Thursday, May 20, 2010

Can local food go mainstream?

Can local foods go mainstream?  Cornell University economics professor Miguel Gomez recently co-authored a research paper on this topic in Choices Magazine, the Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues.

Excerpt:

"[Our] mainstream supermarket distribution system favors large scale suppliers and facilitates long distance movement of products. Supermarket wholesale and retail companies usually prefer to work with a small number of large, reliable suppliers. At the same time, this system is remarkably resilient and quick to adapt. Can it be an effective channel for meeting the rapidly growing demand for local food products? Are there meaningful, long run prospects for a significant “relocalization” of supermarket offerings? While definitive answers to these questions are not yet apparent, there is emerging evidence that helps clarify how the relationship between the local foods movement and the supermarket industry may evolve."

Read the rest here.


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