What is your definition of Locally Sourced Foods

[Joel]

I work in the food industry and some businesses are taking advantage of the grey area on the definition of what "Local" or "Locally Sourced" actually means.    The other day, I was in a meeting, and the buyer asked me what my definition of "local" meant..   I shared a recent experience I had, listed below:

I was once at a St. Louis grocery store, one of the higher dollar franchised companies from out of state touting fresh items, locally sourced, etc.   I was in the meat department and was looking at the smoked meats items.   They all had the words "Locally Made" on the labels.    I asked the meat manager if they were made by Burgers, Double G, Miller (all great companies) or someone else locally..  He then said, "No, we have our processing smokehouses outside Denver, Colorado".     I asked him, how could this be considered "Local", and his reply was: "Three states touching is "local".    I asked him where that was defined, and if he considered 3 states touching as local, then what did he consider something made within 50 miles...   Needless to say, I was quite frustrated that a company would risk taking advantage of a grey area, and mislead its customers like that. 

According to the USDA.gov web site, their loose definition is:

"Local food is defined as the direct or intermediated marketing of food to consumers that is produced and distributed in a limited geographic area. There is no pre-determined distance to define what consumers consider “local,” but a set number of miles from a center point or state/local boundaries is often used."

In a 78 page report on "Trends in US Local and Regional Food Systems" to congress, their definition of local identifies local as:  View the Report Here

What, exactly, do we mean by the term “local foods”? The definition of local food is complex, varying with purpose, geography, and data availability (Martinez et al., 2010). For some consumers, “localness” may not be based on distance, but rather on local ownership of the farm (Adams and Adams, 2011). For others, local food is associated with natural, organic, and other specialty foods marketed through DTC outlets, grocers and restaurants, and foodservice providers in institutions such as schools, universities, and hospitals.

“Local and regional food systems” refers to place-specific clusters of agricultural producers of all kinds—farmers, ranchers, fishers—along with consumers and institutions engaged in producing, processing, distributing, and selling foods. Since neither term is well defined, the distinction between local and regional food systems is unclear; hence, these terms are often used interchangeably, as in this report.

According to WikiPedia:

"Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system."

For Reference, I added two maps, one with the single ring is a 50 mile radius, and the one with two rings, shows 100 and 50 mile radius for reference.

 

So, what are your thoughts?

[Sprussel Brouts]

I'd consider "local" as anything made or sourced within 50 miles, maybe 100 miles at the most of a nearby large city or point of purchase.    For example, a restaurant in St Louis, even Chesterfield I'd consider 50 miles from St. Louis as the base hub.      I agree, there are too many companies out there using misleading advertising on their loose definition of "local".    Buy from your local farmers market when you can, as long as they truly have locally sourced items.