Letter to the Editor: Local Farm Products

By PAULA WELLNITZ Orangeville

Editor,
I’ve seen some little pieces in the newspaper lately encouraging people to get into developing small farms to grow various food crops to be sold locally.
I was very happy to see it. In other publications I receive, the benefits of this are being pointed out. Some benefits they speak of are, that the small producer can grow more specifically what people want and need in that area. Because it does not have to travel as far, the food is more beneficial to the eaters with vitamins and minerals still present. It benefits the local communities because more money stays in the area. That has to do with businesses and jobs but it also makes for open space and good ecology. Scenery is preserved. How people are as people is enhanced.
Those farmers in this age network together to work with larger networks of food producers. This make possible a balance between the huge producers and small farmers. Small farmers in other countries can be part of this network of networks so their livelihood will not be destroyed by the sale of big producers crops.
In some sections of the US there has been a movement in the direction of farmers producing and marketing their food crops in the towns and larger centers that they live near. They organize in different ways using their own creativity for what works best where they are. I hope that this takes hold in this and other parts of the country.