Local farms provide communities not only with nutritious food, but also a way towards environmental sustainability by working directly with their local community.
How local farms are important for a community’s environmental sustainability
Dee Baptist provides Ithaca, N.Y., locally grown nutritious food by using environmentally sustainable processes on her farm, Fort Baptist Farm. She also connects with her local community and partners with many local organizations such as Healthy Food For All, and CSAs (community supported agriculture). This allows Dee to meet many people who are energized just like her to help provide environmental sustainability practices when growing food. People come through her farm lending helping hands in picking weeds, planting crops, and cleaning the produce.
In addition, she believes in the importance of crop rotation as well as leaving parts of her farm alone, not cropping, so the natural environment can take shape and replenish the Earth. It takes an entire community to be involved and passionate about where they get their food from for these things to continue to change. So as discussions of sustainability progress the connection between local farms, local communities, and their environment must be at the forefront.