Transcript Local Food A Sustainable Choice WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM? • The Grocery Store? • A Box? • A Bag? • Grown or raised by.

Local Food
A Sustainable Choice
WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD
COME FROM?
• The Grocery Store?
• A Box?
• A Bag?
• Grown or raised by farmers from the soil, the
land, and living animals
What’s Available?
Ag in Southeastern Mass
• Including Bristol, Barnstable, Plymouth, and
Norfolk Counties
• 2,329 farms stewarding over 105,000 acres of
land.
• Market value of ag products sold = $154 Million
• Value of direct sales to consumers = $5 Million
• Mass is #2 in Nation for Direct Sales – Farm to
Consumer
When is food available locally?
• Generally, the season runs from June through
October
• Vegetannual
• Harvest Calendar
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
– Satisfy human food & fiber needs
– Enhance environmental quality and the
natural resource base upon which the
agricultural economy depends
– Make the most efficient use of
nonrenewable resources and on-farm
resources
• Sustain the economic viability of farm
operations
• Enhance the quality of life for farmers and
society as a whole
• 3BL – Triple Bottom Line – 3 Legs of the
Sustainability Stool
– PEOPLE: Social Equity &
Well Being
– PLANET: Environmental
Health/Protection/
Conservation
– PROFIT: Economic
Prosperity & Continuity
Industrial Farming/Agribusiness vs. Smaller
Family Owned Farms – Massachusetts Farms…
• Extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers vs.
none, moderate, minimal – access to the grower
to ask what is used on the crops, safer for
farmers/labor
• External energy inputs – uses more vs. less
energy usage, perhaps more likely to utilize EE/RE
• Cheap labor vs. Few workers, just family, getting
paid more/a living wage
• Confined and concentrated systems in terms
of livestock vs. Free range, grass fed, few
animals, little or no use of antibiotics – access
to farmer to ask or see what conditions were
kept in
• Bottom Line vs. Triple Bottom Line
Why Eat Local?
– HEALTH
– ENVIRONMENT
– LOCAL ECONOMY
HEALTH
• Locally grown produce is fresher, has longer to
ripen
• Just plain tastes better & If it tastes better you
will WANT to eat it!!!
• Spend $ on healthy food to stay healthy now –
instead of $ on healthcare because you’re not
healthy later
• Stay in touch with the seasons & get to know
your neighbors – a connected person is a
happy person, is a healthy person!
• Access to the farm/farmers/growers – you can
get connected to where your food comes from
• Buying Whole Foods (unprocessed) then you
need to cook = family dinners! = healthy,
happy, connected families!
ENVIRONMENT
• Travels less
• Maintain soil nutrients, crop varieties,
rotation, grazing
• Open space – keep farmers farming
• Maintain our foodshed
ECONOMY
• Money spent locally stays local and grows
exponentially
– Local farmers, growers, producers put the money
back into the local economy
– And so it grows…
Where?
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On-line Farm Guide – www.SEMAPonline.org
Farmers Markets
Farm Stands
CSA/Fs
Local & Independent Grocery
Stores
Restaurants & Bakeries
Schools…working on it…
Caterers & Private Chefs
Your Own Backyard! GROW YOUR OWN!
How?
– 10% Challenge
– Localize Your Favorite Recipes!
– Cook with the Harvest Calendar
– Farm tours
– Family Dinners http://casafamilyday.org/familyday/ - A DAY TO
EAT DINNER WITH YOUR CHILDREN – Monday,
September 26, 2011
Pasta Example
Local is
a State of Mind
Local Food is a Sustainable Choice
Bridget Alexander Ferreira, Esq.
Executive Director
Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural
Partnership, Inc.
[email protected]
www.semaponline.org