Eat our veggies, stimulate economy

Jun 2, 2011

Not only is it healthy to eat locally-grown food from peaches to pecans to chicken, but it makes good economic and environmental sense.

A recent study by the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development shows that if each Georgia household spent $10 weekly buying local food, nearly $2 billion would flow back into the state’s economy.  Similar results could be expected throughout the South.

Unfortunately, 80 percent of what we spend on food comes from outside the state, according to a story by Susan Varlamof, director of the Office of Environmental Sciences and a Master Gardener at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.  But locally-grown food is making it to local tables more and more, particularly since some of the larger grocers are working to put it on their shelves.

“Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed expects to ‘bring local food within 10 minutes of 75 percent of all residents by 2020′ as part of his sustainability plan, Varlamoff wrote in a May 31 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  “The Beltline master plan now includes farms and community gardens. Clients in the city’s largest homeless shelter, Atlanta Mission, are growing some of their vegetables in raised beds on land adjacent to their facility.  Shoppers have a cornucopia of local food choices. Georgia is a big state with soils and climates that allow farmers to grow a variety of food year-round.”