Americans have learned how bad it is for our collective health, economy and climate to gorge on fattening artificial-food products, hormone and antibiotic-laced meats, and stale, tasteless produce — all trucked an average of 1,500 smog-spewing miles from warehouses to our supermarkets. We’ve also learned that our food system doesn’t have to operate solely that way.
We can, in a very real sense, return to our local food roots. We can rebuild and energize the frayed community-based market systems that once bonded local farmers and food producers with local consumers. In fact, citizens around the country who crave food that is healthier, fresher and tastier have turned with a passion to locally-grown food and the farmers and growers who produce it.
It is these trends that seeded the idea in Benwood Foundation almost two years ago to nurture a local-food initiative to help strengthen connections between area farmers and producers with area residents who want to eat better and be healthier.
The initiative, unveiled last Thursday, is called Gaining Ground — a metaphor that suggests the idea of preserving and expanding the reach of local farms and producers, and the community’s progress toward a more cohesive, healthier, sustainable marketplace for area residents, businesses and institutions to benefit from locally grown food.
Benwood’s contribution to improving and expanding the local food movement started with a comprehensive body of research on the public health benefits and the economic potential of expanding the regional marketplace for locally grown food. It also includes a grant of $1.65 million for a three-year program to help establish the farmer co-operatives, processing facilities, citizen initiatives and market-place work to facilitate the growth, quality, availability and use of local food in a range of venues.