{"id":12243,"date":"2016-05-23T09:59:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=12243"},"modified":"2016-05-23T09:59:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:59:33","slug":"montana-ethic-project-many-reasons-to-grow-eat-local-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/montana-ethic-project-many-reasons-to-grow-eat-local-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: Many reasons to grow, eat local food"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Smith\"<\/a>

Joey and Libbie Early<\/p>

Dawson County Extension Agent Bruce Smith talks about the vital importance of producing and consuming more of the food we eat in Montana.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the 12th\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features Bruce Smith, Dawson County extension agent, talking about “Montana’s Food Economy.”<\/p>\n

You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it begins:<\/p>\n

“Montanans spend over $3 billion a year on food. However, all of the agricultural production in\u00a0the state, all of the vegetables, the grain and the livestock that we produce doesn\u2019t add up to $3\u00a0billion. Of our food production in the 1950s, 70 percent of what Montanans ate came from in\u00a0Montana. Right now it\u2019s less than 10 percent. That is approximately $300 million; we are leaving $2.7\u00a0billion on the table.<\/p>\n

“If you consider what the Department of Labor statistics says, that it costs about $58,000 to create a new\u00a0job, we\u2019re leaving tens of thousands of jobs in the state of Montana lying on the table.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Smith’s\u00a0presentation:<\/p>\n

“One of the stories I used to tell about being in the food business in Eastern Montana was that the trucks\u00a0would come to town full of food and that they would go back empty. Well they don\u2019t go back empty.\u00a0They go back with our money. And guess who is in the car right behind them? Our kids. Because they\u00a0have to go someplace where there are jobs.<\/p>\n

“Over the last 50 years we have lost about 50 percent of our population. In Eastern Montana our\u00a0population right now is the same as it was in 1915.<\/p>\n

“Food security is an issue that comes up a lot of times when people talk about not knowing where your\u00a0next meal comes from. It is usually associated with low income or people that are down on their luck a\u00a0little bit. But my contention has always been that everybody in the state of Montana is food insecure.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re three days away from not having food on the shelves. One snow storm, one trucker strike, those kinds\u00a0of things are a big deal here.<\/p>\n

“We are at the end of the food chain.”<\/p>\n