What is a localvore?

Localvores are people committed to eating and learning about foods grown close to home. Localvores define local food as food grown, harvested, and processed within a 100 miles of their home. Many communities in New England are taking the Localvore Challenge; an event where participants pledge to eat only locally grown and produced foods during a defined time period - usually a day, a week or a month. Individuals can sponsor a potluck dinner with locally grown dishes, sharing ideas, recipes and food sources. This is an event that has been growing in recognition and importance, educating us all on our food choices, places of origin, and benefits to individual as well as economic health of our communities, states, and country.

Given the forecast of Wal-Mart gaining market share in organic food sales, peak oil consumption, and on a very local level, family farms struggling to survive, it is a critical time for us to re-localize our food system, challenging our food purchasing and consumption patterns and seeking our nourishment closer to home.

Buying domestically rather than importing from other regions is a positive step torward supporting our neighbors and our communities, while tackling global concerns.

Why is this important to
Hillsboro Sugarworks?

Hillsboro Sugarworks relies on its local markets and loyal customers that buy our products. We understand the importance of and appreciate our repeat buyers, who are the foundation of our economic success. We are proud to have developed and maintained markets that are within a 100 mile radius to food co-ops, restaurants, bakeries, colleges, gift stores, and inns. Realizing the importance to many consumers of food source and distance, we educated the public at point of sale with a 'shelf talker' explaining 'food miles' or the distance from production to shelf.

On a personal level, knowing where our food comes from, and how it is grown or raised, enables us to choose food from farmers we know, and respect. We want local farms to survive and continue to be part of our landscape. We are concerned about oil-dependent shipping of foods over long distances and food borne illnesses that are becoming more prevelant. We are concerned about the control of our food supply in the hands of a few, multinational corporations focused on short-term profits, not the economic and environmental health of our communities.

Eating locally helps to provide some of the answers to questions Localvores have about the production of their food. It also adds to our personal eating pleasure when we know where our food has come from and the farmer who grew it.

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