Certifiable: Local Food Plus Certifies Farmers

For the aspiring foodie, sourcing local and organic food can certainly seem like a vast wilderness. First, there is the local food desert. Go into any grocery store and you will find few local foods, some organic foods, and very little information about who produced any of the food. Then as foodies start to dig, the world of local food opens up. Any city that has farmland around it will have a local foodscape. Any city that has urban gardens and encourages locals to create community gardens and community kitchens will have a strong local food community. When the world of local food begins to open up and minds move beyond the grocery store into this wilderness of food choices, the opportunities can be mind-boggling.

For those who have been eating whole foods in a natural form, preferably organic, the switch to local can be challenging. Not all local food is grown equally well. For those who live in the midst of genetically modified, pesticide-laced swathes of corn and soybeans, local food may not be the most sustainable environmental option. So much depends on farming practices.

Foodies turn to the small local farmer, the one who sells at farmers' markets and roadside stands. This is a matter of building a relationship, of building trust. The farmer says that he practices integrated pest management, which is not certified organic. But what does this mean on the ground? Perhaps it is a good year for crops and they have not been sprayed at all. Developing these relationships with a farmer can tell foodies just that.

In Ontario and in Atlantic Canada, those who are new to the world of local food can also use a new navigator: Local Food Plus.  Local Food Plus certifies food as sustainable by looking into soil and water management practices and pesticide use, among other things. For the local food newbie, this makes life just a little bit easier. For farmers, this program is not as complex as getting a certified organic certification, which many local farmers shun due to the difficulty and the expense.

Local Food Plus is a decidedly logical idea whose time has come. While large, name-brand certifications like organic help food consumers make good choices, the local food network is growing exponentially, and it is made up of many, many smaller farmers and food processors. Many of these businesses and nonprofit food cooperatives operate on word of mouth and through social media, building networks of people who trust others to grow their food the right way. Local Food Plus gives an official certification to those farmers, making it easier for local foodies to choose the farmers who match their own ethic of food production.

Does local food need a seal of approval? Maybe not, but it certainly helps move local food products into the mainstream, giving them an official sustainable seal of approval.