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Local foods hold promise
By Tom Vilsack
From local farmers markets to regional food hubs, new opportunities in local and regional food marketing benefit a wide range of Americans from all walks of life.
They benefit farmers and ranchers — including those just starting out in agriculture — who are looking to sell locally or scale up to regional sales. Sales of local foods are growing rapidly, creating a multibillion-dollar market opportunity for producers.
American families interested in buying local benefit as well. Under the Obama administration, we have helped to create more than 2,800 new farmers markets that give families additional options in buying local foods. In many areas of high poverty, low food security or limited access to healthy, fresh produce, farmers markets provide low-income parents with an important way to put healthy food on the plate for their families.
By more than doubling the availability of EBT technology in farmers markets — and supporting more than 450 projects to help farmers markets expand and grow — USDA has focused on amplifying these benefits for families.
We also are entering into new partnerships with communities, leveraging local agriculture to address food insecurity. For example, just last week, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced a series of “Community Food Projects ()” that will empower organizations across the country to expand community-based agriculture. In Youngstown, USDA provided funding to partner with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. This effort will convert under- utilized land into a new urban farm, which will also serve as a training facility to help folks develop business skills.
We will also keep up our effort to work with school administrators and districts to ensure healthy food access during the school day. Across the nation, USDA is working with school districts under our Farm to School program, helping districts establish relationships with producers. During the 2011-2012 school year, school districts purchased and served more than $350 million in local foods — and that number is set to grow as we undertake even more efforts to support Farm to School projects.
Local food market
To help show the rapid growth of the local food market across the nation, USDA created the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass () — an online tool illustrating the many places USDA has supported these opportunities nationwide.
USDA also continues urging Congress to pass a new Farm Bill as soon as possible. The Farm Bill would enable our continued efforts to grow farmers markets and food hubs, while expanding healthy food access for low-income Americans and kids in our schools.
Local and regional marketing opportunities hold great promise for folks in Ohio and across the nation. They’re helping our producers grow and thrive. They’re bringing fresh foods to underserved areas. They’re helping our kids get good nutrition at school. We won’t let up in expanding local and regional marketing opportunities for Americans, and I’m proud to count folks in Youngstown as partners in this effort.
Tom Vilsack is U.S. secretary of agriculture.