture and natural resources Extension agent in Rockingham County.
Extension agents and specialists met with farmers, restaurant owners, grocery store officials, university administrators, farmers market managers, and residents in the Shenandoah Valley to encourage them to buy and sell local foods. They used the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” branding campaign so consumers can identify food products grown in the region, and they distributed a local foods guide and other materials that explain the importance of Virginia-grown products and list where to find them. All of this work stems from research pointing to the benefits of local foods.
“From an economic perspective, encouraging the buying and consumption of local foods can have a positive impact on the local economy by recirculating and reinvesting dollars to local independent businesses,” says Eric Bendfeldt, community viability area specialist for the Virginia Cooperative Extension Northwest District.
Bendfeldt and his colleague Matt Benson, community viability area specialist for the Virginia Cooperative Extension Northern District, have a simple message for Virginians: Spend at least $10 per week on Virginia-grown food at a local farmers market or other vendor. If every household in the commonwealth followed this call to action, Virginians would invest more than $137 million back into local farms, independent businesses, and the community every month.
The economy is one of many driving forces behind the local foods movement. Consumers who buy local foods also:
- increase their family’s confidence in the foods they eat by purchasing from business they know and trust,
- minimize the distance that food travels from farm to table – reducing reliance on fossil fuels;
- preserve local farmland; and
- benefit from access to fresher foods.
“We are taking a holistic approach to local community food systems,” Vallotton says. “This work integrates every aspect of Extension from family and consumer sciences agents teaching Virginians how to incorporate local foods into their diet, to agriculture and natural resources agents helping farmers expand and find local vendors for their products, to 4-H agents teaching youth about locally grown foods. Of course, Extension’s community viability work ties all of this together.”
