According to the farm-to-school specialist for Utah schools, not only is momentum for farm-to-school procurement in Utah increasing, but’s the district’s capacity to participate is increasing as well. While the Cache Valley School District sources much of its fresh produce locally, virtually everything else that it purchases come from large-scale, non-local sources. As this is the case, there is a large degree of potential for an increase in local food purchasing behavior in the future. The Utah State Office of Education has moved farm-to-school from an ancillary assignment to a core program with staff dedicating a portion of their time to facilitate growth. There is potential for a sharp increase in funding for farm-to-school procurement in the near future, as the Child Nutritional Reauthorization Act has the potential to increase farm-to-school grant funding from $5 million to $10 million next year.

While there is no lack of local purchasing options for things other than fruits and vegetables (for example, Cache Valley is a widely-known and prolific producer of cheese products), the school district should consider the concept of the local trap – blindly assuming local foods are inherently superior without considering all of the factors involved – before committing to purchase from these sources. The sources may be geographically close, but there are other matters to consider. The following questions may be useful guides to assessing the potential utility of a switching to a local source:

• Are the source’s practices socially sustainable? That is, do they treat their employees fairly and equitably?
• Are its production practices environmentally sustainable?
• How much of an actual benefit to the local economy will purchasing from this source facilitate?

Addressing these questions before making a decision to procure more products locally will help to ensure that farm-to-school procurement (and other methods of procurement from local sources) takes place in a way that facilitates social, environmental, and economic sustainability.