In the past, I've quoted research studies that have shown the following:
When you shop at a big-box store, $14 out of $100 stays in the community.When you shop at a locally-owned store, $45 out of $100 stays in the community.
That's wonderful, right? Three times the money stays in our communities. But it gets better.
It wasn't until today that I found the stats for what is returned to the community when you buy direct from the farmer.
Get this.
When you buy direct from your farmer, $62 out of $100 stays in the community!
That's 4.5 times that of buying at a big box store and 1.4 times that of buying at a locally owned store.
Want a healthy local economy? Buy locally (and direct from the farmer as often as you can)!
A big THANKS to Crunchy Chicken who posted the stat on her website. I was able to contact the Eat Local for Thanksgiving campaign contact for a copy of the full report. Check it out here.
Go local!
7 comments:
How cool. Sadly ours is very small and not open year around. :(
I'm sure the numbers are equally good for CSAs. Members of our CSA not only get their produce (including vegs, fruit, beans, and grains) locally, they have the option to also buy local animal products, honey, tea, coffee, and a few other foods.
A quick perusal of the study didn't yield the % of a dollar spent with a CSA that stays local but it did say that in the NW CSAs often have to supplement from other farms to fill their boxes. Ours doesn't and all the other optional purchases come from local area farmers.
It'd be interesting to see what the numbers are for backyard gardens. After all, many times the seeds and supplements come from out of town...
Lisa - Do you have a year round growing season there or are you too far north?
Chile - I'd bet the numbers are the same for CSA since the idea is that you're buying direct from a farmer. I haven't made it through the entire document yet, but am really looking forward to digging in. What great info!
I love shopping at the Farmer's Market also, but ours is only open part of the year also. Fortunately, we are able to can some of this stuff for winter time use.
Ben - Good for you! I know I'd do WAY more canning if we didn't have access to local food year-round. I still do lots of soups, corn, pasta sauce, and jams. What did you normally can for the winter?
Well, we are new at it, but we have tomatoes, applesauce and a little bit of corn this year. Next year we are going to go at it full boar. Fresh stuff rules. :)
Ben - Absolutely. Enjoy the wonderful adventure!
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