Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

 economies - one in which sustainable

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place." It is part of the concept of local purchasing

Local purchasing

Local purchasing is a preference to buy locally produced goods and services over those produced more distantly. It is very often abbreviated as a positive goal 'buy local' to parallel the phrase think globally, act locally common in green politics....

 and local economies

Community-based economics

Community-based economics or community economics is an economic system that encourages local substitution. It is most similar the lifeways of those practicing voluntary simplicity, including traditional Mennonite, Amish, and modern eco-village communities...

; a preference to buy locally produced goods and services rather than those produced by corporatized institutions.

It is not solely a geographical concept.