Doing Good By Eating Well

All of this purchasing local and close-by regional foods creates some significant, positive social and environmental impacts:

• A regional pod of five diners will create an annual market of $1,200,000 for local and regional farmers and producers. A 'pod is a group of diners that share purchasing and preparation by a central commissary that makes purchasing, delivery by farmers, and initial processing much more efficient than if each diner did it alone.
• The Farmers Diner buys the best-raised local and regional farm products, with a preference for the highest quality, nearest products. Beef must have access to the outdoors and pasture as a principal part of their feed ration and may not be raised with added hormones nor antibiotics. The local area pork that we purchase is raised without added hormones or antibiotics and is raised outdoors or on deeply bedded straw packs. These practices eliminate improper waste management and focus farmers on husbandry and not industrial management.
• In-season vegetables, when not available from area organic sources, will be sourced from area growers who use Integrated Pest Management systems, thus reducing the amount of harmful chemicals and poisons released into the environment. When local or close-by regional produce is not available, The Farmers Diner currently uses an area produce company supplying typical commercial vegetables.
• Using the Department of Commerce multiplier for dollars spent in local communities, it is estimated that the $1,200,000 spent by a 5-diner pod in local agrarian communities will translate into an economic force of approximately $6,000,000 annually. This will encourage other farm and distribution-related services to be created.
  
  

• Each pod of five diners will help maintain and create new farms. With each farm or local processor supplying $30,000 - $120,000 worth of food to The Farmers Diner this translates into 10-40 local farms or other food businesses more secure in their economic viability.
• Using the pod commissary model for processing local produce will help farmers to diversify their operations and receive better compensation without the time requirement of coordinating processing and distribution. This will assist farmers in moving towards polyculture (multiple products) and away from sole dependence upon commodity monoculture and the inherient risks of having all their eggs in one basket.

And all from eating great tasting food in a real American diner!