Tag: local economy

How to support Co Vid-19 recovery locally

Spending at your local farmers’ market adds extra dollars to the local economy

Spending $50 buying local product from local farmers at local markets adds a minimum $150 to your local economy. Spend $50 with a local farmer – the farmers spends it locally (now $100) and they spend it locally (now $150). Spend $50 with a national retailer – $3 stays within the local economy – the local employee spends it locally (now $6) and they spend it locally (now $9). Which supports the locally economy best $150 or $9 – that extra effort to support locally contributes to a strong vibrant local economy. read more

Other reasons to support your local farmers

  • Taste Real Flavours

The fruits and vegetables you buy at the farmers market are the freshest and tastiest available. Fruits are allowed to ripen fully in the field and are brought directly to you—no long-distance shipping, no gassing to simulate the ripening process, no sitting for weeks in storage. This food is as real as it gets—fresh from the farm.

  • Know Where Your Food Comes From

A regular trip to a farmer’s market is one of the best ways to connect with where your food comes from. Meeting and talking to farmers and food artisans is a great opportunity to learn more about how and where food is produced.  Connectivity is available in the food community – see websites and social media pages that provides transparency of the farmer to know their story. Learn about the people who work hard to bring you the most delicious and nutritious food around

  • Learn Cooking Tips, Recipes, and Meal Ideas

Few grocery store cashiers or produce stockers will give you tips on how to cook the ingredients you buy, but farmers, ranchers, and artisans at the farmers market are often passionate cooks with plenty of free advice about how to cook the foods they are selling. Many have recipes on line to access the best cooking advice from the producer.

  • Enjoy the Season

The food you buy at the farmers market is seasonal. It is fresh and delicious and reflects the truest flavours. Shopping and cooking from the farmers market help you to reconnect with the cycles of nature in your region. As you look forward to asparagus in spring, savour sweet corn in summer, or bake pumpkins in autumn, you reconnect with the earth, the weather, and the turning of the year.

  • Support Family Farmers

Family farmers need your support, now that large agribusiness dominates food production. Small family farms often have a determination to manage their raw materials with sustainable and renewable practices to ensure they are available for future generations. Buying directly from farmers gives them a better return for their produce, encourages them and others to undertake sustainable food practices and gives them a fighting chance in today’s globalized economy.

  • Protect the Environment

Food travels an average of 1,000 miles to get to your plate. All this shipping uses large amounts of natural resources (especially fossil fuels), contributes to pollution, and creates rubbish with extra packaging. Conventional agriculture also uses many more resources than sustainable agriculture and pollutes water, land, and air with agricultural by-products. Food at the farmers market is transported shorter distances and is generally grown using methods that respect the land and water minimizing the impact on the earth.

  • Nourish Yourself

Much food found in grocery stores is highly processed and grown using pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and genetic modification. Some of it has been irradiated, waxed, or gassed in transit. These practices may have negative effects on human health. In contrast, most food found at the farmers market is minimally processed, and many of our farmers go to great lengths to grow the most nutritious produce possible by using sustainable techniques, picking produce right before the market.

  • Discover the Spice of Life: Variety

At the farmers market you find an amazing array of produce that you don’t see in your average supermarket: lemongrass, purple cauliflower, truffles, marinated varieties of meats, green garlic, watermelon radishes, quail eggs and much, much more. It is a wonderful opportunity to savour the biodiversity of our planet.

  • Promote Humane Treatment of Animals

At the farmers market, you can find meats, cheeses, and eggs from animals that have been raised without hormones or antibiotics, who have grazed on green grass and eaten natural diets, and who have been spared the cramped and unnatural living conditions of feedlots and cages that are typical of animal agriculture.

  • Connect with Your Community

Wouldn’t you rather stroll amidst outdoor stalls of fresh produce on a sunny day than roll your cart around a grocery store with artificial lights and piped in music? Coming to the farmers market makes shopping a pleasure rather than a chore. The farmers market is a community hub—a place to meet up with your friends, bring your children, or just get a taste of small-town life in the midst of our wonderful big city.

Localised Spending HIDDEN Pot of Gold

Make a difference – Every $100 spent with local business will add $175 to your Local economy supporting your family, friends and your local community.

