AFT is working to bridge the gap between the farm gate and the dinner plate. 
By Julia Freedgood

As America’s leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation, AFT works to protect the best land, keep it healthy and plan for its future. Since 2000, we have been involved in dozens of “planning for agriculture” projects. Our approach joins sustainable agriculture with sustainable development, saving farmland and supporting the people, enterprises and communities that champion farms, farmers and farmland. We bring farmers and ranchers together with local officials, planners, environmentalists and concerned citizens. Through this process, we have found that a powerful way to connect people to farmland is to lead them from the farm gate to the dinner plate.

A burgeoning consumer movement is now promoting sustainable, regional food systems and an increased consumption of local food. These efforts are premised on the idea that increasing the percentage of food grown, processed and consumed locally provides significant public benefits. What many of them neglect, however, is the absolutely critical role of securing a base of local farmland to produce the food, while fostering a vibrant agricultural economy to sustain that production. 

That’s where AFT comes in. AFT is making the case that “It’s not local food without local farmland.” In California, AFT is studying whether it is possible for residents of San Francisco to feed themselves exclusively from sustainable farms located within 100 miles of the Golden Gate Bridge. With a Mediterranean climate, high quality farmland and a powerful agricultural economy, farmers surrounding San Francisco should be able to produce nearly every kind of food consumed and enjoyed in the Bay Area. However, the farmland that supports this food production is some of the most threatened in the country—threatened not only by development but also from economic forces that make local farmers vulnerable to a global market they cannot control.

This threatened “foodshed” includes the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one of California’s first regions opened to large-scale agriculture. It also includes the fertile Santa Clara and Salinas valleys to the south and the Sonoma Valley to the north—a region targeted by much of AFT’s California work. Here, AFT is evaluating consumption patterns and assessing the potential for local farms to supply high-quality, healthy food to the city. We are also looking for strategies to encourage the production and purchase of local food by people and institutions and making sure that low-income consumers can afford the food. AFT has partnered on this project with a host of Bay Area institutions that recognize the importance of local food from the region’s farms. 

Across the country in Burlington County, New Jersey, AFT is working with the county’s Office of Farmland Preservation to support the increasing demand for locally grown food. Burlington County is in close proximity to New York City and Philadelphia, with boundaries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean through the Pine Barrens, part of a 1.1 million acre national reserve—the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard. Like California’s Bay Area, Burlington County’s farms are threatened by residential and commercial development that is making it harder for farms growing traditional agricultural commodities to compete with the price of land. This is true even though the county boasts one of the state’s strongest agricultural economies and is nationally recognized for its innovative farmland preservation program.

The county took the first step to enhance the viability of its agricultural industry by completing a plan for agriculture in 2004.This newest project with AFT is the next step—turning the challenges of high land values and land use conflicts into more opportunities for direct marketing, value-added agriculture and a strengthened local food and farming system.

New Jersey is a “home rule” state with land use authority resting in the hands of townships and boroughs. Each of Burlington County’s 15 townships has its own municipal codes and ordinances. While the county has some “power of the purse,” it lacks regulatory authority. These codes and ordinances vary from municipality to municipality, making it difficult for local farmers to connect directly with local consumers. AFT is working in three representative townships to identify barriers and address them by creating a model ordinance to support local farmers and a local food system that is accessible to all county residents. Our involvement is meant to build local capacity so that the county will be able to continue the work beyond our direct involvement and assistance—with the hope that Burlington County will serve as a model for the rest of the state and potentially the region. 

For communities in all parts of the country, here are five reasons to support local food:

1. Economic development. Increasing the percentage of food grown, processed and consumed locally provides significant economic benefits to a region.
2. Public health. The local production, distribution and consumption of food—especially fruits and vegetables—can counter obesity by providing children, elders and others with greater access to fresh and nutritious foods.
3. Agricultural viability. Closing the gap between local production and local consumption of food can increase profitability for producers, helping to preserve farm operations and farmland. 
4. Environmental quality. Local food systems promote sustainable agricultural management practices and natural resource conservation.
5. Homeland security. Because they rely on local farmland and provide an added incentive for protecting it, local food systems help maintain homeland security in the face of globalization, climate change and the threat of energy and economic disruptions.