1) Locally grown food tastes and looks better. There is no comparing tomatoes that ripened on the vine two days before with tomatoes that ripened in a truck a week earlier.
2) Local food is often better for you. The shorter the time between the farm and your table, the less likely it is that nutrients will be lost from fresh food.
3) Local food supports local families and neighbouring businesses. The agri-food sector is a huge economic driver in the province and supporting those who play into this sector helps keep our whole economy strong.
4) Local food builds our sense of community. When you buy directly from a local producer, you're helping maintain the age-old connection between eater and grower.
Barrie’s Asparagus knows what we’re talking about.
5) Local food provides employment in the agri-food sector – the more we grow, process, and pack here, the more people we need for it!
6) Supporting local food helps to preserve Ontario’s vibrant and rich open spaces. When food producers make a good profit for their products by marketing locally, they're less likely to sell farmland for development. This land has many benefits for our health and environment, by sustaining vital ecosystems, natural heritage, and wildlife.
Pst: We in Ontario are fortunate enough to have the Greenbelt to preserve prime farmland and green spaces, so that
everyone can enjoy clean air, water, soil, and food!
7) When managed properly, local food systems use less fuel and energy when delivered to you. Developing more sustainable market systems helps us minimize the impacts of climate change as a team!
8) Local food is an investment in the future. By supporting local farmers today, you are helping to ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow.
9) Local food is a smart business move. Consumers and chefs are demanding more and more local food, so marketing your business as a ‘local food business’ makes you more attractive to your clients.
10) With prime agricultural land across Ontario (including the Greenbelt’s Holland Marsh, the Niagara Region, the many greenhouses across the province, and the rest of the 5 million hectares of farms), and innovative food processors, Ontario has some of the best food anyway. Why would you choose anything else?
- Madeline Ritchie, Program Assistant
