Do you eat food?
Do you live in San Diego County?
Then you are a part of the San Diego food community. Think of our food system as a circle, each of us interdependent and connected with every other part of the circle. Where you buy your food and what you put in your mouth not only affects you and your health, but that of your neighbors as well.
We are SAN DIEGO ROOTS Sustainable Food Project, a network of citizens, farmers, chefs, gardeners, teachers, and students working to encourage the growth and consumption of regional food. From farm to fork, we focus awareness and work toward a more ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just food system in San Diego.
By eating locally, not only do you get fresher, better-tasting food, but you also help support family farms and encourage a vibrant local economy.
ROOTS Works to:
- promote small, family farms and local food businesses
- distribute information on farmers’ markets and
the seasonality of local food - provide education and resources on local food circles
- encourage events that strengthen the local food system
- protect and preserve farmland in San Diego County
- grow our own food and help others who want to grow their own food
- support school gardens and entrepreneurial youth training projects related to sustainable agriculture and the culinary arts, such as Terra Nova Organic Garden at Morse High School.
Help Preserve Local Farms
Have you ever visited a farm?
Would you like your children to see a real farm and to know that a carrot comes from the ground and not a plastic bag?
Would you like to keep San Diego green?
Do you want to support our local farmers and economy?
Rising land values and pressure from housing development in southern California have made it increasingly difficult for small farms to survive. Yet access to quality food is crucial to the health and well-being of our communities. Food now comes from farther and farther away—1500 miles on average—strung out on a tenuous food distribution system dependent on cheap oil.
This long-distance transportation chain requires that food be picked early, before the development of flavor and nutrition; refrigerated for days or weeks; shipped from grower to packer to distribution center to centralized warehouses and, finally, to your local market. This system has been called the agriculture-industrial complex, and it views food as merely a commodity.
Locally grown food is different. Fruits and vegetables are grown with taste in mind and picked when deliciously ripe and ready for eating, not for shipping. When you buy from a local farmer, nearly all the money ends up in his or her pocket, rather than going to middlemen or distributors. Most farms in San Diego are family-owned, and those families, in turn, spend their money in our community.
San Diego has an ideal climate, capable of growing food year-round, yet our local farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. To ensure a quality of life in our area for generations to come, we must make preserving local farms a priority and share the knowledge of food production far and wide.
Keep San Diego Healthy & Delicious –
Eat Locally Grown