Local Food - Contemporary Local Food Market

Contemporary Local Food Market

The USDA included statistics about the growing local food market in the leaflet released in May 2010. The statistics are as follows; "Direct-to-consumer marketing amounted to $1.2 billion in current dollar sales in 2007, according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, compared with $551 million in 1997. Direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 0.4 percent of total agricultural sales in 2007, up from 0.3 percent in 1997. If nonedible products are excluded from total agricultural sales, direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 0.8 percent of agricultural sales in 2007. The number of farmers’ markets rose to 5,274 in 2009, up from 2,756 in 1998 and 1,755 in 1994, according to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. In 2005, there were 1,144 community-supported agriculture organiza- tions (CSAs) in operation, up from 400 in 2001 and 2 in 1986, according to a study by the nonprofit, nongovernmental organization National Center for Appropriate Technology. In early 2010, estimates exceeded 1,400, but the number could be much larger. The number of farm to school programs, which use local farms as food suppliers for school meals programs, increased to 2,095 in 2009, up from 400 in 2004 and 2 in the 1996-97 school year, according to the National Farm to School Network. Data from the 2005 School Nutrition and Dietary Assessment Survey, sponsored by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, showed that 14 percent of school districts participated in Farm to School programs, and 16 percent reported having guidelines for purchasing locally grown produce."

Networks of local farmers and producers are now collaborating together in the UK, in Europe as well as in Canada and in the US to provide on-line farmers markets to customers. In this way, more consumers can now buy locally on-line, when they cannot attend a local farmers market. This also provides local farmers and producers another route to market, harvest only what has been ordered, provide the consumer the absolute freshest produce, and keep overheads low as website costs are shared. Consumers have access to a huge inventory of farmers and their products, without having to be locked into buying whatever a CSA provides.

Examples of this are: Tastes of Anglia in the UK, BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), and the 30 Mile Meal Project in the US.

Supermarkets are beginning to tap into the local foods market as well. Walmart announced plans in 2008 to spend $400 million during that year on locally grown produce Wegman's, a 71-store chain across the northeast, has purchased local foods for over 20 years as well. In their case, the produce manager in each store controls the influx of local foods-the relationships with the local farms are not centrally controlled. A recent study led by Miguel Gomez, a professor of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and supported by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future found that in many instances, the supermarket supply chain did much better in terms of food miles and fuel consumption for each pound compared to farmers markets. It suggests that selling local foods through supermarkets may be more economically viable and sustainable than through farmers markets.