Other University efforts include the Environmental Sustainability and Energy Conservation Campaign’s introduction of the Eco-Rep program.

The new pilot program invites students living in eight residence halls to educate other students about the environment. Recruitment for student representatives of the program took place during September and a variety of topics chosen by the campaign will be discussed each month for the remainder of the 2008-2009 academic year.

A new event came to UMass this semester, the “Campus Consciousness” tour featuring the band OAR, who just announced a partnership with the environmental group Reverb.

The tour offers students an environmental concert event at several college campuses. UMass Amherst was the tour’s first stop this year. At the Campus Center, a meeting similar to that at a town hall took place before the concert, and featured organizers of the event, including Josh Stoffel and one member from the band OAR. Panelists answered a variety of student questions concerning green initiatives and ways to lessen their carbon footprints.

“For a band like OAR to say these things with me, instead of just me to saying it, I feel might carry a little more weight,” said Stoffel.

Other news indicating that UMass is furthering its green efforts include some plans by Dining Services. Ken Toong revealed his latest plans about how he continues to support local agriculture. He hopes to increase the amount of local produce for dining services from 23 to 25 percent by 2010. Toong also says that plans to renovate Worcester Dining Commons are scheduled as early as 2010 to make the building become more energy efficient.

The first green certified LEED building at UMass may be a part of the campus as soon as the summer of 2010. The green initiative involves a new campus police station that is still under development and in planning mode. The Facilities and Planning department is hoping to make the new police station an LEED certified gold-standard building.

On college campuses, the effort to “go green” has reached new heights.

Across the country, in response to student demands as well as costs, colleges are building energy efficient buildings, getting students to conserve energy, and taking other steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

One reason why colleges and universities are investing more in research is because students are advocating for environmental consciousness from administrators. The University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of hundreds of schools with green initiatives, has made some notable progress.

But what exactly does it mean to go green?

According to Mark Orlowski, the Executive Director of The Sustainable Endowments Institute, the term “green” holds several meanings. The institute looks at college campuses and issues a report card each year rating campuses on their commitments to sustainability.

“The Sustainable Endowments Institute is pretty much in line with the common understanding of green as being environmentally friendly and sensitive,” he said. “But green also means thinking about sustainability and how your decisions now have a long term environmental impact.”

According to Orlowski, it is the institute’s goal to make sustainability a priority on campus. More and more schools are seeing the importance of their green performance, particularly with how it affects their public image. “There are lots of reasons for colleges to go green,” he said. “Before students even step onto a college campus, many applicants are interested in whether a school is sustainable or not. From the admissions side, it encourages more students to apply.”

On a global scale, increasing oil prices and the urgency of climate change have heightened new interests in the environment. College ranking organizations like The Princeton Review are responding to the surge by developing their own green rating systems. In a survey of more than 10,000 college applicants and parents, The Princeton Review found that 63 percent of respondents said they would value having information about a school???s commitment to the environment.

Other ranking systems like Forbes Magazine???s list of “America’s Greenest Colleges,” and Grist Magazine’s list of “Green Colleges and Universities,” further complement this interest.

“The students at these institutions are now living in an era where knowledge about the environment is valued,” said Orlowski.

“More and more companies are demanding some sort of knowledge about the environment in job qualifications.”

The institute’s College Sustainability Report Card gave UMass Amherst a “C+” for its progress, which he says is about average compared to other schools. However, out of the Five Colleges, UMass scored lower than Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke College.

The university scored highest in what Orlowski described as more visible categories, while its lowest grades were in categories that many colleges often overlook, such as endowment transparency and shareholder agreement.

The Princeton Review’s Green Rating gave UMass a score of 82/99.

Linda Coombs, Director of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation, debunked some of the common Thanksgiving myths, the first of which being that there was no ???First Thanksgiving???.

Coombs says, ???The assumption is that in 1621 the Indians and Pilgrims got together for a feast, and did it every year after that until it turned into today???s holiday. The fact is that this was a one-time event. It was recorded only in a single passage written by Edward Winslow, included along with many other topics in his letter. In the 19th century Alexander Young took Winslow???s passage and positioned it as a separate paragraph on the page, thereby giving it more emphasis. Also, in a footnote at the bottom of the page, Young refers to this event as the ???First Thanksgiving??? and there was born the myth.???

Coombs also explains how the actual meal itself is a myth, there is no proof that Massasoit and his 90 men were invited to the feast, they just happened to travel through and stay with the Pilgrims for three days during this time period. ???For any author to indicate that the Indians were invited is actually misconstruing history,??? says Coombs. Women and children may not have even been present at the feast.

