Local Harvest and A Growing Trend Towards Local Food

PSFK has a post on Local Harvest, which is a social media and directory site designed to help consumers find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of organic and sustainably grown food.  They describe themselves as:

"Local Harvest is America's #1 organic and local food website. We maintain a definitive and reliable "living" public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. Our search engine helps people find products from family farms, local sources of sustainably grown food, and encourages them to establish direct contact with small farms in their local area. Our online store helps small farms develop markets for some of their products beyond their local area."   

A number of trends are converging around local food.  We've posted in the past on the growth of small farms and farmers markets and the emerging buy local coaltion of consumers - many of whom support local farms and farmers markets.  Social media sites like Local Harvest also make it much easier and more cost effective for small farmers to find and sell to consumers.  Being able to sell directly to consumers cuts distribution costs. 

But the key shift is farm product prices are rising rapidly.  The main driver for this demand from emerging economies like China and India.  Quote from the NY Times article A Global Need For Grain:

"The high growth rate (from emerging economies) means hundreds of millions of people are, for the first time, getting access to the basics of life, including a better diet. That jump in demand is helping to drive up the prices of agricultural commodities."

This is leading to prices increases in most food products and the ability for small farmers to price at a level that makes their business viable.  From the NY Times:

"Wheat prices have doubled in the last six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply."

When multiple trends converge, it tends to mean the converged trend is moving to the mainstream.  This appears to be happening with local food.

Comments

[poetryman69]

we are heard driven so it seems to me that we should look at the developing consequences of trends even if they look like good ones for good reasons.