Farmer's Markets aren't necessarily local. A lot of booths are resellers who go to the Ontario Food Terminal and buy whatever they think will sell from produce trucked up from the States and take it to the Farmer's Market.

Short of questioning each and every vendor, how do I know what is local and what isn't?

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Similarily, there are a lot of artisan cheese producers in Ontario, but how do I know where they are getting their raw ingredients from? Is it any more local if they're having milk shipped from two provinces away?

Last year, I was very excited to learn that there's a farmers' market five minutes from my house. When I visited the market, I was so disappointed. It was very obvious that they weren't farmers and they had just bought the produce from the food terminal. I felt cheated.

So how do you know if the vendors actually grew the food they're selling? With the growing local food movement, many of the markets now have strict guidelines for vendors (eg. Dufferin Grove Market, Riverdale Farm Market). Usually, the vendor must grow/produce/make 80% of their goods. When I'm researching markets for this website, I try to only include markets with such guidelines. As for the cheese, I'm not sure how you would know. Although from experience, I find that if they went the extra mile to use only local raw ingredients, they will tell you upfront.

Tanny

An excellent question! I think it's really a personal call on how you want to define "local" and how strictly your want to adhere to it. When we started this website it was because we wanted to find "local" wheat. I figured that would be the hardest thing to find in Ontario. If you check our list of suppliers you'll find at least one grain supplier in our area (Arva Flour Mills).

Here are some definitions of "local food" to get the discussion going:

1. Wikipedia ("local food")
   
   The definition of "local" or "regional" is flexible and is different depending on the person in question. Some local business with specific retail and production focuses, such as cheese, may take a larger view of what is 'local' while a local farm my see the area with in a day's driving as local (since this is where they can efficiently move their products to. Some see "local" as being a very small area (typically, the size of a city and its surroundings), others suggest the ecoregion or bioregion size, while others refer to the borders of their nation or state.



2. Local Food Plus
   
   LFP defines locally produced and processed food as products that have been produced, processed, and distributed within the province (i.e., Ontario) in which they are consumed.



3. Alberta Agriculture "Approved Farmer's Markets"
   
   Alberta has a system for designated (approving) local farmer's markets. Their rule is eighty percent (80%) of the vendors must sell Alberta products which they, an immediate family member or staff, have grown, produced, handcrafted, processed or baked.



4. The 100 Mile Diet
   
   In "The 100 Mile Diet" they took the definition very strictly in that all ingredients must have been sourced within 100 miles.

Ultimately, it's about sustainability and supporting the "local" farmer. If you want a banana and it's not grown locally, can you buy the organic banana grown in a sustainable manner in Cost Rica? Up to you!

Yeah, it's a tricky question. I think it's a process, not a religion.

Buying local cheese made of nonlocal milk still stimulates your local economy more than buying nonlocal cheese from nonlocal milk. Feel good about it, and then if you find a source that is all local, then you can switch to that!

For farmers markets, I'd ask at each stall where the food came from. Even if you end up buying nonlocal food, shopping at a farmer's market still shows demand for such produce, and asking the "is it local?" question tells suppliers loud and clear what you want.

I guess I'm lucky since I have local produce farms to buy directly from, plus a local dairy which makes its own cheese from its own milk, etc. as well as meat from its own cows (and pigs too). Of course I know there has to be nonlocal aspects, perhaps seeds for their pastures aren't local; maybe they buy fertilizer from some outside source. I'm still quite happy with my much-reduced footprint, and know that the farms are also striving to acheive a local ecosystem.