First Day at the Saturday Farmers’ Market
Yesterday Transition Colorado had our first full presence at the Boulder Farmers’ Market, with our brand new 10’ x 10’ EZ-Up tent. For Lynette Marie and me, it felt really good—and strangely appropriate—to be there right next to the Farmers’ Market’s own booth.
A little jealous, a founder of another non-profit organization asked us, “How did you get such a placement here?” After all, non-profits are generally relegated to a 5’ x 5’ space at the Market, and most are limited to a card table and some signage. And only four non-profits are allowed at a time, as space is at a premium for farmers and vendors—and it is of course for them that the Market exists in the first place.
Lynette Marie’s quick reply was, “Well, it took us five years to get to this point.” Truth is, while we’ve been working on food localization for several years, we’re finally at the Farmers’ Markets in both Boulder and Longmont because BCFM has recently become the very first sponsor of our 10% Local Food Shift Pledge, a unique program designed to encourage Boulder County residents to shift up to 10 percent of their food purchases to locally-sourced food.
We’re considering setting a goal for the 10% Pledge of 5,000 people and businesses signing over the next year (by July 30, 2012). Based on experience elsewhere (especially in North Carolina), that would mean approximately $5 million in food purchases going towards food sourced in Boulder County. That would be awesome, a tremendous boost to local farms and food-related businesses, and a boost to the local economy! And yet it’s only part of what’s really needed.
As you may have read, Transition Colorado is working with economist Michael Shuman to determine the economic impact of up to 25 percent food localization in the county by 2020, and the first results of that study will be announced during EAT LOCAL! Week (on August 31, 7:30 p.m., at the Millennium Harvest House).
We already know that county residents spend close to $1 billion on food each year, so a one percent shift would bring nearly $10 million into the local food economy.
But how big is the current local food economy? Well, we’re in the process of researching exactly that. Our current reasonably-well-informed hunch is that less than two percent of food purchases are going for food grown within the county—in other words, less than $20 million. That’s a pretty safe bet for a current total.
What’s much harder to estimate at the moment is how much is being spent on locally-sourced food in restaurants. For perspective, we do know that the Farmers’ Markets in Boulder and Longmont together produce about $4.5 million in revenues (about half of that is for food vendors, not growers). And we do know that there are about 3,000 available CSA subscriptions in the county, at an average of about $400, or a total of about $1.2 million.
To get to 25 percent food localization over the next decade or so would mean that the local food economy would have to grow to about $250 million per year—a twelve times increase, or literally exponential growth. Is that even possible, especially in an era of economic decline? We’re not sure yet that we can demonstrate it’s possible, but we’re fairly certain that it’s going to be necessary—given that a global food crisis is bearing down on even our own society.
There is no doubt that our communities are going to have to learn how to feed themselves again. That’s part of the process of relocalization, which is the essence of what the international Transition movement is all about. More about that in the next post…
