Local food movement not just a U.S. phenomenon

The local food movement is gaining momentum not only in the U.S., but overseas. Locally sourced retail food stores in the United Kingdom are projected to total 6.2 billion euros by 2013, up from 4.7 billion in 2008, a 31 percent growth, Sarah McFarlane of The Wall Street Journal reports. Tesco, the U.K.'s largest supermarket chain, hopes to sell 1 billion euros of local food by 2011 and is on track to sell 800 million in 2009.

Asda Group Ltd., which supplies Walmart in the U.K., has seen a 50 percent growth in local food sales in 2009 and expects the same in 2010. A low base for local food sales has contributed to the increased sales, industry analysts say. "You could see 1 percent growing to 2 percent, but it's never going to be 10 percent," analyst Nick Bubb told McFarlane.

Efforts in Asia to spur local food sales are also underway "to support sustainable regional agriculture with Japan, in particular, launching a number of new products," Mintel wrote in a report. Pick-your-own farms have also grown in popularity in the U.K. and U.S. during the recession, McFarlane reports. Peter Thompson, owner of the U.K.'s largest pick-your-own farm, tells her: "It's partly because of the credit crunch -- we're a bit cheaper than the high street if you come to our farm and pick it, and partly because of this trend of wanting stuff fresh and in season and locally grown." (Read more)