NBC29Fest Promotes Eating Local Foods

Fest Promotes Eating Local Foods

A group of agencies, farmers and healthcare workers are promoting a return to eating locally. The local food movement encourages people to buy and enjoy food grown in their neighborhoods around their towns and even in their own backyards.

The University of Virginia, Jefferson Area Board for Aging and a host of other organizations are coming together for the Blue Ridge Harvest Festival. The week-long festival is full of seminars and, of course, food tastings with the goal of educating people about the benefits of eating locally.

The festival's participants say they hope the local food movement will move beyond smaller farmers markets to reach more people in the community. "We're trying to hit more people, all the students, senior citizens, UVA as well as pubic school students as well as expanding the local food market," explained Neal Halvorson-Taylor, promoting local food. 

Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek said, "There's so many community benefits to increasing our food production locally: for the freshness, for the health, for the lower energy cost, for knowing your neighbor - the community building that goes on there."

Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek estimates that if people spent $10 of their grocery expenses on locally produced food, it would produce about $20 million in revenue that would stay in the county. Mallek also says that promoting local food helps protect local farmers and ultimately helps preserve the rural areas of Central Virginia.

Reported by Claire O'Brien
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