Buy-local law spurs business


A change in state law encourages public entities to buy food from local farmers and processors, rather than the lowest bidder.

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A change in state law encourages public entities to buy food from local farmers and processors, rather than the lowest bidder.

Now prisons, universities and the state hospital can buy up to $5,000 of locally grown products per transaction. Small-scale food producers are angling to take advantage of this new opportunity.

“This means the local corrections facility, as an example, can buy a truck load of apples from the farmer down the road without having to purchase from the lowest bid or from the main distributor who is under contract to supply that facility,” said Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

“We are getting an awful lot of phone calls from local farms and local meat packing plants. This traditionally has never happened before with the award of grocery bids,” said Dave Reynolds, a state procurement analyst with the Oregon Department of Administrative Service.

Read more at the Statesman Journal.

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