Is local and sustainable food is a positive food system to adopt?

will make people and animals sick. This kind of system is now better known by the general public and the realization of this process and its consequences are making the people talk about it and want to change their food.

Economy – What are the economic consequences of local, sustainable and seasonal food ?

How much does it cost to produce local and sustainable food ?
How much does it cost to buy it?
Local food is more expensive. Indeed it is considered that now 13 to 14% of our budget is dedicated to food that is made industrially and if we consume locally it would take 25 to 35% of it. But there is some alternative because if you produce yourself your own food it will cost you less than to buy it from a specialised market because you will just buy first the material and maintenance but then the food will be free. A recent article from The Washington Post compared the price of common groceries from a local store versus the farmer\’s market in Virginia. For a purchase including \”cage-free eggs, cheese, mushrooms, salad mix, and both organic and conventional strawberries,\” the final price at the Kroger grocery store was of $31.37, while at the local market in Richmond, Virginia it reached $64.62.
The more of a product a manufacturer can provide, the most producing costs reduce. And for the consumer, that means they have to pay less.

Will it creates jobs or job opportunities ?
Not more than before unless some people quit their job to become farmer, but according to some research, the growing interest that some people have, has indeed increased the number of people working in the local food industry.

Will this also help economically ? Bring benefits ?
If we consider a productor of local food that works in a average size farm he will gain the first year EUR 32 000, EUR 39 000 the second year and the third one 54 000. In America the average salary is 75,790 dollars a year. Farmers gain more money by selling local food because they don’t bear anymore the transportation costs. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sales of locally produced foods reached $12 billion in 2014 and they envisage that it will rise to $20 billion by 2019.

Investing in local food industry can also ensure the country’s economic independence in the event of an international conflict.

Will it be more profitable for the farmers ?
Farmers will be independent and especially, as explained by Gerard Constantin, a farmer, they will get a higher price when selling their products. \”The big retailers buy us 2,20- 2,40 the kilo of apple (…) we sell them at the end 60-80% of the production\”. In supermarket he can touch between 1.50 to 6 francs per kilo while with his basket he touches the price he fixes which is currently of 3.80.

Social – How will people deal with a new food system ?

How many people are ready or interested by buying local food ?
Many people lack knowledge about this subject but in recent years, more consumers become interested in local food. Certainly we must pay more for local food. According to observations based on several decades by Simone Jones who works at Betty Bossi as expert in food trends “…compared to the British, the swisses are initially rather reluctant to new culinary trends, but they adopt them very quickly and follow them faithfully”. For example, the Karma assortment, a vegetarian product, sold by COOP is a great success which shows that the sale of these food alternatives has a good chance to be increased next years.

Moreover, according to the cofounder of VitaverDura, a company providing local products at home, its turnover increases of 5 to 10% each year which proves that more and more people are interested in the consumption of local products.
In a study realised by Opinion Way, it is said that 63% of the French people favor the consumption of local food and 93 % do so from time to time.

Here you can see through the years and throughout the world how many consumers of each country are wiling to pay sustainable food.

This increase is due in particular to the wishes of the consumers who want to consume local and sustainable products.

On the horizontal axis you can see the percentage of the food that the clients buy and would like to be local. On the horizontal axis the number of person.
( N/A = no answer)

Nowadays what type of food is purchased ?

This graph reports our purchasing experience nowadays concerning local and sustainable food. It allows us to better understand our today’s need for further analysing the subject. Furthermore, it makes us consider the fact that sustainable food does not automatically implies local food.

What can we do to promote food sustainability?
Internet, the newspapers and TV shows are already contributing to inform people, but usually they will just talk about the problems caused by climate change or unhealthy food and not focus on solutions. This is why we can present this subject in schools and others publics places, organise conferences, meetings and even strikes.
We can also sensibilise people from their childhood with: local activities or extra-scolar group and events in schools. Therefore they will be educated with the idea that we really have to pay attention to the way we consume food as well as the kind of food we consume.

Is there any system already put in place ? / Why is this system not that popular ?
First there is an association called “Bocal local”. Which is a shop that provides local food that you can take in a bocal for yourself. They sell products without disposable packaging, to help environment, through consumption. Their aim is to bring positive behaviour and a change that will last, with the objective of promoting eco-responsible citizenship.
There is also the association Grimiam which proposes insects as source of nutrients.
Then there is the eaternity app which helps you to calculate your food environmental footprint. All the products that you scan are rated depending on the climat score, water footprint, rainforest score and animal welfare score.
Moreover there is Oggi which was created by two persons from Geneva. It offers dishes in jars with fresh products that can be delivered.

Environment-related problems have begun to affect the general public only recently. Which explains the recent appearance of these new organizations and therefore the lack of advertisement that can explain why we haven’t heard that much about them.

How to have easily access to local food ?
Local food is available in supermarkets therefore accessible to everyone. For example if you live in geneva you can go to “la ferme de Budé” or “La fraisière” in Meyrin or even in “le NID” . Moreover, if you do not want or can not go some of the larger companies are starting to focus on consumption based on local food and therefore to propose initiatives. For example, Coop@Home sells products that come from little exploitation from switzerland.

