Rhode Island leads the way in the local food movement

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Rhode Island is a small state that is big on local agriculture, growing its farms by two percent from 2007 to 2012 and by half in the last decade, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture preliminary census –all while the number of U.S. farms decreased.

According to an article in The Providence Journal, Rhode Island farms are successful because the state has welcomed the local food movement by creating a marketplace in which it can thrive. Deemed the national culinary capital, Providence features several farm-to-table restaurants, and a majority of the state’s school districts have instituted a farm-to-school program. State government continues to support the industry in the way of grants and marketing programs like the Rhode Island Seafood Collaborative.

The exploding focus on locality also favors small businesses, and 96 percent of Rhode Island’s farms have revenue under $250,000, which is the small farm benchmark for the agriculture census. Rhode Island is also ranked third nationally in percentage of farms between one and nine acres.