Members of the local food movement in Grey Bruce now have a better picture of the local food system and its structure.
Freeman Boyd is a Project Co-ordinator with the Grey Bruce Agriculture and Culinary Association/.
He says this so called Gap Analysis reveals some of the strengths and weaknesses of the local food movement.
He says they used data from OMAFRA, Statistics Canada and local customers and vendors at farmers markets to develop this picture of food production and consumption in the two counties.
Boyd says this now shows them how much food is produced locally and where there are deficits in local food production.
He says production exceeds consumption in only four food categories in Grey Bruce which include, beef, pork, milk and apples.
Boyd says the data shows there is a serious deficit in the production of all fresh vegetables.
He says this analysis of the local food system can allow producers to determine just what crops are in demand locally and what they can grow to meet that demand.
Boyd says potatoes are a good example because only one fifth of the potatoes consumed in the region are actually grown here and this could be a production opportunity for farmers to tap into a different sales market.
Consumers in Grey Bruce, according to this study spend more than 7.3 million dollars a week on food with most of that going to supermarkets and restaurants.
He says their goal is to try and direct more of those food expenditures towards the local producers.
Boyd says at present about 5 per cent of that food money goes to local producers and he would love to see that climb to 50 per cent mark which would be a huge boost to the local economy.