Wonderful more info and support for our local butchers is awesome, they need the help.  But, I don't think any farm or butcher wants charity or pity, we want people to choose to spend their food dollars locally.  Right here, in Grey and Bruce County, food that was grown and produced in Grey and Bruce County!  When they by locally grown and processed meats each dollar spent says in rural areas.

Our Meat Sales generate our operating dollars and the money we earn from our farm business are spent in Grey and Bruce country.  We pay the processors, the growers, the grain suppliers, the guy who sells us organic shell flour, kelp and minerals, we shop at Farm Supply stores in Owen Sound and purchase bees and supplies from local bee keepers.  We purchase lumber and tools from local hardware stores, we have local trades people hired to build and fix stuff on our farm, fences are built, wages are paid, and we purchase fuel and food and our daily supplies locally.  For each dollar we take in as a sale, 95% of it is spent locally. 

If we do that, and our local processors, tradesmen, fuel supplier, grain supplier, wage earners and fence builders all do the same, then the rural economy remains strong and healthy.  That is the best news Farmers, Processors and local business people have heard in a long time.  Processors are the key to a Strong food supply chain in Grey and Bruce County.  We are all connected and when we recognize and respect that, we all get to be successful and feel supported!  

 

Dragonfly is only as good as our suppliers, our main suppliers are butchers.  Without them, we and many farmers like us would not be in business. I choose local processors, all within 1 hour of our farm.  We processed and sold 11 602 lbs of packaged meat last year and our goal for 2012 is 15 000 lbs. 

 

Together, producers, processors and consumers in Grey and Bruce county have an amazing opportunity to strengthen our rural community. Buy Local, look your farmer in the eye, come out for a farm tour, know where your food comes from. 

 

Local means fewer km's per food dollar, it reduces the impact on the environment, it encourages strong relationships with the producer and customer, it encourages community support and re-investment in the local community each day, each dollar.

 

Imagine the bigger picture, more local food dollars spent, more jobs available on the farm to produce more local food, more local food produced, more work and income for local processors.  We all want to do business, to grow and improve and support our local community.  Show me a farmer who is in it for just the money and I will show you a farmer who does not like their job, they do it because they have to.  

 

I am very passionate about my local community but only 5% of our sales are generated from local sales.  We are servicing a niche market, but locally people do not have the income to purchase higher quality or niche market products.  Producers can not compete with grocery store prices. To support local processors, we must produce niche market products in order to be sustainable.  Grocery store food is produced on a massive scale, what they process in an hour, we process in a year.

 

But if the food dollars stayed here, and higher wages could be paid, and more jobs were available on the farm, and at processors and retail locations then, and only then will our local economy would be strong.

 

Did I mention I was passionate about local food? Please tell your readers to Buy local, change the world!

Cindy Wilhelm, Dragonfly Garden Farm