A group of advocates is urging Philadelphians to buy their food from local farmers who use humane, sustainable farm practices.

News reports about industrial farming have been nothing short of alarming the past two years.

The Department of Agriculture gets accused by its own field inspectors of refusing to aggressively police meat plants with sanitary problems; a listeria outbreak traced to a Montgomery County poultry plant kills eight and causes three miscarriages; meat recalls in the U.S. total more than 100 last year alone; and a Canadian cow tests positive for mad-cow disease.

We've heard that feeding genetically modified grain to sheep, bison and cattle could foster the growth of a newer, deadlier E. coli, and that for every $5 million invested in large hog-confinement operations, 126 independent, small-scale farmers lose their jobs.

Go local, say many, including three area advocates who will launch the regional arm of a national "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" campaign this month.

The campaign, sponsored by Food Routes (a national nonprofit dedicated to "reintroducing Americans to their food") and designed to spur greater support of local foods and humane, sustainable farm practices, is being locally spearheaded by Ruth Sullivan of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), Bridget Croke of Philadelphia Fair Food Project and Bob Pierson of Farm to City.

Fair Food Project has created the Philadelphia Local Food Guide, which includes lists of grower-only farmers markets and restaurants that buy locally grown foods. There is also a website (www.buylocalpa.org), and the organizers plan to host local-food events in the coming months and do surveys to gauge public response to their campaign.

They say food produced on small-scale Pennsylvania farms is both safer and healthier than that of big-business agriculture. Plus, buying it in Philadelphia is easy, given the availability of farmers markets, community-supported agriculture networks and restaurants with chefs committed to working with local food. And with more support comes more product availability and a healthier local economy. For many consumers, it's time, says Sullivan.

"I think the events in the past year -- listeria, mad cow, E. coli -- remind us that the food movement has the answer," maintains Sullivan. "We're offering a positive, effective, proactive solution to [current large-scale] food-safety practices. I've spoken to a number of consumers who've told me that since they've discovered local, pasture-raised poultry and meat, they're eating meat again and loving it."

Buy Local kicks off locally with a Sunday event at the Yards Brewery in Kensington. For an $8 cover, attendees can sample local products and speak to farmers, restaurateurs and retail managers dedicated to creating local-food venues in the city.

Businesses officially participating in the campaign -- about five in Philadelphia so far -- have signed an "agreement form" stating they will "commit to purchasing locally and sustainably grown food whenever reasonable with regard to availability and price" and inform customers that they feature foods raised on local farms. For the purpose of the campaign, local food is that grown within a 75-mile radius of Philadelphia, "reaching approximately from Lancaster to Allentown to Philadelphia," according to a PASA press release.

Calling the city "a mecca for local-food systems in Pennsylvania," Sullivan says it's been chosen as a model for the national effort.

"There are chefs here who are motivated to work with local food, and tremendous food activism and ways for farmers and consumers to interface," she says. There's also a concerned, adventurous consumer base amid a thriving restaurant scene.

Buy Local "will continue in Philly and expand into other communities in Southeast Pennsylvania in the next few years," says Sullivan. "Our success here -- people will be watching."

Croke, Sullivan and Pierson can wax poetic about Pennsylvania's varied vegetables and fruits, but there will be special emphasis on the need to connect consumers with the meat and animal products of free-range animals raised without hormones or continuous antibiotic feeds for "maintenance."

The meat/poultry emphasis is really a continuation of a main mission of all three coordinating organizations. They say fewer animals, more room for waste disposal and composting, less stress and the cleaner air and quarters of small-scale farms mean little chance for disease.

Organizers are particularly excited about pasture-raised Pennsylvania animals, which include strictly grass-fed cattle. (Raised on their natural diets, they are widely believed to result in healthier, tastier meat than those from modern feeding systems.)

Croke hopes consumers awash in potentially confusing food terms and politics will turn to the food guide, which contains a glossary explaining several terms, including USDA "certified organic."

"Consumers choosing organic are taking a very important step. But to invest their money in a food system that's going to be sustainable, it's got to be local," Sullivan says.

Some restaurant chefs, such as Kevin von Klause of the White Dog Café, already put sustainable, local choices before organic ones. Von Klause buys most of the restaurant’s food from local growers, and money that might be put into nonlocal organics is instead put into humanely raised meats, he says.

Both Sullivan and Croke point out that "local" and "organic" aren't mutually exclusive terms. Many local products are certified organic, and beyond that, many small, local farmers utilize organic practices in most or all of their work but can't afford -- or don't want to incur -- the expense of becoming government-certified organic. (There are fees for applying, and a farm must be chemical-free for three years to qualify, a costly transitional time for farmers.)

"The bottom line is that buying locally is easy, good for you and fun," Croke says, "and our campaign is making finding local food that much easier."