What is the greatest benefit of joining the local food movement?

All of the above! Hard to separate one from the others or chose one over the others.

First of all, thanks for your good work! Regarding the poll I wish to enter the "all of the above"-line, as many others here. We need to be thinking more local, and to participate more in our local communities if we want to overcome the crisis capitalism has put us in...

As pointed out by others, "all the above" is the best of the non-answers. Since these are all results of saner, forward-looking, sustainable and healthy choices by community oriented individuals, no choice of an answer needs to be made.

my planet smiles

...Freedom and stronger communities.

All of the above - all the choices in this poll apply for me. I am so glad I found my way here - I have been encouraged to learn as much as I can.

I would have chosen the benefit to transportation costs, except that I feel an overriding consideration is more important: This is the establishment of regional sustainability. Two purposes are served. One, a region providing for itself as much as possible is more environmentally and economically sustainable. Two, regional sustainability forces a region to develop in a way which does not exceed the limits of growth established by nature, either in the home region or by exploiting other regions.

Helping to create s sustainable economy based on sustainable agricultural practices.

we have to reduce the effects of large scale bio-agricultre cvorporations like monsanto, cargil, rjr, coca col;a and the adverse effects they have. we need to prevent the global control of food production by these companies and their momement toward fiscal domination.

what they are doing is for their welare and riches, not the welare of those not toeing their line.

Jean-Pierre Landry
This is a venture that prooves to be so popular that in less than a year we are now to more than 1200 members shopping via computer listing but payment at pick-up point for only the products that you need every two weeks, there are no left overs and you get to meet your producer. In this way, Les Amis de la Terre Estrie walk the talk and local politics has to listen.
This group of "Friends of the Earth" is now 20 years old and really moving on. You can visit at www.atestrie.com

All of the Afore-Mentioned.
That is to say:
Enjoying Fresher and Tastier Food;
Supporting Local Family Farms and the Local Economy;
Limiting the effect of transportation costs on the environment and wallet;
Avoiding the risk of large scale food contamination of corporate agriculture;
Ensuring Animal Welfare.

In my experience, local food coops are not the cheapest option and, while the food is often tastier, many people couldn't taste the difference between local avocados and those that have traveled a thousand+ miles, for example.

The main immediate benefit is the 'feel good' factor and the sense of community that builds as we become part of a local food coop. Just like when the milkman used to collect the old milk bottles... sometimes people are closer to the milkman than they realize! So in order to get the cost lower and build momentum for the coop, a good strategy is to focus on the social and community aspects of the coop. For example, the food coop can be connected with parents and kids' play groups & childcare, education, etc

There should be no need to choose as all win and all should have prizes (from Alice in Wonderland. What is more they are all interactive and mutually supportive. You can add that it reduces poverty globally between rich and poor and as a consequence benefits global security and helps return to a healthy and bio diverse planet.

I voted 'other' because there was no place to vote for 'all of the above'. A serious effort to buy locally has helped me to better know my surroundings and the industrious people in it, to make new friends, and to feel more secure about my place in the community.

It is a synergistic combination of all of the choices listed above and then some. There is no 'single' most important benefit to enjoying and supporting local food.

When applying the label "locally grown" to food, is
the total distance traveled by the resources used to
produce the food considered? For example, where is
any animal feed grown? As you know, many more plants
and other resources are needed to raise animals for
food, than if the plants are eaten directly. So the
distance traveled by the end product is insignificant
compared to the distance traveled by the resources to
produce it. How far can food from plants travel, to
be considered just as locally-grown as food from
animals?

While the benefits of wholesome, locally grown food are without doubt, a significant advantage of local production is the potential for community building. The process of planning, growing, harvesting, marketing, bartering, and swapping involves local people getting together in cooperation. In a world where there may be rapid economic structural change, this could become the social "glue" that makes communities.

