Spending on food prepared at home peaks in November and December, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That makes sense, since many home cooked meals are shared among family and friends during the holiday season. When sourcing ingredients for those meals, we have an opportunity to act on our values, by buying local food.
Local food is a powerful proxy for so many things that Vermonters value.
We value food that tastes good, looks good, is safe and nutritious. These values are widely considered when people shop for food. You could call them kitchen table values. They focus on direct connections to food: our experience preparing and eating it, and how it affects our health.
A different set of values that many of us share relate to the larger world. You could call them community values. They focus on environmental health, economic vitality, and quality of life.
We value food that’s made in a way that protects clean air, clean water, and healthy soil. We value humane treatment of animals raised on farms. We value food that helps farmers make a decent income and contributes to our local economy. And we value human rights and belonging for farm workers.
We value local food not just because it’s nearby, but because it’s highly aligned with our values. Vermont farmers and the people they employ work hard to honor these values. The evidence is clear, because local food production and sourcing is very transparent.
Between honest labeling, rigorous state regulations, seeing our farms as we drive by them, and knowing our agricultural producers as community members, we have a lot information about how and where local food is produced, and by whom.
That’s usually not the case with food from farther afield. Distance gets in the way of transparency. The how, where, and who of food production is often invisible, barely mentioned, or distorted by advertising.
Buying local food is a vote for transparency about what we eat. It’s an investment in farmers that care about the things we care about. It’s also a down payment on resiliency.
When our brittle national food system is challenged—by a pandemic-interrupted supply chain, by a foodborne illness outbreak, or by who knows what in the future, perhaps lack of water out west, or exorbitant fuel costs—we turn to our local farms for sustenance. Buying local food supports food security.
Buying more local food is a clear way to strengthen Vermont’s agriculture.
According to the most recent Local Food Count, Vermonters spend about $2.5 billion on food (and alcohol) served at home, $290 million of which is for local products. Imagine if we doubled our spending on local food. That would redirect many millions of dollars toward the financial viability of our farms and food processors, and their capacity to do good things.
Clearly, not everyone can afford to buy local food because it often costs more than food produced by large-scale national and global entities. A lot of people have to prioritize low prices. But a lot of other people can afford to pay a bit more to support a healthier food system. The relatively small local food premium pays for so many things that have value, beyond the food itself.
Local farms contribute to the beauty of Vermont. Views of fields and forests have a lot to do with $4 billion of tourism revenue that flows through the state every year. Buying local food supports our working landscape.
Buying local food also supports our natural landscape. Vermont farms not only have crops and animals, but they also have forests and hedgerows and wetlands and unmanaged spaces. Buying local food supports ecological diversity, pollinators, and wildlife habitat.
Buying local food endorses the commitment Vermont farmers have made to the future of our state’s agriculture. Almost 200,000 acres of farmland are under conservation easement, so that land will always be available for growing food.
Buying local food supports renewable energy, because over a thousand Vermont farms are home to solar and wind systems, and manure digesters. Buying local food reduces our reliance on fossil fuels.
Buying local food increases access to healthy food for families in need. Vermont farms provide thousands of pounds of fresh food to local food banks every year.
Buying local food is a vote for the underdog. Our food producers are Davids in a system that favors Goliaths through advantages like relatively low-cost transportation, and lack of accountability for depletion of aquifers and over-reliance on agricultural chemicals. Local food producers are also up against big corporate marketing budgets.
So, buying local food is an act of resistance to what’s broken in our food system. And it’s not just about being against something, it’s about being for something: a delicious, nutritious, economically beneficial, and environmentally rational alternative to the mainstream food system.
