The economic benefits to local communities of keeping our consumer dollars in the region are well-documented in calculable terms, but putting the figures aside, there is the question of security: food security, economic security, social security.

We know that economies go in boom-bust cycles. By planting the seeds for a local economy in the boom times, we ensure that we have a harvest during a bust.

Supporting local farmers and food producers means that growers can remain financially and ecologically viable and consumers have a reliable supply of food that has not been trucked in over vast distances, left in cold storage for long periods and, in most cases, has not been doused in chemicals. The obverse of this situation is the case of potato farmers going into massive debt in order to grow industrial crops for potato chip companies, or citrus growers forced to plough in a crop because a supermarket chain cancels a contract. The strawberry debacle would not have happened with a local food supply chain.

Social security is created when a society learns that it can be self-reliant and has the confidence to make its own producer and consumer decisions. A society that has a local food supply, a prosperous local economy and a vibrant local social life is a resilient society, and there has never been a more important time, politically, environmentally, economically and socially, for resilience.

Maintaining security in local terms means maintaining control and self-determination. In a world where even government is corporate, it is ever more important to create resilience.