Not only are the guests themselves shrouded in myth, so is the actual menu. Coombs breaks down the stereotypical Thanksgiving foods into three categories:
Likely:
-Wildfowl and five deer donated by the Wampanoag
-Native birds such as turkey, ducks and geese
-Fish and shellfish such as cod, eel, lobster and clams,
-Native fruits such as cranberries and dried blueberries
-Nuts
-Wild vegetables like Jerusalem artichokes, wild onions, leeks and garlic
-Cultivated vegetables such as corn, beans, squash, pumpkin, and English cultivated crops such as turnips, cabbage, parsnips, melons, carrots and herbs
-Small quantities of goats??? milk/cheese and eggs
-English imported goods such as sugar, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, oil, wine/aqua vitaie, and dried fruit.

Possible but not at all likely:
-Cranberry sauce, requires too much sugar
-Pies and desserts, require wheat flour, sugar or baking
-Meats such as pork or chicken
-Bread stuffing

Absolutely not served:
-Popcorn
-Sweet or white potatoes
-Sweet corn
-Jell-O mold
-Coffee or tea (they were not even in England at the time)

The food also was not eaten at a long table as Hallmark cards so often show. ???There was no such table in Plimoth at the time,??? says Coombs, ???We surmise that it would have been more likely that the 90 Native people were dispersed to outdoor dining areas, and the others, leaders such as Massasoit may have been hosted by the Governor.???

The clothes and hats seen on Pilgrims in pictures are loosely based in truth. Jill Hall, of the Colonial Wardrobe and Textiles Dept. at Plimoth Plantation, explains that, ???The Pilgrims did wear black and white linen, but not in the stereotypical outfits. The squared buckles, collars, and hats didn???t come along until later in the 17th and 18th centuries???. The pictures we see are composites of clothing styles from throughout the years.

??? Howard Chandler Christy did a set of illustrations that were very popular and the image of the Pilgrims got fixed in the American mindset. They became identified with virtues such as piety, religious freedom, and family values,??? explains Hall, ???Madison Avenue and advertisers realized that you can associate these values with your product values by using a picture of a guy in Pilgrim clothes???. So the image of the square hats stayed, as a drive along the Mass Pike will prove.

The modern Thanksgiving, Coombs explains, is for many Americans a time to celebrate with their family all of their blessings, giving ???thanks??? just as the myth says. But the truth is that many Native people do not share this same viewpoint, they feel it is ???celebrated at their expense, since they gave up under force or coercion their lands, cultures, and ways of life for other peoples to move onto those lands and establish their way of life. Today there are thousands of Native families who as a results struggle to obtain even the most basic of necessities.???

Coombs says that people choose to believe and celebrate the myth because it???s easier to believe and has been perpetrated for four centuries, ???The facts are very harsh, people generally do not want to grapple with what colonization actually means: It is the violent takeover of one group of peoples??? land and resources, with forced changes and conversions, suffering death by outright killing, undermining tradition, eradicating food sources, and various forms of warfare (diseases people had no immunity to, psychological). The list goes on.???

To learn more about Thanksgiving Coombs recommends the following books: William Bradford???s ???Of Plimoth Plantation???, ???Manitou and Providence??? by Neal Salisbury, and ???Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience??? by Colin G. Calloway and Neal Salisbury.

If you are around Plimoth Plantation for Thanksgiving, they offer all-day Thanksgiving celebrations serving traditional faire. Another thing to think about near Thanksgiving and the holiday season is donating food to a local food bank, that way everyone can have a meal to be thankful for.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has joined the ‘green’ movement sweeping the nation — perhaps in some ways you might not imagine. Evidence is everywhere, from student-led initiatives to the abundance of local foods available at the DCs. Some progress has even captured both local and national attention.

Buying local brings recognition to the dining commons

Ken Toong, the director of Dining Services, recently received both the state’s Faces of Agriculture Award and 2008 Blue Ribbon Award for his contributions and support of local farmers and agriculture.

According to Toong, in 2002 Dining Services purchased less than 10 percent of its produce from local farmers. This year, that figure has risen to 23 percent.

For years, Dining Services has led the campus in sustainability efforts, buying produce, dairy, and meat from local farmers whenever possible. They also serve only sustainable seafood, following strict guidelines set by Seafood WATCH.

