“The Low-Down on Local Foods,” a webcast
Professor Larry Lev recently participated as a speaker during “The Low-Down on Local Foods,” a webcast sponsored by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation and the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE). Lev focused his discussion on the question, “What does local mean?” In his presentation, he examined both the costs and the benefits of a more localized food system, and provided producers and consumers with a framework for considering the tradeoffs associated with the choices they face.
Oregon benefits from producing a diverse range of agricultural products. Different marketing systems should be viewed as providing another form of diversity to the state, and local markets have been one of the great success stories of recent decades. There is no universally accepted definition for the term local, and the phrase is broadly used, such that local can mean grown within a state or multi-state region, or can be defined on a smaller geographic area, such as by county. Individual grocery stores and farmers markets each have their own definitions.
Aside from the geographic definition, the term local often acts as a proxy for other product characteristics. These include how the products are produced, i.e. sustainably, by small farmers, and using humane animal practices, or they may be distinguished by how they are sold, i.e. through local markets, with a short supply-chain, or by type of marketing outlet. Additionally, there is a demand for local products because of their perceived quality, freshness, price, health benefits, support of the local economy, maintaining local farmland, fair treatment of farm labor, and reduced fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Lev pointed out those local products are not necessarily organic, as only seven percent of organic products flowed through direct-market channels in 2008.
Farmers' markets, a common outlet for locally grown products, have grown nationally by 250% in the last 16 years. There are many reasons for this, Lev said, as many consumers have come to regard food as a source of pleasure, entertainment, a means for building community, and a way to reduce environmental impact of consumption. Economically, local products generally deliver higher grower prices. Socially, local food systems are about more than commerce; they provide a sense of community, lifestyle, and culture. On an environmental level, local products may have more perceived benefits than actual; their food miles may be lower than conventional products transported from far away, but their carbon footprint may not be.
While demand for these products has been increasing, local products still represent only a small part of the food system. Though Oregon has a strong farm-direct sector, growth is limited by seasonality, inconvenience, consumer reluctance to buy some products such as meat and poultry at farmers’ markets, low producer returns, and thin markets. In fact, nationally, farm direct sales as a percentage of overall farm sales are just about the same as they were in 1982, after climbing back from a decline in the eighties and nineties. The greatest potential for growth in local agricultural products is in supermarkets, because mainstream distribution represents such an efficient way of selling products. In order to develop a profitable business, many farmers sell through multiple markets, as they can receive higher prices on some of what they produce at farmers markets, and also sell greater volumes through supermarkets.
The presence of local agricultural products and markets should be viewed as community assets. It is easy to underestimate the implications of their presence, Lev said, but they can serve as a draw for people to come to a community.
The webinar and associated materials can be found here: http://www.foodinsight.org/Resources/Detail.aspx?topic=Hot_Topic_The_Low_Down_on_Local_Foods_