Freshness, Taste and Nutrition – Local food tastes better!
Local Economy and Community – Local food and farming are key economic generators for communities and Ontario!
Climate and Environment - Reduce food miles and take a bite out of climate change three times a day.
Health and Food Safety – Eat healthy, safe local food to support Ontario’s food security.
Farmland Preservation and Food Security – If farms are economically viable, that will preserve farmland and support the rural life.
Celebrate - Local food brings people together, enhances a sense of community, and it is revitalizing rural life.
1. Freshness, Taste and Nutrition
The produce you buy at a farm or farmers’ market (or grow in your own garden) has likely been picked in the last day or two. It is has fully ripened on the plant and is bursting with flavour and nutrition. Furthermore, fresh food usually contains fewer preservatives (which are applied to food that has to withstand long travel times), which means you are consuming a more natural and wholesome product. This improved quality extends beyond produce and also applies to local meats, eggs, baked goods, preserves, honey and more.
2. Support Local Economy and Community
When you purchase food from a local farmer or local business, the money you spend stays in the local economy and helps to strengthen the economy and community ties.
Food and farming are the roots of sustainable near-urban and rural communities. Supporting the local food and farming system helps make our communities more sustainable – economically, socially, environmentally and culturally.
The local multiplier effect means that 45 cents of every dollar spent locally is reinvested in the community, ensuring that you maximize impact. (Yes Magazine, 2010 http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/go-local/the-local-multiplier-effect) This reinvestment supports not only businesses, but community organizations.
There are 11.5 million people eating in Ontario. If 5 million Ontarians spent $10 of their grocery budget on local foods each week, there would be a $3 billion influx into the local economy each year. ( Based on research by Lewis A. Soroka, Professor of Economics, Brock University, lsoroka@brocku.ca - through Sustain Ontario)
3. Climate and Environmentally Friendly Diets
It is hard to miss all the attention being given to climate change, peak oil, peak water, peak fish, and peak soil- just about peak everything as our toll on the planet rises. We can all be part of the solution simply by eating locally grown and produced foods.
Eating local reduces the distance that food travels (food miles) and the emissions produced during transportation, thereby resulting in a smaller carbon/ecological footprint or “foodprint”. This helps us to take a BITE out of climate change!
A 2005 Study of food miles in Waterloo Region made the following conclusions on food miles:
- Imports to Waterloo Region of 58 commonly-eaten food items travel 4,497 km on average, and account for 51,709 tonnes of GHG emissions annually. Since all of the studied food items could be grown or raised in Waterloo Region, a significant opportunity exists to reduce our contribution to global climate change and air pollution by replacing imports of the studied food items with food items sourced from Waterloo Region or South-western Ontario. Replacing all the studied food items with products of South-western Ontario would produce an annual reduction in GHG emissions of 49,485 tonnes, equivalent to taking 16,191 cars off our roads. Strategies to strengthen to the local food system and make purchasing local food more convenient for consumers have the potential to reduce the environmental impact of food miles in Waterloo Region.” (Region of Waterloo Public Health, “Food Miles: Environmental Implications of Food Imports to Waterloo Region”, November 2005)
Other research has come to the following conclusions on Reducing “Food Miles” and Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
- A 2005 report by FoodShare in Toronto compared a basket of local fruits and vegetables (from a farmers’ market) to imported fruits and vegetables (from the supermarket) and found that the local produce travelled an average of 101 km to reach the consumer, whereas the imported produce travelled an average of 5,364 km to reach the consumer. The basket of local products contributed 118.67 grams of CO2 emissions, whereas the basket of imported products contributed 11,886.867 grams of CO2 emissions or 100 times more (Foodshare - Bentley, S. ” Fighting Global Warming at the Farmers’ Market: The Role of Local Food Systems in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, 2005)
- A study by the Worldwatch Institute in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.
In addition to eating locally, other ways to ensure your diet is climate friendly include:
- Eat with the Seasons
- Shop Local
- Cook fresh
- Eat more plants
- Grow Your Own
- Savour the harvest
- Local Alternatives
- Avoid food waste
(Caledon Countryside Alliance, “Take a Bite Out of Climate Change Pledge”, 2009)
4. Health and Food Safety
When you make an effort to eat local food, it often means that you eat a healthier diet with more vegetables and fruits, fewer processed foods, and more food that is fresh and at its nutritional peak.
Currently, Ontario food is grown and produced to some of the highest food safety standards in the world. This is an excellent reason for choosing local, Ontario food.
5. Farmland Preservation and Food Security
By supporting local farmers, you are helping to maintain their livelihoods and keep local farming viable and sustainable. It also helps that when you buy directly from the farmer, they see 100% of the profits!
With small farmers struggling to maintain their livelihood and development pressures looming, the preservation of farmland in the Caledon area (and on a broader scale, Ontario) depends on our support for local farmers. We need to preserve our farmland, farms and farmers so that we do not sacrifice our ability to feed ourselves into the future. It is fairly easy to take food security for granted when grocery store shelves are overflowing (primarily with imported foods of course). But with each tract of prime agricultural land that is paved over, we are undermining our own sustainability in the face of future scenarios such as peak oil, border closures, and climate change and so on…
The good news is that the local food movement continues to gain momentum and has the power to reverse the status quo. Even better news is that doing your part is simple and fun! Just think of it this way: eating locally is a “three-times-a-day” step in the right direction!
6. Celebrate
Local food brings people together, enhances a sense of community, and it is revitalizing rural life. Now that is something to celebrate!
