Take the Buy Local Challenge

To be published July 2016 in Lancaster Farming

The Buy Local Pledge
 “I pledge to eat at least one thing from a local farm every day during Buy Local Week, July 23-31, 2016.”

Some of us take the Buy Local Pledge every chance we get, but not everyone does. Governor Larry Hogan has officially declared July 23-31 as Buy Local Challenge Week to raise awareness about the benefits of local farms and food so that Marylanders will become more familiar and more frequent consumers of fresh, local products. I certainly join the Governor in encouraging all Marylanders to take the pledge and eat well the week of July 23.

Buying and eating local is more than just enjoying fresh, delicious, nutritious food that tastes better – although that’s good enough reason for me. Local food is better for the environment. It keeps land open, in production and requires less fuel for transportation and therefore less pollution. Local produce is also better for you since food that travels less time and distance holds more of its nutrients. Eating local food also supports local farm families, local economies and local communities. In addition, buying local helps preserves open space, especially in rural areas where growing development pressures put both the environment and our quality of life at risk.

In its 2010 Policy Choices Survey, the University of Baltimore Schaefer Center for Public Policy found that more than 78 percent of Marylanders said they want to buy produce grown by a Maryland farmer.  The Buy Local Challenge gives them an opportunity to do just that.

The Buy Local Challenge was created by the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission and has since become a statewide program. The Buy Local Challenge Week is always the last full week of July. Take the Buy Local Pledge here: http://buylocalchallenge.com/

To promote and kick off the Buy Local Challenge Week, Governor Larry Hogan and First Lady Yumi Hogan hosted the 9^th Annual Buy Local Cookout at Government House on July 21. Recipes for the event showcased the many ways local Maryland ingredients can be used in all kinds of ways. Recipes were submitted by teams of Maryland chefs and producers and selected based on their availability of ingredients, geographic representation, maximum use of local ingredients and creativity. The Buy Local Cookout also featured grocery store chains, distributors, restaurants and institutions that support farmers.

Each year, the department publishes a Maryland Buy Local Cookout cookbook of all the recipes submitted for the cookout. This year’s cookbook – and every other cookbook published since 2009 – can be downloaded for free from our website at: http://mda.maryland.gov/Pages/Buy-Local-Cookout.aspx

All recipes include wine, beer or spirits pairing recommendations from the Maryland Wineries Association, Brewers Association of Maryland and the newly formed Maryland Distillers Guild.

Today, there are 145 farmers markets in Maryland and the demand for local products continues to grow. We are working hard to connect local producers with local consumers, and we invite everyone to check our searchable database at www.marylandsbest.net to find local products and markets nearby.

We also encourage consumers to ask for Maryland-grown products whenever possible – while shopping for weekly groceries, when eating at a Maryland restaurant, when visiting children’s schools and cafeterias, even while visiting someone in the hospital. Ask where the local products are and if there aren’t any, ask them to stock some.

And don’t forget, there are nine dairy farms on Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail. Enjoying a nice scoop of farm fresh ice cream counts as buying local as well!

The Buy Local Challenge and Buy Local Week helps residents – many of whom have had no connection or contact with a real, working farm – realize how delicious local products are. Once they do that, we are certain they will continue to seek out and demand more avenues for obtaining fresh, local food.

So take the pledge, take the challenge, eat well, preserve the environment, and support your local farmers – all at the same time!