The 25% Shift: The Benefits of Food Localization in Northeast Ohio and How to Realize them - FIC

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The 25% Shift: The Benefits of Food Localization in Northeast Ohio and How to Realize them

The local food revolution has come to Cleveland—big time. The city now has so many community gardens, farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscriptions, urban farms, celebrity chefs, and local- food procurement programs that the environmental web site, SustainLane, recently ranked Cleveland as the second best local-food city in the United States. But the region has only just begun to tap the myriad benefits of local food.

The following study analyzes the impact of the 16-county Northeast Ohio (NEO) region moving a quarter of the way toward fully meeting local demand for food with local production. It suggests that this 25% shift could create 27,664 new jobs, providing work for about one in eight unemployed residents. It could increase annual regional output by $4.2 billion and expand state and local tax collections by $126 million. It could increase the food security of hundreds of thousands of people and reduce near- epidemic levels of obesity and Type-II diabetes. And it could significantly improve air and water quality, lower the region’s carbon footprint, attract tourists, boost local entrepreneurship, and enhance civic pride.

Downloadable Documents
Author
Brad Masi, Leslie Schaller and Michael H. Shuman
Publisher
Cleveland, Oh: The Cleveland Foundation
Page Numbers
135
Publication Date
December 01, 2010
Publication Type
Reports and Guides
State
Ohio
Keywords
Local / Regional Food Systems

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