There are many reasons to spend with and support local businesses - keeping them operational for continued use, competition, employment & purchasing in your local community...how about

Every $100 you spend in a local business boosts your local economy by $175

Today I want discussion on an often overlooked or underestimated feature of local economies.

How can spending $100 with your Local Business impact your local community (Family, Friends, Neighbours) by $175?

Consider the 4 different types of expenditure where we spend our income.

  • Local economy - local business who create their own products or manufacture them from predominately locally sourced purchases employing locally where required.
  • National retailers who source their products nationally. Includes national on-line purchases
  • International retailers who substantially source their products globaly. Includes International on-line purchases
  • Your Future Fund where you are paying off a mortgage (equity you can use at a later date), adding to investments in retirement planning or Superannuation for later use. Savings for a rainy day.
With some retailers it is not easy to establish if their corporate base is National or International however the origins of their products should be easily assessed. In addition some purchasers may utilise a retailer who offers both Nationally & Internationally sourced products but only purchase nationally sourced.

The more you know about your Retailers, Suppliers and their products the more accurate you can construct your spending model and the contribution to the economy. For my purposes I have constructed the following contribution averages that applies to me.

 

My Purchase estimates is 5% Local Business, 50% Corporate (National Products), 18% Corporate (International Products) & 27% Future Fund of Mortgage payment & Retirement funds.
My Contribution to the Local Economy from local business purchases is $5687.50 ($2437.50 Pot of Gold above the original spend of $3250). This is calculated on the basis that Local Business appreciates the benefit of local purchases and will spend 50% of their income on local purchases

With a review of my purchasing options to supporting local businesses I can realistically increase local purchases to 28% of my income reducing Corporate National products to 30% & Corporate International products to 15%

 

 

 

 

The power of my spending has increased from $69,753 to $80,405 thanks to the ripple effect of spending in my Local Economy

The Pot of Gold to the Local Economy is now $13,650 on top of my original spend of $18,200. There is an additional estimate $4095 added to the Local Economy from the Local content of purchases in the other expenditure types. (see below for further information on my estimates)

The contribution to the Local Economy lifts from $11,090 to $35,945 assisting my family, my friends, my neighbours within this community.

The Federal Government knows only too well that by injecting money by way of Tax cuts, a Cash bonus and/or spending into Australia (its local economy) the ripple affect boosts the economy; similarly, the State Governments will boost the its Local Economy with infrastructure spending. It is up to the local community to boost its local economy through purchasing; and the rewards are well worth it.

There are a number of other reasons to shop local with many small business also committed to care for the product and the environment (leading by example) and we will address these in a later Blog

 Apart from the allocation of spending which is clearly indicated in the tables – I have included the following estimates regarding contribution to the Economies

Local Economy

The Local Economy after the initial allocation (eg. Table2) $18,200 gets 50%* of that spending back in the local community (Business & Personal spend) $9,100 repeating to a third level $4550 (total contribution $31850). The Local Economy also gets 5% from the spend in the other 3 categories to account for local employee / business involvement eg Retail outlet
*50% spend is based on the knowledge small local business understand the importance of spending in the local community

National Economy

Receives 65% of the Corporation (National Product) spend to take into consideration the acquisition of National Products and other National Business Spend, 20% of the Corporate (International Product) spend to take into consideration their National Business spend and 5% from the spend into Your Future Fund to take into consideration their National Business spend.

Australian Produce (1)

Global Economy

Receives 30% of the Corporation (National Product) spend to take into consideration the International Business Spend, 75% of the Corporate (International Product) spend to take into consideration that the majority of their spend is International.

Future Fund

Your Future Fund contribution is 90% of your Future Fund spend as it has minimal impact on either of the domestic economies after the allocation of the 5% to both to allow for Local & National Business needs including employment

 

Everyone’s purchasing scenario will be a little different. If you have reasonable confidence in your knowledge of spending and/or contributions you could tailor your own table to better represent you.

 

 

Message me if you would like a working copy of my table

Would love to hear from any small business that would like their Journey to sustainability to be highlighted in future posts
Peter O'Connor
Journey to Sustainability
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