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RONAN- Buying locally-produced products is a rapidly-growing trend in Montana. Angela Marshall recently took a tour of the Lake County Community Development Corporation, where the staff is working to produce, package and promote local foods- from the first seed to the grocery store.

"If our consumers purchase just 15% of their food from a local farmer in our region, it would equate to $66 million of revenue per year that stays in the Western Montana economy," explained LCCDC Program Coordinator Karl Sutton.

When we stopped by, Sutton put on a red smock and hair net, and then enters the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center to check on the day's order of business.

"Processing apples for farm-to-school. We're specifically looking at getting fresh Montana products into our schools," he said.

The mission of Lake County Community Development is simple: to enhance the quality of life and economic well-being of area residents. Local entrepreneurs can basically turn their ideas into a finished product.

"They also receive assistance from our staff, including help with loans and grant writing, business planning, regulatory assistance and then, of course, access to all this equipment," Sutton told us.

Anna Rebellino helps a future farmer, also known as a craft creator, to develop their product in a cost and energy efficient manner.

"The main goal behind Energy Corps is to just highlight alternative energy as an active tool to implement in communities throughout our state so we can be less reliant on earth damaging ways of using energy," Anna Rebellino, who is a member of the Energy Corps told us.

Once a business plan is developed, owners can rent the equipment at the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center to make their product..

"The room... where the fruit and vegetable processing happens, is $10 an hour. The...USDA meat room, $35 an hour, and that one is more expensive because of the additional regulatory oversight. We have an additional USDA inspector on site," Sutton explained.

"Food on average travels 1,700 miles. So, if we're shortening that distance by buying from our local farmers, we're conserving energy," he added.

"We happen to live in a very special place, especially this part of Montana, where we have really good soil, we have a lot a great land, and it could really help us to bring money and keep it in our state as opposed to transporting our beef and food out of state to create a market for it here," Rebellino stated.

Back in 2007, Montanans spent nearly $750 million buying food, but $680 million was spent on food from outside the region. So, Lake County Community Development sought help from renowned farm and food systems analyst Ken Meter to discuss strategies for increasing food security in Western Montana in an effort to build a strong local agricultural economy.

He's going to be talking about how we can improve our local food and farm economics, how we can improve our local food and farm relationships with the people here, so we can eat more locally-grown food, so we can support ourselves through our local food systems instead of shipping all of our food out of the state," Rebellino explained.

Meter will present his findings on Tuesday in Kalispell at the KM Building Theatre and Wednesday in Ronan at the Ronan Middle School Auditorium. Both events take place from 6 pm to 8 pm and are free and open to the public.

Click here to learn more about the Lake County Community Development Corporation.