A Helena-area farm and a growing network of Montana producers are at the center of a push by nonprofit Abundant Montana to reverse a dramatic decades-long decline in locally grown food consumption across the state.
A Sharp Drop in Local Food Production
The numbers behind Abundant Montana’s mission are striking. In the 1950s, roughly 70 percent of the food consumed in Montana was also grown here. By 2021, that figure had collapsed to just 3 percent. The organization’s stated goal is to bring local food consumption back up to 33 percent by 2032 — a target that would require a significant shift in how both producers and consumers approach the food supply chain.
Erin Austin, Abundant Montana’s director of community partners and sales, framed the stakes in stark terms: “We lose the ability to feed ourselves, and that’s paramount.”
What Abundant Montana Does
Abundant Montana describes its core mission as rebuilding the connection between food producers and the Montanans who buy their products. The nonprofit currently works with more than 1,200 businesses statewide and offers several tools to help consumers find local options.
Among those tools is the Find Food and Farms Map, an online directory that helps shoppers locate farms and food products near them. The organization also publishes a printed Local Food Guide, distributed through stores across Montana, which gives producers a low-barrier way to reach customers who may not be searching online.
Beyond visibility, Abundant Montana works to provide resources to both sides of the market — helping farmers understand how to reach local buyers while also addressing consumer awareness and purchasing habits.
Rocking Tree Farm: A Local Example
Tabitha Garvin-Betancourt, who owns and operates Rocking Tree Farm in Helena, is one of the producers working within the Abundant Montana network. Her farm runs close to a zero-waste model, reflecting a broader emphasis among small local producers on sustainable and responsible agricultural practices.
Garvin-Betancourt acknowledged that locally grown food often carries a higher price tag than commodity alternatives, but she sees the cost as justified. “The price is worth my health, and I have health issues,” she said, speaking to the quality argument many small farmers make to potential customers.
The Economics of Local Agriculture
One of the central arguments Abundant Montana makes to producers is financial. When farmers sell directly to local buyers rather than channeling goods through export markets or large distributors, they retain a greater share of revenue per dollar — an especially meaningful difference for small operations where margins are thin.
At the same time, the organization acknowledges a real barrier: many consumers resist paying premium prices for higher-quality local food, even when they express support for local agriculture in the abstract. Closing that gap between stated preference and actual purchasing behavior is one of the ongoing challenges the nonprofit works to address through education and outreach.
Broader Context
Montana’s agricultural identity is well established — the state is a significant producer of wheat, beef, barley, and other commodities — but much of that output flows out of state or into global supply chains rather than feeding Montanans directly. Abundant Montana’s effort to redirect even a fraction of that production capacity toward in-state consumption represents both an economic development argument and a food-security argument.
The organization’s 2032 target of 33 percent local consumption would not simply benefit individual farmers. Advocates argue it would make Montana more resilient against national supply chain disruptions of the kind the country experienced in recent years, while keeping more agricultural dollars circulating within Montana communities.
For producers like Garvin-Betancourt and the more than 1,200 businesses already connected to the network, the work of rebuilding that relationship between farm and table is already underway — one local sale at a time.
