Michael Shuman, project director for the Northeast Ohio Local Food System Assessment and Plan, talks about what it means to achieve a 25% localization of the NEO food system. He makes the important point that localization spans across the almost 60 sectors of the local food economy and should not be exclusively focused on raw foodstuffs. In some sectors of our food economy, there already is significant localization and local business ownership already. Farming and ranching are two areas where there is a significant gap between what is consumed locally and what is produced locally. About 35% of the potential jobs in a 25% localization would come in farming and ranching activities.
