Katie is on vacation until late July. We’ll have a series of guest contributors filling in, and the first is Kimberly Hartke, publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation. Today she’s here to talk about the benefits of a local, traditional foods diet.

My husband and I have gone beyond organic in our quest for good health. We now buy 95% of our food from local farmers.

The Virginia Tech Extension Service did an analysis that showed if each household in the state spent just $10.00 a week on local foods, it would bring 1.65 billion dollars annually to the state economy. Just imagine, those of us who care about our health and the environment can make a big difference!

We can each help our nation move away from petroleum based fertilizers, curb pesticide use, improve our soils, and reduce our carbon footprint. All by going out of our way to support a local farmer.  And, we will eat better, regain self sufficiency, and improve our health.

Some will argue, “We can’t feed the world with local food.”

Frankly, I have concluded that these are excuses made by apologists for our current unsustainable industrial food system. For example, a Virginia Magazine reported that from 1965 to 1997 the number of dairy farms in Virginia declined by 97% from over 37,000 to only 1200; by 1999, there were a mere 996 – which means most of our milk is “imported” from elsewhere.

Of course we can’t feed ourselves if our number of farms are dramatically dropping, which is precisely why we need to change the food system and consciously support local agriculture.
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