While the coronavirus is no joke, I don’t want to add to any of the hysteria.

But I do think this current situation offers, at the very least, an excellent opportunity to evaluate our level of preparedness - as a nation, region, community, family, individual - to face a major disruption in our supply lines. 

Since it’s what we do around here, let’s focus on food.

If your community was cut off from an outside food supply, how long could you feed yourselves? Once the grocery store shelves and freezers were emptied, from where would your supply of fresh food come?

Do you have a source of fresh meat near your town or in your county? Fresh vegetables? Fruit? 

If a global, national or regional emergency kept you isolated from other sources, how would you feed yourself and your family? How about those in the community who are vulnerable?

These questions aren’t meant to add to any hysteria or to assume that we are headed to that point due to the coronavirus. But this is a good time to start asking those questions of ourselves and our community.

There are dozens of reasons why healthy, vibrant local food systems are important, including everything from the environment to animal welfare to personal health. But food security is one that also tops that list.

Perhaps this is the right time to help your community see the importance of supporting a local food system by shopping locally. When times are good, we can easily view local food as a niche market, a novel idea, something we can throw a few dollars at from time to time. 

But when times get really tough, our lives could very well depend on the vitality of that local food system. If we don’t support our local farms now, they very well may not be around when we need them most.