Support for local food = job creation

Union of Concerned Scientists

Jay Blazek Crossley, Aug 10, 11.

Local governments can create local jobs by comprehensively supporting an increase in the role of local food in the local food system, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

While critics charge that farmers’ markets seem to only serve the affluent, the study shows how support of local food systems creates a variety of jobs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Modest public funding for a couple hundred otherwise-unsuccessful farmers markets could generate 13,500 jobs over a five-year period.

Farmers markets need managers, for one. And once people start shopping on foot at the markets, they often shop at nearby local businesses as well.

The Union of Concerned Scientists recommends the following strategies to recognize the potential benefits found in this report:

Congress and the USDA, in coordination with other relevant agencies, should increase funding for programs that support local and regional food systems.
The USDA, together with academic and other policy institutes, should raise the level of research on the impacts of local and regional food systems, particularly regarding their expansion.
Congress and the USDA should restructure the safety net and ensure credit accessibility for local-food-system farmers.
Local governments and community organizations should foster local capacity to help implement local and regional food-system plans.
Farmers market administrators should support the realization of farmers market certification standards.