The National Drought Mitigation Center reports that even with short-term rainfall this winter, severe drought will continue throughout much of California. How can local food systems help address this? By increasing the supply of these same crops, grown locally.
Many of the crops imported from California can be produced more sustainably throughout North America. We can see from our data that suppliers in the Local Orbit network are already doing this.
Data is one of the most powerful tools in the new food economy. Good data is critical to effective supply chain design and management. And changing conventional supply chains is essential to addressing drought and other environmental crises.
Local Orbit can help buyers identify where crops are being produced, when they’re available, what it will cost – and where there is an opportunity for buyers to work with farmers to increase production.