Farm Fresh Food The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative focuses on strengthening local farms and producers by creating partnerships with local restaurants, institutions and the community. LLF along with the Coastal Conservation League envisions a strong regional food system incorporating a diversity of rural farms and a robust urban farming component that preserves ecosystems, reduces pollution, promotes social justice, provides education about the environment, and invigorates rural and urban local economies. By bringing producers and consumers to the same table we are promoting a close connection between you and those in our community who grow your food.

 

1. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

 

2. Locally grown produce is fresher. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time.

 

3. Local food just plain tastes better. Anyone who has ever eaten a John’s Island tomato knows this!

 

4. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be "rugged" or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

 

5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creating environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

 

6. Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.

 

7. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the farmer who brings local greens to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal.

 

8. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.

 

9. Eating local food and supporting local farmers and producers helps us to maintain the character of the region in which we live.

 

10. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

 

Buy Local is a grassroots campaign designed to educate Lowcountry residents to Think Local when they are considering where to make purchases, to Buy Local whenever possible and to Be Local by supporting businesses that keep our community unique. We want to increase market share to independent, locally owned businesses by increasing awareness about the personal and community benefits of choosing local.

 

This will be a multi-year campaign, with an initial focus on restaurants, retail and service businesses.

 

The objectives of the campaign are to: