Looking for Local Food?

If you are searching for local food, good for you! Doug had a great opportunity last night to celebrate local food at the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society Farmer-Chef:Market Collaborative in Omaha. We were treated to great appetizers and a three course meal featuring local Nebraska foods. Thanks goes to all the great farms providing the food and the chefs from Metropolitan Community College for preparing the food!

Why source local?

Let’s face it, we are creatures of habit and we just do not change something as basic as our food buying habit without a reason. Grocery stores are convenient and you can get whatever you want whenever you want, so why would anyone want to go to the trouble to source local food? Here are a few reasons, feel free to add your own:

• Your Health. This is what brought Doug into the local food movement.
  • Local foods are more nutritious for many reasons.
  • Need proof?
    • FreshRX Oklahoma – AEA Episode 127:Food as Medicine with Erin Martin
• TASTES BETTER (do you really need another reason?)
• Environmentally friendly – Sustainable

But how do I start?

When I started on my local food journey over a decade ago it was a little more challenging than today. It will still take some work on your part. Here are some jumping on links to get you started:

• Buy Fresh Buy Local Nebraska (many states have their own version of BFBL)
  • Here you will find links to all kinds of local food sources, right down to the farm… yes, it is possible to buy directly from a farmer… a little scary maybe to start, but lots of people do it!
• Nebraska Food Cooperative (many states/regions have cooperatives)
  • Cooperatives try to link farmers with customers.
• In the Lincoln/Omaha area we have a unique aggregator/distributor of local foods that you should investigate:
  • Robinette Farms Local Food Subscription

NEIGHBORFOOD

Long time food advocate and trainer of many farmers, Joel Salatin, has been promoting local food for years. He has tried many approaches to making local food more common within the USA. He has had some success but has never been able to replicate his ideas across the nation to the extent he thought at one time possible. Let’s face it, we have a captive food system. Yet there are many of us, like Joel, out here trying to crack into the system to deliver a superior food product to our community.

A few years ago Joel conceded that the food system was fixed and decided to go Rogue (Rogue Food Conference). In his latest, unrelenting approach to crack our current food system, he has come up with the concept/marketing term of NEIGHBORFOOD. Read more at his recent blog post, NEIGHBORFOOD.