Economics expert touts local foods
Economics expert touts local foods
Meter: The point is to build commerce
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
An economics expert who has been studying farming since the early 1970s, is convinced that raising more foods locally will help energize local communities as well as the state of North Dakota.
Ken Meter, the president of the Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis, spoke to approximately 150 people during the annual North Dakota Farmers’ Market and Growers Association conference in Jamestown last Friday.
Among Meter’s guests were North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture Doug Goehring, North Dakota Farmers Union President Robert Carlson and Kansas State University professor David Proctor.
Meter reminded everyone that North Dakota is the breadbasket of the world, yet the majority of that food leaves the local economies as does most of the money associated with it.
“The current food system takes wealth out of our communities,” Meter said. “Local food is economic recovery.”
According to Meter, growing and marketing local foods build health, wealth, connection and capacity, and at the same time, reduce the need for fossil fuels, which in turn, drops the cost of food because of less transportation.
