Local Foods Resources for Consumers

Consumers interested in learning more about and supporting local food systems in their area have a number of options available to them. For those living in New York State, Cornell Cooperative Extension is actively involved in supporting and promoting local food systems and is a good source of information. Their website is one place to start finding NY resources and contacts. County extension offices in NY and other states are a good source as well.

Learning how to include local foods more in ones diet involves not only finding growers and markets (or starting a garden), but knowing how to prepare them as well. Here is a list of general resources that may be most useful to those looking to find and use local foods. The county and regional initiatives pages also have resources listed for specific locales in NYS.

New York State

National (US) and International Resources

  • 100MileDiet.org -site created by authors of The 100 Mile Diet book. Includes blog and local foods resources.
  • EatWild -Find grass fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles in your area (NYS listings).
  • Eat Well Guide -Online directory for anyone in search of fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food.
  • Foodzie -Online marketplace for discovering and buying food directly from small scale food producers and growers from specific regions.
  • FoodPrint is a program dedicated to research and education on food production practices. Their aim is to pull back the curtain on the impacts of industrial food production practices and explain the benefits of more sustainable approaches to food production and consumption.
  • Kitchen Gardeners -Nonprofit founded in Maine, empowering individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems.
  • Food Sleuth Radio (KOPN) -Dietitian Melinda Hemmelgarn helps listeners “think beyond their plates,” connect the dots between food, health and agriculture, and find food truth.
  • Local Dirt -originally focused on Madison Wisconsin and now extending into national coverage, this site allows vendors, growers, and markets to connect with buyers, including institutional ones.
  • Local Harvest -National site with extensive listings of local growers, CSA's, markets etc, with embedded google map, and farm profiles.
  • Locavores resources for eating locally. Encourages individuals to eat within a 100 mile radius of their home.
  • Michael Pollan writes extensively about local food/sustainable eating, reflecting and reporting on the state of American food production and consumption. The site provides a useful list of additional resources.
  • Slow Food and Slow Money -Part of the larger "Slow Movement" efforts to promote a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace, developing more meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships with local food systems and economies. In US, see Slow Food USA.
  • USDA