Although everyone can agree that local food tastes better and is healthier than food shipped across the nation, are there actual economic benefits to eating local food? The answer is yes, as Sustainable Table explains.
In this excellent article, Sustainable Table points out that despite huge increases in productivity and the urban legend that farmers make a fortune on subsidies, it turns out that farmers actually make less now than they did in 1969. Many farmers end up working a second job to make ends meet, but buying local food goes a long way towards remedying the situation.
Moving 1% of your spending money from Wal-Mart or Cub to a local farmer gives them 5% more income than they otherwise would. Let that sink in: your 1%, increases their income 5%. That's five times the impact!
Only 7% of the average food dollar stays within the local economy - the rest goes to multinational corporations. With a shift towards local foods, however, we can bring this percentage back up (it was 40% in 1910).
And that is exactly COG's primary mission: buy local, support farmers, support the local economy. By supporting COG, you are supporting a local co-operative that will keep much more than 7% of your dollar within the Willmar area.
You made some good points Joe!! Whatever happened to helping our neighbor. We are becoming way to disconnected and de-sensitized to the needs of people right around us. Let alone partnering with our fellow community member to make it a better place to live. We all can do our part to change this.
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