Energy Objectives:

Current Conditions & Challenges:

• The average piece of food in US travels 1,500 miles to get from the farm to the kitchen table.  One 2000 study by the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that the Western PA Region purchased over $5 Billion of food from outside its region while local farmers only sold $13.6 million to consumers.  The study also showed that 98% of consumers surveyed would buy local fruit and vegetables if available.
• The food industry accounts for 10% of all fossil fuel used in the US.  Of all the energy consumed by the food system, only about 20% goes towards production, the remaining 80% is associated with processing, packaging, transportation, preparation and home refrigeration.
• Currently U.S. farms use larger amounts of petroleum based fertilizers, chemicals, and pesticide.

How this program reduces energy consumption:

• Local Farm Businesses, as part of a local food system will reduce food transportation miles which will reduce energy consumption.  This program supports the federal policy on reducing the dependency of foreign oil.
• LFB’s are more likely to use regenerative farming methods which will also reduces the use of petroleum based fertilizers, chemicals, and pesticide and energy consumption.
• Organic no-till with cover crops has been shown to save up to 70% of the energy embodied in the production of corn (this includes energy on the farm as well as the energy in the fertilizer and pesticide production).