Ask an average third-grader where their food comes from and you’ll often get the answer: “From our grocery store.” To them, that store is the definition of “local.”
But since most food we consume actually travels an average of 1,500 miles before reaching those stores, what does “local” really mean?
While there is no official definition, there are three general ways of distinguishing local food: the miles it travels, where it is purchased and how it is grown. For instance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies a product as local if it is sold within 400 miles of where it originated or within the state that it is produced. Other organizations have a more focused definition, believing food is only local if purchased directly from a farm or a farmers’ market. Still others take an ecological approach, seeing local food as any that is grown in the same climate and soil type, even if it comes from farther away.
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Raghela Scavuzzo, associate director of food systems development for the Illinois Farm Bureau, says that while there is no single way to define “local,” the emphasis in Illinois centers on each community.
“We focus on farm, food and family, and that is exactly what community is,” she says. “It’s about the people around you and their stories and how those stories impact a community. It’s also about how you can meet your producers and build community through the local food movement.”
No matter how you define it, everyone agrees that local food is in demand – and that it makes a big difference to local economies. This is true whether you’re talking about produce available at farmers’ markets or milk, beef or pork produced locally.
“Local food production is a huge economic driver in both rural and urban communities,” Scavuzzo says. “The more local the production, the more food dollars stay in the community, which benefits everyone.”
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The Time Is Ripe
The Regional Food Council of Central Illinois (RFC) represents one rural development effort to create local food communities. Becca Cottrell, the sustainability and resource conservation educator for Peoria County, explains that the RFC is a collective effort to make healthy food available and accessible, and to build a more robust local food economy.
“Following a community health survey, we found that access to local foods was an issue in our region,” she says. “So, the RFC was formed as a way to provide opportunities for growers and other stakeholders to connect across the food system to tackle issues related to food production, healthy eating, waste reduction, and policy and planning, and to support those efforts.”
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Sous Chef in Peoria is one of those partners. The small, full-service grocery store opened in 2018 after a Kroger closed in the same area. The store carries food staples and also offers local food from four farms – the farthest is 60 miles away and the closest is within 10 miles.
“Local sourcing is important for so many reasons,” Cottrell says. “The closer, the better, in terms of supporting our own local economy, building resiliency and meeting the needs of our residents.”
During the pandemic, it also had another advantage, she says.
“At a time when the food system and the transportation system were tested, the relationships between local farmers and local businesses were key,” Cottrell shares. “Local farmers could meet demands for meat, dairy and produce when supply became an issue for national producers.”
Growing Communities
When it comes right down to it, consumers decide for themselves what “local food” means to them and how they will support it. The growth of the local food system in Illinois indicates it’s well-supported, with more than 300 farmers’ markets, 1,800 farmstands, nine food hubs and local distributors that buy from local farms so farmers don’t have to travel as far to deliver their products.
See more: Farmers’ Market Resource Guide
“It all comes back to those community stories,” Scavuzzo says. “There is a very strong sentiment across our state of people wanting to collaborate together in growing their communities. The local food movement helps them do that, one community at a time.”
