On World Food Day, the Value of Local Food
These coastal waters have fed people for thousands of years.
October 16, 2026
Today is World Food Day. It marks the work of growing, catching, and sharing food, and the systems that keep it going.
That work is central to ours. CFF's research supports small-scale fisheries, farms, and aquaculture operations, the people who help feed their own communities. Our work helps them keep at it sustainably as conditions change.
People have fed themselves from these waters for a long time. Long before commercial fishing became an industry, the Wampanoag fished and harvested here. The name Coonamessett—the Wampanoag word for the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and the namesake of the nearby river, serves as a reminder that these coastal waters have sustained people for thousands of years. Food drawn from local waters and land is not a new idea in this region. It is one of the oldest.
Small-scale food production matters for the reasons it always has. It keeps food close to the people who eat it and supports the local economy, and it holds up when larger systems are strained.
Nearly a decade ago, CFF founder, Ron Smolowitz, spoke to this directly. In our 2016 documentary, Saving Sea Scallops, he describes why localized, small-scale food production matters, for farming, fishing, and aquaculture alike.
“We need to have decentralized food production, so instead of going with large corporate farms or depending on large foreign factory fleets, we should have we should have small scale localized food production, both farming, fishing and aquaculture.” - Ron Smolowitz
The message holds up: 10 years apart, and CFF is committed to scientific research that supports the small-scale fisheries, farms, and aquaculture operations that help feed local communities. We investigate better methods for sustainable fishing, small-scale agriculture, and aquaculture, so that the people who produce food in our region can keep doing it well.
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Curious to support research like this? - Become-a-Member with CFF to support research that strengthens farming, optimizes fishing practices, restores fisheries, and helps communities adapt to a changing climate through research-backed results. Tiers starting at just $1.