The Local Nutrition Movement in Ohio

The Ohio Local Nutrition movement may be a multi-county team movement within the Ohio, formed to market production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food within the region. Governor Strickland, in August 2007, formed the Ohio Food Policy Advisory Council to assess local food issues and are available up with ways to market local food consumption and boost the agricultural economy. This resulted within the formation of a minimum of twelve regional and native food councils round the state. The movement plans to assess food’s safety, strengthen local economy by promoting local food production, and conserve farmlands by making agriculture commercial (Meter).
The local food system was put in place to make sure that all organic food to be processed and distributed, should contain at least ninety-five percent of its natural flavours and nutrients. The processing is important because some foods are not all season crops. For example, milk from cows is processed into cheese and packaged as preserved milk that has a long shelf life. To make sure that local farmers don’t run out of resources, there are companies that package and sell seeds to farmers and financial institutions that lend money to farmers. Moreover the use of local raw food products in international companies also promotes the local agriculture economy. Companies like Texas-based and Fitro-Lay use Ohio-grown potatoes for their chips (Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission). Locavores in OhioA locavore is a person who consumes locally produced and locally processed food. The locavores in Ohio, believe that by consuming locally produced food will ensure healthy eating and will boost local economy. This is true because the production and processing of food locally will create employment for locals in the production and processing chain. This production chain starts from working in the farms, transporting raw products to the industries and finally processing, packaging and distributing processed foods. This process ensures that money keeps on circulating within Ohio hence improving the economic welfare of the locals. Health wise, the Locavores consume foods that are ninety percent organic regardless of going through processing. The local Food movements policies ensure that food remains mostly organic after processing it (Desrochers and Shimizu).However, with all the advantages that come with Local Food consumption, the Locavores should keep in mind that economies need each other globally. An economy should produce and trade with what it has comparative advantage in. trading globally ensure good economic relationship with other economies and also conserves the environment. Locavores think that by farming locally, they preserve their farm lands but in reality they are degrading them by farming continuously. Locavores consume locally produced food whether or not it is the season for that food. Over cultivation will only degrade their farm soils and it will come a time when they will have to stop farming on their land to allow it to gain minerals again.In addition to that, processing food locally means that food processing industries should be put up and in good numbers. The construction of these industries is environmentally degrading as local materials such as timber are used. On one hand, the industries are creating employment and improving the economy, but on the other hand, they are causing global warming. Locavores need to understand, trading globally is not an act crippling their local economy but is a way of saving the environment and improving their economy. Imagine a case where Ohio imports raw materials and exports processed products; it would boost their economy because importing raw materials would be relatively cheap than producing everything locally. And selling finished products, would fetch them foreign revenue which would boost their economy.ConclusionBased on the arguments above, The Local Food movement in Ohio comes a great advantage. It is a practice that many countries should adopt. Local production is the key to economic success of any given economy because importing finished goods can be quite costly. However too much of everything is poisonous and no single economy in the world is autonomous. It is wise for an economy to invest in either labor or capital because investing in both can be disastrous. In this case, Ohio can invest more on the manufacture of food using both its raw materials and also imported raw materials. This would ensure balance in the economy and at the same time grow economically.Works CitedDesrochers, Pirre and Hiroko Shimizu. The Locavore's Dillemma. 2017. Book.Meter, Ken. Ohio's Food Systems- Farms At The Heart Of It All . Menneapolis: Crossroads Resource Center, 2011. Document.Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. “Central Ohio Local Food Assessment and Plan.” April 2010. Document. 30 July 2017.