Other actions demonstrate how Dining Services is environmentally conscious. These include composting food waste, using OS1 ??? a certified green cleaning program, offering the ‘Small Plate, Big Flavor’ program to help reduce food waste, and recycling grease. Dining Services also helped kick off the fall semester by hosting the “Welcome Back Green Barbecue.”

“Everything was green - from the milk to even the beef,” Toong said.

“We want to promote UMass being green as much as possible because there???s great opportunity, especially with new students.”

Reducing, reusing, and recycling at UMass

The university earned its highest mark in the College Sustainability Report Card’s food and recycling category. The high grade could be a result of the collaboration of Dining Services and the Office of Waste Management. Together, they ensure that hundreds of tons of food waste are diverted from landfills every year.

For the past 17 years, UMass has utilized a recycling program. According to John Pepi, the director of the Office of Waste Management, millions of dollars have been spent supplying every office, lab, classroom and dormitory in each residence hall with the necessary resources to recycle. Pepi credits the state’s recycling facility in Springfield for much of The Office of Waste Management’s success.

“We have a very good state facility that allows us to collect materials mingled, so people don’t have to waste time sorting,” Pepi said.

“I don???t know of another facility that allows for a wider range of materials than we do.”

If there is one reason for the university to continue supporting the recycling program, Pepi believes it is because recycling is the easiest way to protect the environment.

“When we see ourselves as part of a larger community, doing our share to reduce global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, and to conserve energy, recycling is the best choice,” he said.

“It’s a smart thing for the state–even during a financial crisis–to be supporting its recycling and composting programs.”

An expert gives advice on green building: What UMass should do

Reasons to take initiatives in green building include both pragmatic and philosophical reasons according to Simi Hoque, an assistant professor of Green Building at UMass Amherst.

Hoque cites many reasons to go green but she says the most popular argument for green building is saving money. Although it costs more money upfront, the payback is well worth it, according to Hoque. Another popular argument is that green building helps combat the effects of climate change and global warming. Hoque also says that green building has the potential to reduce the nation???s dependency on foreign oil and energy consumption.

“A major problem buildings have on the environment is that they consume 40 percent of the energy produced in this country,” she said.

“If we were to become more cognizant of the fact that buildings could become more energy efficient, we’d be well on our way towards a more energy independent nation.”

PHOTO SLIDESHOW: Green Building at UMass

Whether going green comes from what’s in your heart or from the effects it has on your wallet doesn’t matter to Hoque.

“As long as one becomes green, the reasoning behind it doesn’t matter to me,” she said.

Hoque suggests that UMass have full energy audits for all its buildings on campus. This would mean that all the windows, lighting systems, air qualities and pollutants, and insulation would be reported in evaluations that describe buildings’ total environmental performances. These would then be measured against performance standards set by the L.E.E.D. program for existing buildings, Operations and Maintenance. The University would simply need to do the necessary renovations suggested by the program in order to become green.

What one student is doing to make a difference

When it comes to students, Josh Stoffel is the definition of what it means to be a student who supports the environment. As a student representative on the Environmental Performance Advisory Committee (EPAC), Stoffell helped launch the Environmental Sustainability and Energy Conservation Campaign. He is also the acting president and co-founder of Students for Environmental Awareness and Action (SEAA).

“As a senior who has been working on these issues for four years, I think the biggest thing that UMass could do is hire a sustainability director for the campus,” he said.

“Dining Services is doing one thing, SEAA is doing another, Auxiliary Services is doing another ??? and they???re all doing good things, but it???s all very disjointed,” he said. “What we need is someone who can assemble all this into one solid effort.”

Images courtesy of umass.edu and Simi Hoque.

Although gas prices have been rapidly falling in the past month, food prices may not follow suit, and consumers are looking for alternatives to the high-priced grocery store chains.

Over the past several years, rising gas prices have pushed the price of food higher and higher as farmers and grocery stores struggled to make a profit while their production and transportation costs skyrocketed.

Concerns over the weakening economy have inspired many people to purchase local foods over imported groceries. This movement, helped by organizations like the Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, works to support local farmers and the local economy and to reduce the ecological footprint, or “foodprint,” of what people eat. The lower transportation costs may also help some retailers curtail the rising costs of groceries.

One such local food retailer, Atkins Farm in Amherst, Mass., provides shoppers with all the variety of a large chain store, but places a great emphasis on buying and selling local products. On a Monday morning, their parking lot is full and the aisles are packed with people looking for fresh, local fruits, vegetables, dairy products, baked goods and even flowers.