It is interesting to see what folks choose as the most important benefit. I assume they choose the one that, for them, 'tipped the balance' toward buying local food.
However, I couldn't choose just one benefit as most important to me. They are all important, and inter-related. For example, buying local saves fuel, thus benefiting the environment, but also local food is fresher and tastier as well as being safer. I agree with those who cite the recent problems with mass-produced produce as a reason to buy locally grown products. If we create enough demand, our actions will result in a change in the system.
Sara Anderson

Buying local food saves farmland, and has the potential, in the event the stigma can be removed from hard physical work, to provide good jobs for youth and for many local people currently in low-wage jobs in fast-food restaurants, Wal-marts, etc.

The expansion of the suburbs over the past decade or two in particular, has consumed vast tracts of the most productive land in the U.S., in places with good rainfall (freely available, not subsidized as in CA and AZ and CO, water) and close to population centers. This is effectively forcing increased reliance on mass-produced (increased use of pesticides) food from distant sources with expensive (subsidized by taxpayers) water, illegal (also subsidized in the form of education, healthcare, etc.) labor, and, in the case of places like China, highly polluted soils and lack of effective standards, much less controls, on inputs such as fertilizer (melamine?) and pesticides.

I believe the greatest benefits of joining a local food movement are first of all climate change mitigation and shifting economies to shorter supply lines in the face of a global peaking oil supply. Food is our first essential. We need to have it where we are and not be dangerously subject to the whims of war-(and oil-)focused policy makers and the controls of biotech giants. Oil prices are rising. North American food systems are hugely oil dependent. See a good article on this topic: THE OIL WE EAT , By: Richard Manning, Harper's Magazine, 0017789X, Feb2004, Vol. 308, Issue 1845 - http://www.harpers.org/TheOilWeEat.html. Buying food locally also gets us back 'in touch' with it. It comes from and supports real people, it has real varieties (biodiversity=resilience) and seasons. Fresh, field-ripened, juicy, sweet tomatoes can remain a memory in some places in Canada, and can even be hard to find in summer with year-round contracts from astute long-distance food bargainers filling our supermarkets. The pleasures of local, ripe, real food are enormous. There's the wondderful satisfaction of growing your own food, which may become both a treat and a personal economic boost should oil and climate offer unpleasant surprises in the future.
And then there are the kids. Many of the current 'indoor generation' of computer game kids might not recognize a growing carrot or potato. We've gradually given up our connection to our food in so many ways. The end of cheap oil may be our chance to reconnect ourselves and our children to our roots, and reclaim some sustainability in our lives.

Elise Houghton
Environmental Education Ontario (EEON)
Canada

knowing where your food came from is a combination of the five others, because all these things can be ascertained easily enough if you have a direct connection to the source of your food. It is also a good thing spiritually, to have a direct connection to the source, you are more aware that to eat the food on your table, something had to die - that awareness increases the closer you get to the source. Being close to the source also allows you to minimize your impact by being aware of the direct and immediate consequences of your actions here, instead 100 miles away.

It is about supporting the human connection to food and soil - not just for ourselves as urban consumers and knowing where our food comes from, but supporting the financial viability of small and mid-sized family farms in the area, which are vanishing by the millions due to industrial agriculture. According to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), there are only approximately 2.1 million farms in the United States, down from nearly 7 million during the late 1930s. This means there are fewer farms now than during the Civil War.

Furthermore, 90% of family farm income comes from non-farm sources, such as a spouse's income. And 40% (unbelievable) of farmers do not consider farming to be their primary occupation. Again, these are USDA numbers.

Check out the 2005 ERS publication, Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report at the following URL:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB12/EIB12c.pdf

Though all of the above options are important, for me the most meaningful benefit is being more connected to the food I eat and the sources of life that sustain me.

The recent Pet Poisoning contaminated pet food was do contaminated wheat from China. It had been chemically treated.
Before distribution It was not FDA inspected. The reason given by the FDA was that they are under staffed. How much tainted food gets through?

Worldwatch Food-Related Resources:

->(Video!) Eat Here: A haven for food safety fighters to Slow Foodies

->(Video!) Eating Sustainable Seafood: Three Tips to Steer Clear of Fisheries Collapse

->The "Good Eating" Blog

->Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket

->Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry

->Online Feature: Food