Foodies might find this article interesting: "How Veggie Co-Ops and Ice Cream

[Flaxbee]

Collaboratives Could Save the Economy"

Every other Saturday in the winter, I head out to a bustling local-food bazaar, the pickup site of the multi-farm CSA I help run in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains. A few weeks ago, I watched customers marvel over the spread: bok choy, kale, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, garlic, free-range eggs, pasture-raised meat, freshly baked bread, and more. The rest of Appalachia, where the economy still sucks, seemed a world away. I couldn't help but wonder if the answer to at least some of our jobs woes didn't lie right in front of me.

Every year, Americans spend almost $1.2 trillion on food, equal to nearly a tenth of total US GDP. In most communities, the great bulk of that goes to fast-food chains and retail giants like Walmart—and doesn't do much for locals. As Minnesota-based economist Ken Meter puts it, "Our food system is extractive, sort of like mining."

Indeed. A series of case studies by the consultancy Civic Economics shows that for every dollar we spend at a large chain, about 15 cents stays in the area, while locally owned enterprises trap 30 to 45 cents. Locally owned food companies are often on the upper end of that range. That's because they tend to source their products from the area—unlike, say, local bookstores or boutiques, which generally buy their inventory from far away.

More: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/06/local-food-business-jobs

[Denninmi]

1. A local food economy would indeed bring jobs.

But, it would also require a big change in thinking on the scale of local, regional, and state governments. Urban and suburban areas that need local food are, for the most part, hostile to agriculture, the NIMBY syndrome. And, big ag/big food will definitely try to do anything it can to squelch competition.

[mopinko]

2. big change is an understatement

i'm just trying to farm one vacant lot, and it is probably going to cost me $10k in legal fees. i just want to build a garage (aka barn), but you can't build an accessory building without a primary building- a house. i can't get water or electric without a building. if i were a community garden, i could build a storage building, a farm stand, i could sell my produce (not really the plan right now) and not only could i get water, i would get free water. but it is just my family, not some sort of valuable conglomeration of strangers.
and a garden is not an allowed primary use of a residential lot. i could get rezoned, but spot zoning is almost never allowed.
and all this in a city that just this year rewrote zoning rules to allow more urban agriculture. also live in what is considered the greenest ward in the city.

yeah, big change indeed.

[NJCher]

3. what city is this?

If it's in NJ, I might be able to help. It will require a lot of tomatoes to make up $10k in legal fees!


Cher

[mopinko]

4. chicago

sigh.