Cathy Kirley, an employee of Atkins Farms, says that in recent months they have seen a significant increase in business.

“It’s nice, they know it’s fresh,” she said. Kirley works at both Atkins and at a larger chain grocery store, Stop & Shop in Northampton. Although both stores have seen large price increases, she says that she notices higher increases at Stop & Shop.

Still, the difficulties farmers have faced in fueling their tractors and farm equipment has taken a toll on Atkins as well. Kirley estimates that on average, prices have risen about $2, and some of the farmers who supply her shelves might not make it through the tough times.

“One company, I think it was in Conway, Mass., I can???t get in touch with them anymore,” she said. “I don’t know what happened, because I was ordering once a week, and now the phone’s disconnected. So I’m all upset because I don’t know what happened to them.”

And although fuel prices are finally dropping, the numbers at the grocery store might not be changing anytime soon. According to the Associated Press, it is likely that food retailers will absorb the lower production costs into their profits. Because prices are set by the companies, not on an open market like the price of oil, companies will lock in the higher prices even though the rationale for them is gone, padding their profits and keeping the average consumer???s grocery bill troublingly high.

The University of Massachusetts is completely reshaping the image of cafeteria food by working closely with farmers within the area to provide healthy, local meals to its students, lower its food costs, and educate the UMass community about nutrition.

In the past five years, the amount of locally grown food used in the UMass Dining Commons has dramatically increased with the hiring of Ken Toong, the university???s director of Dining and Retail Services. By using both local food and local specialty chefs, Toong???s message of buying local is a popular one that resonates with students who enjoy a fresh meal.

With the help of 15 local farms, Toong works hard to ???make the dining commons the learning commons.??? By this, Toong means that it is his personal goal to provide more than just food to the students of the university. Education about the benefits of eating local is just as important as the meal itself. He says that buying local preserves farmland, and makes students more involved.

Toong buys local because he says that students want something fresher. The produce served in the UMass dining commons are just that. According to Toong, broccoli picked on a local farm in the morning can easily be on the menu that very night for dinner.

Along with the food he serves, Toong also organizes weekly and biweekly events to teach students about the local food they eat. Such events include award winning guest chefs, local food specialties, and themed weeks like Sustainable Seafood Week or Apple Week.

These events are especially exciting for him because he says that he is ???blessed with good chefs in the area.??? While events like these are not unique to UMass, Toong explains that at most schools, they take place only about once a month.

For Ken Toong, there is an added incentive to buy local: it???s cheaper.

???It???s a myth that buying local is more expensive,??? he says.

He explains that by buying local, you don???t pay the middle man because there really aren???t any. The money goes straight to the farmers and helps support the Massachusetts economy.

To get an idea of how much cheaper local foods are, Toong compares the price of local deli meat to that of deli meat at a grocery store. He pays about two to three dollars per pound locally while Stop and Shop charges around eight to nine dollars per pound.

Before Ken Toong was hired as director of Food Services, UMass did not make a conscious effort to include local foods on their menu. Currently, with Toong in charge, 10 percent of all food served in the dining commons is bought from New England vendors, 23 percent of all produce is local, and all seafood options meet Seafood WATCH???s sustainable seafood guidelines.

Toong does not work alone. Luckily for him, Joe Czajkowski owns and works on a farm only two miles from campus. Czajkowski is a Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture (CISA) member. He helped Toong join in buying local campaigns, and he provides UMass with local produce.

Czajkowski works as a distributor calling local farms to round up produce in the area which he then brings to campus. In addition to UMass, he brings local produce to Whole Foods and Trader Joe???s.

Toong says that working with Czajkowski means ???one stop shopping.??? In order to have enough food, Joe makes deliveries to UMass about three times a week, sometimes more. These two are the primary operators behind UMass??? local food success.

As the largest institutional buyer of produce in the Pioneer Valley, UMass has a huge impact on local farming, as well as other local colleges. In the future, Toong hopes to increase the amount of local foods he buys. For this year alone he set a goal to buy 25 percent of all produce locally. This means more business for local farmers and more business for Joe Czajkowski.

???In the end of the day,??? says Toong, ???the farmer has to feed his family.???

Warner Farm owner Mike Wissemann spent a recent autumn Monday greeting groups of people coming to his farm to navigate this year???s corn maze. At 6:30 p.m., he left the meet-and-greets to one of his farm hands, departed his Sunderland farm, and made his way to his town selectman meeting.

