One More Reason to Eat Local: It’s the Economy, Stupid
- Topics:
- Blog, Local Food, Organic Food & Farming
Friday, February 5th, 2010, 1:36 PM
One question that comes up when we talk about increasing local food production is: will it boost the local economy and create good jobs? New research from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture shows that it could.
Researchers looked at 10 counties in southwest Iowa and found that increasing fruit and vegetable production could bring “an additional $2.67 million in labor income and the equivalent of 45 farm-level jobs to the region” during Iowa’s typical growing season. Pretty impressive.
This is the kind of research the sustainable, local food movement really needs to push new policies and initiatives forward.
– Kate
