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Local Food A Sustainable Choice

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

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Local Food A Sustainable Choice

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  1. Local Food A Sustainable Choice

  2. 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

  3. What’s Available?

  4. 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

  5. When is food available locally? • Generally, the season runs from June through October • Vegetannual • Harvest Calendar

  6. 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

  7. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations • Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole

  8. 3BL – Triple Bottom Line – 3 Legs of the Sustainability Stool • PEOPLE: Social Equity & Well Being • PLANET: Environmental Health/Protection/ Conservation • PROFIT: Economic Prosperity & Continuity

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. Why Eat Local? • HEALTH • ENVIRONMENT • LOCAL ECONOMY

  12. 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

  13. 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!

  14. ENVIRONMENT • Travels less • Maintain soil nutrients, crop varieties, rotation, grazing • Open space – keep farmers farming • Maintain our foodshed

  15. 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…

  16. Where? • 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!

  17. 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

  18. Pasta Example

  19. Local is a State of Mind

  20. Local Food is a Sustainable Choice Bridget Alexander Ferreira, Esq. Executive Director Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership, Inc. balexander@semaponline.org www.semaponline.org

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