Rising oil and gas prices are driving up the cost of most industries.
Agriculture is no exception.
Food travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to table.
Some energy conservationists in Plymouth have come up with a way to make that trip shorter, conserve oil, and support local agriculture.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports.
(one times celery from Macrillis Hill.. one times honey whole wheat from D acres…)
Betty Trott of Dorchester anxiously waits for a bag filled with her order of fresh and organic fruits, vegetables and breads at the farmers market in Plymouth.
She placed her order three days ago, on a website called Local Foods Plymouth.
The products come from 12 different farms, but now it’s all packed and ready for her to take home.
:44 it’s all fresh, you get to know the local farmers, I’ve discovered a variety of products that I didn’t know existed locally, some of them are organic, which is a priority.
Local Foods Plymouth is the brainchild of Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative and D Acres, a non profit organic farm.
And the pilot project may be the first of its kind in the country.
Considering rising gas prices and the distance food travels to get to grocery stores, Sandra Jones with Plymouth Area Renewable Energy says the partnership makes sense.
1022 :19 our organization is very concerned about the use of oil and ways in which we shouldn’t be using oil and one of those ways is we shouldn’t be buying lettuce from California when we can buy it here five miles from our home
The website works like an online grocer.
Once a week, participating farmers list what products are available and their cost.
Consumers place orders on the internet using the web service PayPal or a credit card by midnight on Tuesday.
They pick up their orders at the Thursday market.
Customer Judy Mizner of Bristol says it’s just as easy as shopping in the grocery store.
1054 :19 Its very very convenient, everything is right here, when you pick it up, you don’t have to run around to 15 different farmstands and try to find what you’re looking for so it’s been great.
1:22 (nats)
Farmers say Local Foods Plymouth also helps prevent food waste –since they don’t have to end up taking home what they can’t sell at the market.
Abby Holm is with D Acres Organic Farm.
1029 :34 when you spend three four five months caring for a plant, then bring it to the market, bring it home its wilted or dead and nobody wants it its just food waste, and nobody wants to be contributing to food waste.
Some of the farmers at the Plymouth market were hesitant to get involved with Local Foods at first.
Carol Friedrick of Currier Brook Farms worried that it would take business away from other vendors at the market.
But its popularity has soared – and almost all the vendors are involved now.
1056 :44 I think its going to work out well because its like half of our sales are going to the Local Foods, so that’s good for us
Friedrich says she doesn’t worry about the competition on the website either.
1057 :56 I don’t think too many people have organically raised eggs, and nobody makes bread like I do, nobody has my world famous scones (laughing)
Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative received a one-thousand dollar grant from New Hampshire’s Department of Agriculture, and a 35-hundred dollar grant from the US Department of Agriculture.
Another benefit says co-Coordinator Sandra Jones is that project helps farmers really market their product.
Local Foods sends emails as reminders to potential buyers.
:47 when we first started it we had 40 people on our list of folks that wanted to get that reminder email and now we have I believe close to 200, and that’s purely word of mouth and people that want to come to the farmers market.
But not all farmers are convinced that this marriage with the internet will bear fruit.
1059 :24 Can I get a couple of your summer squash)
Carol Perkins runs the Plymouth Farmers Market, she’s says farming is too labor intensive for her to also get orders ready for online customers.
1060 we run a pretty active farmstand at our own farm and then do this, Thursdays are crazy trying to prepare for both places, so I haven’t gotten involved with that end of it. We also milk 220 dairy cows at the same time, so I’m like enough..
Perkins thinks the website might be best suited for smaller farms selling just a few products.
Either way, Abby Holm with D Acres says the goal of conserving energy and promoting local agriculture is working.
1036 :33 It think anywhere where you can get locally grown food that is taking the burden off the global food supply, which is really unsustainable.
Organizers of Local Foods Plymouth believe that this project will be easy to replicate in other communities.
Holm says they’ve already received phone calls from farmers as far away as Colorado wanting to initiate a similar website.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
