Of farms and local food

By Enviro Girl

In Wisconsin a new website will help grocery stores stock locally produced food.  On GrocersBuyLocal.com, grocers can indicate their interest in buying meat, dairy, vegetables and such and farmers and other food producers can contact the store buyers through contact information provided on the site.

Grocers who buy local keep more money in their local economies and they help preserve local farmland.  They also sell fresher food with more accountability attached.  Enviro-Girl was interested to see which area grocery stores sell locally produced food — and while she knows the one her family shops at sells a lot of local dairy and produce, she was surprised to see it wasn’t listed on the website — she’s certain that will be remedied soon.

Enviro-Girl encourages Eco-Warriors in ALL states to investigate this idea.  It cost Wisconsin $28,000 and already the Buy Local movement has gained $2 for every $1 spent — this website is yet another tool to connect supply and demand for locally grown food.

In other encouraging news, a press release yesterday stated that today Michelle Obama will start digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a 1,100 square-foot vegetable garden (the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt’s WWII Victory Garden).   The hope is to provide food for their family and formal dinners, but more importantly, educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables.  Students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help plant and harvest the food — and the entire family will help weed it, even the President.