Local Food System Has $30B Economic Stimulus Potential For Illinois Economy

April 22, 2009

Illinois is losing at least $20 to $30 billion in locally grown food sales each year because it lacks a robust small farm sector.

Instead, most of the more than $48 million that Illinoisans spend annually on good goes to California, South America and other out-of-state producers. This occurs despite the fact that Illinois has one of the nation's largest agricultural economies.

Even a small amount of locally grown food can generate an enormous amount of new economic activity and that means more jobs in rural areas around the state.

New legislation sponsored by Representative Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) and Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), now flying thought the state legislature, will change all that by using state resources to encourage community-based farm and food networks.