In addition to owning a farm, Wissemann is both a selectman in the town of Sunderland and a member of the board of directors of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA. As both a farmer and active participant in town politics, Wissemann has a valuable perspective on future of farming from an agricultural and legislative standpoint.

Farmers like Wissemann feel an impact when national and local governments intervene in agriculture. While initiatives like the Farm Energy Discount Plan have helped farmers during financially insecure times, many farmers claim that the government has overstepped its role in the realm of agriculture. With the help of local programs like CISA, farmers work to protect the future of farming through linking farmers and communities.

Michael Doctor, director of the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, speaks for many farmers when he says that government shouldn???t be involved in agriculture. On a national scale, Doctor accuses the United States Department of Agriculture of bad policy making.

In light of the energy crisis, the government subsidized corn ethanol, a clean burning fuel, to create an alternative to gasoline. These financial incentives lead many farmers to exclusively produce corn which ultimately drove up the prices of other crops. Even with the boom in corn production, the price of edible corn products rose because the corn grown using the USDA’s incentive programs was used for ethanol.

Doctor explains that this “corn crisis” is a direct result of government interference. He says government???s poor judgment results in detriments to the environment, local and global economy, and consumers.

According to Doctor, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, a more localized department, still has its kinks to work out. However, he does participate in many of the DAR’s programs such as the Farm Energy Discount Plan or the “Farm Discount.”

The Farm Energy Discount Plan gives eligible farmers a 10 percent reduction on their energy bills for electricity and natural gas. Farmers submit a request form, and the DAR determines his or her eligibility for the discount.

While this plan offers some financial relief to farmers, Doctor, a skeptic, explains that it also “creates a reverse incentive.” In other words, while its purpose is to help decrease energy costs for farmers by discounting oil and natural gas, it directly discourages farmers from finding cheaper and more sustainable energy sources.

Where government initiatives fail, grassroots community organizations pick up the slack. Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture, or CISA is a Massachusetts based organization that works to unite farmers and other members under the goal of preserving local farms.

By grouping farms from all over Massachusetts together, farmers have a stronger voice in local and national farm initiatives. CISA, and other organizations like it, represent the change in legislature that farmers need.

Wissemann explains that CISA started the buy local trend 15 years ago, and since then, buy local has surpassed the popular buy organic trend. CISA “revved up the demand” for local foods and now consists of over 100 farms, he says. A group this large with this much influence over farming trends gains the attention of local representatives and greatly increases the focus of legislators on the future of farmland preservation, sustainable agriculture, and local economy.

The process of growing and buying local food is not held solely in the hands of the producers and consumers. For good or ill, the United States and Massachusetts legislature, regulate this relationship and it impacts both farmers and buyers. Community organizing helps farmers reach the ears of sate representatives, but in the end of the day, legislators have the final word.

“Government doesn???t make a good farmer,” says Doctor, but luckily for him and other Pioneer Valley farmers, there are farmers like Wissemann who also take part in politics.

Northampton, Mass.??? “Down with Eight,” chanted the crowd of nearly 500 protesters in front of Northampton???s City Hall Saturday afternoon. The drum beating, sign holding, and car honking on Main Street was in protest of California???s Proposition 8 ballot question that recently reversed the marriage rights of same-sex couples.

“It’s not right to give people rights and than take them away,” said Jennifer Kovacs, a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College.

Sparking protests across the nation, Proposition 8 overrode the previous California Supreme Court decision that granted same-sex couples’ marriage rights, now only recognizing marriage between a man and a woman in the California Constitution.

“Marriage is a civil right,” said Sharon Friedaner, career counselor at Hampshire College. “The laws of our country should not be determined by religious beliefs.”

Several religious and conservative groups supported Proposition 8, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon group; Knights of Columbus, a Catholic conservative group; and Focus on Family, an evangelical group.

Spending by both sides of the issue totaled more than $75 million ??? more than any other ballot measure this election cycle.

Another Mount Holyoke student, Nikki Chambers, agreed with Kovacs and said, “Who am I to tell someone they can???t marry? It’s about rights. It’s about choice.”

The Raging Grannies, a nonviolent social activism group, set an upbeat tone for the event by leading the crowd in pro-gay rights songs, while Northampton’s openly gay five-term mayor Mary Clare Higgins took part in the sing-along.

Police were on scene to direct traffic around a burgeoning crowd of onlookers as Jeffrey Brunelle of Mass Equality gave the closing remarks, speaking about what it meant to him that Massachusetts, since 2004, has upheld his right to marry his partner.

