Myths and Facts on the benefits of local food

There are many claims made about the positive impacts of local food. Finding out what impacts local food does have is not straightforward. A recent review of the local food sector in Scotland found no existing indicators of impacts and failed to quantify the scale of any of the main impacts of local food in Scotland.

The impacts of local food are produced as a bundle of benefits when local food is consumed. Measuring the multiple benefits of local food is particularly difficult, so the effects can be split into four categories: economic, health, environmental, and community & social impacts.