Is the local food movement dead?

Where do we stand in the MWV?

The small-scale farming reality is that it’s increasingly difficult for a family or individual to make a living from the land. Many do it for the lifestyle. Many do it to live out their values and ethics. With all the effort we put into building a local food movement and supporting farmers, all the inspiration we gather from the land and from our producers…is this movement still alive after all this time?

Are we gaining more local food lovers than we are losing?

Is it realistic to start a farm? A market garden? Is it possible to break even from the herd of cattle you’ve raised since birth. Many young people are inspired to farm by social change, by practicing their values tending to the earth. Others do it to caretake their family business. Maybe some for self-sufficiency. Is there space in our community for a values-driven land-based enterprise to survive any more?

With all the dreaming and the hoping that we have a local food system that is alive and thriving, we still need farms to be economically viable. There must be a market for the produce and the meat and the flowers. And those sales must be consistent, week after week. As local food producers, we are still competing with the 100% perfect, unblemished, always-available food at the grocery store. From farms so big and so far away that they are likely not attentive to local ecology, local food ways, or of being good stewards of the earth. It is a fool’s errand to compete with the prices you will find at a big box store. As small-scale farmers it’s always an uphill battle. The odds are never in our favor.

And yet here we are.

Fighting the good fight and hoping that enough folks in our community believe in what we are doing. Believers who want to buy our fresh produce, who want nutrient-dense food. We want the consumer who doesn’t care about a small blemish on a fresh, nourishing vegetable. We want consumers who buy the CSA share in February or who come out to their local farmers’ market when it’s raining.

We need more of you to join us, because we aren’t just talking about carrots and eggs here.

We’re trying to build the world we want to see.