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Tennessee, home to over 82,000 farms, is a solidly agricultural state in the heart of some of the most fertile land in the U.S. Fully 43% percent of it is farmland. It boasts more than 1,078 food manufacturing companies, and 511 food distributing companies. But, of all the food eaten in Tennessee, only a very small percentage is actually grown there.
Vast quantities of food are exported to other states and nations, while similarly vast quantities are brought in to feed Tennessee’s citizens. It’s a costly arrangement that leaves too many people without enough access to healthy fruits and vegetables.
What will make it easier for farmers to sell their harvests within Tennessee instead of shipping them out of state? First, the state must figure out what has been making it so hard.
Tennessee has an extremely high potential for local food consumption. Tennessee has lots of local food and lots of people willing to eat it. What’s been missing is a way to connect them on a large scale.
Local food systems developed at the community level have flourished—in the last decade, the number of farmers’ markets and Community-supported agriculture, groups that sell shares of farm harvests directly to consumers, have grown exponentially. But large consumers—like hospitals, museums, restaurants, grocery stores, corporate kitchens, schools, and universities—have found it difficult to procure local food in the quantities they need, and at a price that’s reasonable.
In Illinois this very same problem now has a solution.
The Illinois state government recently passed a new bill representing the state government’s commitment to restructuring the food system so that it promotes local consumption instead of hindering it. "It encourages Illinois farmers to respond directly to consumers’ demand for fresh, tasty, locally produced foods and shows how to do it," says Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act chairman Wes Jarrell, a farmer and professor of sustainable agriculture.
Specifically, the legislation sets up a grown-in-Illinois label and certification program, directs state agencies to purchase at least 20 percent of their food locally by 2020, and allows them to pay premium prices for local food. One particular goal is to increase the amount of local food served in public schools.
The law also establishes a new agency that will encourage farmers to grow food for local markets and will help build the statewide distribution networks needed to get their fresh produce to the people who want to eat it.
Tennessee has the potential to do this very same thing. With a restructuring of the food manufacturing and distributing system, and innovative resources for farmers to extension the growing season, fresh fruits and vegetable could be sold in vast quantities right here in our own backyard, increasing the direct and total effects of agriculture on the Tennessee economy.
To some extent, Tennessee is on the right track, with available resources such as Pick TN Products, promoting local agriculture, programs such as Farm to School, helping local schools buy direct from local farmers; and farm producer grants available through USDA, Tennessee Dept of Agriculture, and UT Extension. But we still need to encourage farmers to grow food for local markets and help build the statewide distribution networks needed to get their fresh produce to the people who want to eat it. We have a long way to go, but together, we can build a more sensible more local food economy.
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Ladybug McGreen's Blog 