California same-sex couples have been concerned over the possible annulment of some of the approximately 18,000 same-sex marriages prior to Proposition 8. According to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, the existing marriages will not be affected, but other legal experts said the matter presents challenges.

California’s example has influenced other states like Arizona and Florida to pass similar constitutional amendments. Currently, 30 states have passed bans on same-sex marriage, which is only legal in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“It’s not really going to a make a difference in California, but the point is to show visibility everywhere,??? said Pat Adams, a senior at Deerfield Academy. Adams was one of 25 Deerfield Academy students at the protest.

Bridget Medeiros contributed to this report.

Barefoot and covered in dirt while bagging raw chicken, Michael Doctor, director of the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, embodies the farmers of the Pioneer Valley. He is dedicated to the work he does and knows well the full effects that buying local has on producers, consumers and the economy of Massachusetts.

When produce is bought from afar, like California or Chile, “you lose a connection to the grower,” says Doctor.

People choose locally grown food for many reasons. Some consumers are simply looking for fresher produce, while others are concerned about food safety. Here in the Valley, farmers and consumers alike frequently stress the importance of buying local.

To build connections between growers and consumers, the Food Bank Farm donates half its yield to local shelters and soup kitchens, and sells crop shares through community supported agriculture (CSA) organizations. The produce tends to be less expensive and fresher than what is found at the grocery store. Doctor explains that buying food that is not locally grown dictates a lower expectation for standard of quality.

Jamaican migrant worker Conway Solomon picks everything from corn to strawberries on the Czajkowski Farm in Hadley. Each spring, he comes to Hadley from Jamaica to work for Joe Czajkowski. Buying local, he says, helps to provide work. Like Doctor, he too has an appreciation for fresh food.

“In Jamaica, we had fresh produce all year long,” says Solomon.

Mike Wissemann, owner of Warner Farm in Sunderland, says it???s risky not knowing the source of your food. The recent scare over contaminated tomatoes would have been a lot easier to control if people had been eating local tomatoes, says Wisseman. It took a long time for authorities to trace the source of the infection.

Wissemann says buying local keeps dollars within the local economy.

By not buying local, “you lose your economic basis,” he says, adding that proof of this can be seen in the current economic crisis. “New England isn???t quite as beat up in this recession because we stay local.”

Wissemann explains that compared to other regions of the country, New England gets most of its products locally. This has greatly strengthened the New England economy so during this recession residents do not feel the hit as hard.

These three farmers and others like them can take solace in the fact that the demand for local food is here to stay. The future of buy local campaigns looks bright because both the green revolution and buying organics remain popular with many Americans.

While environmental conscience may be one reason buying local retains its popularity, financial incentives tend to be the most persuasive. The cost of fuel, for example, raises the appeal of local food products.

“Ninety percent of energy associated in vegetables is moving it around,” says Doctor.

The less distance food needs to be transported, the lower the transportation costs, and buying local transfers these savings to the consumer.

In a time of such economic uncertainty, looking locally for food and keeping dollars within the state may prove to be both the most lucrative???and appetizing???decision Massachusetts residents can make.

PHOTO SLIDESHOW: Click to launch

???In Amherst a lot of people understand the importance of supporting local produce,??? said Atlas Farm owner Sara Porth. Atlas Farm, located in Deerfield, Mass. has served the Amherst community for two seasons and sells organic produce to consumers.

According to Porth, the most popular vegetables are kale, brussels sprouts, and squash. Porth said that tomatoes and peppers used to be the most popular but are now out of season.

Amherst local Nancy Putnam buys from the farmers??? market every Saturday. ???It is environmentally more sound to buy locally, because you are not using fossil fuels to transport produce long distances,??? said Putnam.

Putnam likes to support farmers who she said have a low profit margin in wholesale markets.
Even though the economy is in a recession Porth said their sales have not been affected and they have not increased prices. Porth believes that there has been a recent mainstreaming of farmers??? markets, which draws more people to support locally grown produce.

However, some farms have had to raise their prices. Simple Gifts Farm owner Jeremy Barker-Plotkin said, ???We have raised our prices, but people are still willing to pay because they know that food prices have gone up. People have a lot more interest in buying locally.???

This winter for the first time, Simple Gifts Farm will give consumers the opportunity to purchase produce and crop shares at the farm in North Amherst. There will be winter storage crops of potatoes, beets, and turnips.

The Amherst Farmers??? Market is open from May to November 15.