If we produce locally is there going to be enough food supply for everybody?
According to Olivier de Schutter (United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food) organic food can indeed feed everyone. Why ? How? Because 70 to 75% of what we eat comes from small farmers. Which means that within twenty years we could feed 10 to 12 billion people; if you eat little meat.
The itinerary the food travels from the farmer’s soil to the dinner table is shorter and helps the local economy.

How will it impact our health ?
Local food implies that we can only cultivate food that can grow in our environment. Which means the variation of our nutriments will be an issue.
Moreover, the united nations organization for food and agriculture, sets that because of overfishing, quotas of captures of fishes and seafood are already decreasing and this is why they affirm that we need an alternative in the proteins that we will have to eat like : insects, microalgae, jellyfish as well as pea, lupine or soy. Andrea Staudacher, author specialised in insect food, predicts that alternative herbal products will flood the market over the next five years. It is most of the times fresher. As the way food travels lowers, so does the need for processing and refrigeration to diminish spoilage.

Will the quality of local and sustainable food have an impact on our body ?
Industrials food are known to use pesticides which can cause a range of serious illnesses diseases which can go from a headache to cancer. Since local food use natural ingredients that distance insects, we are less apt to have illnesses that are brought by pesticides.

Why would I eat local food ?
To preserve the environment because of the ecological footprint that will be reduce by the transportation that will be less used.
To support the local economy because if you consume local it will support the local employment.
To save some money to benefit from a favorable price thanks to the geographical proximity of the producer and to consume seasonal products which because they will be abundant the prices will be also lower.
To preserve our health because some food can lost a lot of vitamins throughout the transport or storage.

Environment – Is our environment ready for such a change ?

Will it be better for the environment ?
Local food can also be positive for the environment, especially if it decreases food waste along the supply chain. Many local farms are organic or efficient conventional farms, which can bring many benefits to soils, waterways and wildlife. And, in some places, local grass-fed ranches are trying to isolate carbon in the soil, offsetting at least part of beef’s greenhouse gas emissions. Done correctly, local food can have several environmental benefits. Food cultivated closer to home generates less transportation emissions.

Will it help natural resources ?
The principal idea of sustainable and local foods are to decrease the bad effect on the natural resources by a better behaviour. Like to not waste, buying in local market or to cook this will avoid damaging the diversity of both animals and plants, it will also help the biodiversity and biomes.

How to find enough place to cultivate ?
We personally think that there is enough place to cultivate and that the issue is more about managing efficiently the place we have at our disposal. Like for example allotment gardens or growing plants on your balcony. We learned in a study that Switzerland could be self-satisfied if we find ourselves in an emergency situation : the agricultural land available could provide approximately 2,340 kcal of food per resident (it is recommended the everyday energy to be of 1,792 to 2,509 kcal).
If there is not a good environment how can we produce ?
It is called urban farming. It is possible to cultivate fruits and vegetables even if the climate is not good enough. ????

What will have to do the producers of local food to help the environment ?
The producers will have to privilege a cultivation made by hand with no petrol and with sustainable energy. Like that all their efforts for making a sustainable food won\’t be wasted.

Why is sustainable farming a good thing?
Sustainable farmers cultivate by themselves their own food, and with our observations we noted that the majority of their work, whether it is at the seed sowing, fruit picking, or at the construction of the vegetable garden, everything is done by hand and with as little oil as possible. Therefore, it is a good thing because it protects the diversity of both animals and plants and the welfare of farmed and wild species. It also avoids damaging and wasting natural resources or contributing to climate change. So it contributes in favor of the climate and its environment.

Why should we properly consume local food ?
By consuming locally, we reduce the transportation costs as well as its impact on the environnement. That\’s why you have to pay attention to where and how the production is done, what you consume and also how you cook because the impact on environement could be important.

CONCLUSION

What are the benefits of this action?
It is better for animals as they are free ranged and they aren’t given food they aren’t used to eat like corn so they are healthier. It ameliorates cholesterol levels and adds nutrients as well as minerals to their regime. So, it improves theirs consumers health. It also helps the environment by reducing the use of fossil fuel as it instead uses solar energy. Fewer GMO’s fertilizers and pesticides are involved in the Local Sustainable food chain.

Is the local and sustainable food better than the others? local food is a way of eating sustainable food if we put our efforts in it. Because the other food systems are in majority overproducing and polluting the local food is better in the way that it have less consequences on the environment.

What everybody could do to help the development of local and sustainable food ?
There is many tips that you can use the most important are to eat local food, like that it can decrease the payment but the carbon emissions too. Cook by ourselves is also a good idea, eat more seasonal food and of course waste less foods will always help.
to have access to local and sustainable food:
You can go to a farmers market, visit local restaurants, if you can grow your own food for example in allotment gardens.
Find local farms near you, if you like embrace cooking.
We can also try and make the effort of understanding better our food and how to eat it in a better way for us and the environment.
We can also be careful about the food that we buy and the labels that are on it.
You can also sign in an association that supports this food system (Les amis de la Ferme de Budé)

In conclusion, this type of nutrition is a choice to make because it involves efforts to provide so that our purchases are not lost by another cause like pollution. But its effects are positive concerning our health but also our environment. In addition, it could create a new market and therefore jobs.

This is why we can affirm that local and sustainable food is a positive food system to adopt.