The local foods movement is harvesting success for farmers and growing jobs for American workers.
A report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Resource Service had a bushel of good news for farmers and “locavores,” the nickname for folks who eat locally produced grub.
“The market for local food -- food that is produced, processed, distributed and sold within a specific region, say a radius of several hundred miles –- is growing,” wrote USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, commenting on the ERS report in her blog.
“Large, small and midsized farms are all tapping into it. Even better, new data suggest that these producers are employing more workers than they would be if they weren’t selling into local and regional markets,” Merrigan added.
Local food sales in 2008 totaled nearly $5 billion, according to the report. Sales to food distributors and restaurants accounted for much of that commerce, which is dominated by large farms.
But sales from small and mid-sized farms directly to consumers, typified by iconic roadside veggie stands and farmers markets, also grew by 215 percent between 1992 and 2007.
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Altogether, approximately 40 percent of all fruit, vegetable and nut growers, totaling nearly 110,000 farms, in the U.S. now sell to local and regional markets. Although many of those farms also sell to larger markets, their operators reported to the USDA that local markets account for 61 percent of their sales.
Those myriad local farms also employ more workers per farm than agricultural operations focused on national and international markets.
“One out of every 12 jobs in the U.S. is associated with agriculture, and local food plays a role in that,” commented Merrigan.
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“The ERS report finds that fruit and vegetable farms selling into local and regional markets employ 13 full-time workers per $1 million in revenue earned, for a total of 61,000 jobs in 2008. In comparison, fruit and vegetable farms not engaged in local food sales employ three full-time workers per $1 million in revenue,” Merrigan continued.
IMAGES:
Image: "Farmer With Pitchfork, Winslow Homer. (Wikimedia Commons).
Image: Young boy tending freshly stocked fruit and vegetable stand at Center Market. (USDA, Wikimedia Commons).
Tags: Food, Food Chain, Food Unwrapped
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