Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
Connecting Farmers and Consumers in Lane County, Oregon
 

The 2008 Locally Grown Directories are here!  Look for them at the Eugene Library, the Visitor’s Center, the Chamber of Commerce, the Extension Service, several area restaurants, coffee shops, and natural food stores.  Stop by our office at 1192 Lawrence Street, or give us a call at 341-1216.

UPCOMING EVENTS

EAT HERE NOW: Local Foods Community Potluck

Saturday May 17^th

6-9pm

First United Community Church

(at 13th and Olive in Eugene)

$5-10

Bring a dish to share!

6:00      Network and mingle

6:30      Welcome and dinner

7:30      Urban Food Production Program

8:30      Dessert and more networking

The program focus will be on Urban Food Production and the line up of community groups presenting includes:

Eugene Permaculture Guild

City of Eugene Community Gardens

Grassroots Garden at St. Thomas Episcopal Church

Huerto de la Familia (The Family Garden)

The School Garden Project of Lane County

The Victory Gardens for All Project

Environmental Center of Sustainability’s Urban to Farm Connection Program

For more information, call 341-1216

Photograph by Jerome Seijan

Why Buy Locally Grown Food?

It is fresher, tastier and more nutritious. Local fruits and vegetables are fresher than produce grown half a continent away, harvested before it is ripe and then stored for long periods before you bring it home. Produce grown for large-scale commercial distribution is bred for shipping and long storage, not taste and texture. FoodRoutes reports that typical commercial produce can spend seven to 14 days in transit before reaching the supermarket. Double-blind studies show produce from farmers' markets consistently beats the conventional supermarket version in taste tests, reports the Worldwatch Institute. Says Cynthia Barstow in The Eco-Foods Guide: "Studies show a deep decline in nutritional value from the moment produce is plucked from the field. If you eat it within 24 hours, you get significantly more vitamins and phytochemicals."

It supports local farmers and keeps more of your food dollar working in your hometown. For every dollar a consumer spends on food, family farmers now receive 10 cents or less, compared to as much as 70 cents just a few decades ago. Buying locally grown food gets more money into the hands of the farmer who grows the food, and those local food dollars boost your hometown's economy, benefiting both you and your neighbor. Worldwatch says a dollar spent on local food generates nearly twice as much income for the local economy as a dollar spent in a corporate supermarket. Imagine if Saline County's 22,000 households each spent just $5 a week on locally grown food. An additional $5,270,000 each year would flow to local farmers and market gardeners, who would return much of that money back to your community.

It conserves energy and reduces output of greenhouse gases. The great distance that typical super-market food travels means more packaging (real waste) and more fuel use. An Iowa study compared the "food miles" of an Iowa meal comprising food from conventional national sources with a meal of local food. The conventional meal's food traveled an estimated average of 1,546 miles compared with only 45 miles for the local meal, according to the study, by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Depending on the type of transportation used, the conventional food system burned four to 17 times more fuel than the local system. Release of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, was five to 17 times greater for the conventional system than the local one.

It gives you a better picture of how your food is produced. Large-scale agriculture typically uses synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for growing crops, an increasing number of which are genetically modified. Antibiotics and hormones are routinely used in livestock production. A new book, Fatal Harvest, describes the problems posed: "Industrial agriculture is the largest single threat to the earth's biodiversity. Fence-row-to-fence-row plowing, planting and harvesting techniques decimate wildlife habitats, while massive chemical use poisons the soil and water, and kills off countless plant and animal communities." You as a consumer have no way of knowing how most supermarket food is grown. In contrast, local producers enjoy discussing their production practices and often invite people to tour their farms. This gives consumers a real connection to their food and offers them an opportunity to express preferences for how their food is produced.