Planning Proposal for Establishing a Local Food System in North Central North Carolina to Increase Food Self-Reliance

Urban Farm DB summary

A planning proposal for building a local food system in North Central North Carolina, United States, to increase food self-reliance. It notes there is no single accepted definition of "local food": the 2008 US Food, Conservation, and Energy Act treats products transported less than 400 miles from origin as locally or regionally produced, the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle defines local as traveling less than 100 miles, Whole Foods defines it as within 7 hours' drive of a store, and Walmart defines it as grown and sold within the same state. It reports that US direct-to-consumer local food sales reached $1.2 billion in 2007, the number of farmers' markets grew from 1,755 in 1994 to 5,274 in 2009, community-supported agriculture (CSA) organizations grew from 2 in 1986 to 1,144 in 2005, and farm-to-school programs grew from 2 in 1996 to more than 2,095 in 2009.