Having a local farm within a community can contribute positively to the community and the environment. In particular, Oxford College’s local farm run by Daniel Parson the farmer can serve as a nexus for community relationships to develop between individuals and the environment. Local farming has many benefits to the surrounding community including building relationships between people, cutting the costs of transportation and middle-men, connecting the dots between food on the farm and food on the plate, and protecting the environment from human degradation including greenhouse gases and energy inefficiency. Oxford is a food desert, meaning that there are more fast food chains and fewer grocery stores; it is easier to eat cheap, quick meals
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There is no universal definition, and the physical boundaries of a local food system are nowhere near as definite as a national food system. Local food is known for the short distance between food producers and consumers and may also include “certain social and production characteristics” concerning specific, fair treatment of the workers, sustainable methods of production, and the like. Greene and Haines say that an good definitional distance that local food would have to travel is roughly 100 to 200 miles. Local food is often associated with direct marketing from farm to consumers whether they be individuals or institutions like hospitals, schools, senior centers, or prisons. Some prime examples of direct-to-consumer markets include farm stands, farmers’ markets, and CSAs, or Community-Supported Agriculture, while convenience markets, supermarkets, and restaurants comprise direct-to-retailer sales. The shorter distance between producers and buyers allows transportation costs to be cut, which also reduces carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicles used to transport food. Direct sales remove the middlemen from the process who take a portion of the profits thus driving up …show more content…
Departments include the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture to name a few. These greatly influence the lower levels of food systems, such as the regional, local, and individual systems. While many citizens may not be able to influence the national government, we still hold a lot of personal freedom in making choices about what, where, and how much we eat. While the United States uses around half of its land for agriculture, it is also one of the leading countries in caloric intake per day along with Austria and Greece, about 1,500 calories more than the countries with the lowest caloric intake per day. So it comes with little surprise that America has high obesity rates, which have thankfully dropped in recent years, and large portion sizes especially in restaurants and fast food joints. Yet 15% or 3 out of 20 households in the United States still suffer from food insecurity and are unable to provide adequate food at some point in the year. Local food can help with lowering that statistic. Growing local, organic food on a community farm gives people many benefits including access to fresh, nutritious
There is no universal definition, and the physical boundaries of a local food system are nowhere near as definite as a national food system. Local food is known for the short distance between food producers and consumers and may also include “certain social and production characteristics” concerning specific, fair treatment of the workers, sustainable methods of production, and the like. Greene and Haines say that an good definitional distance that local food would have to travel is roughly 100 to 200 miles. Local food is often associated with direct marketing from farm to consumers whether they be individuals or institutions like hospitals, schools, senior centers, or prisons. Some prime examples of direct-to-consumer markets include farm stands, farmers’ markets, and CSAs, or Community-Supported Agriculture, while convenience markets, supermarkets, and restaurants comprise direct-to-retailer sales. The shorter distance between producers and buyers allows transportation costs to be cut, which also reduces carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicles used to transport food. Direct sales remove the middlemen from the process who take a portion of the profits thus driving up …show more content…
Departments include the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture to name a few. These greatly influence the lower levels of food systems, such as the regional, local, and individual systems. While many citizens may not be able to influence the national government, we still hold a lot of personal freedom in making choices about what, where, and how much we eat. While the United States uses around half of its land for agriculture, it is also one of the leading countries in caloric intake per day along with Austria and Greece, about 1,500 calories more than the countries with the lowest caloric intake per day. So it comes with little surprise that America has high obesity rates, which have thankfully dropped in recent years, and large portion sizes especially in restaurants and fast food joints. Yet 15% or 3 out of 20 households in the United States still suffer from food insecurity and are unable to provide adequate food at some point in the year. Local food can help with lowering that statistic. Growing local, organic food on a community farm gives people many benefits including access to fresh, nutritious