August 19, 2007 – Local Food Resources

I thought I’d post the list of local food resources (many, but not all are specific to Iowa) for those of you asking – where do I find good local food?

Directories

Local Harvest

www.localharvest.org

Iowa Farmer’s Market Finder

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/farmermarket.asp

Des Moines Metro Buy Fresh/Buy Local

http://71.18.109.16/resources/marketing-and-food-systems-related-resources.html

Iowa Vineyards/Wineries

http://www.iowawinegrowers.org/

Iowa Apple Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/applegrowers.asp

Iowa Asparagus Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/asparagusDirectory.asp

Iowa CSA Directory (CSA)

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/CSAdirectory.asp

National CSA Finder

http://www.wilson.edu/csasearch/search.asp

Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/fruitvegetable.asp

Iowa Family Farms Meat Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/list1.html

Iowa Honey Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/honey.asp

Iowa Organic Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/organic.asp

Iowa Pumpkin Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/pumpkinGrowers.asp

Iowa Strawberry Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/strawberry.asp

Do it Yourself

Guide to Home Canning, Freezing and Drying Foods

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

Path to Freedom (city garden)

www.pathtofreedom.com

Yard Permaculture Examples

http://www.greenhousebed.com/Permaculture/permaculture_examples.htm

ATTRA

http://attra.ncat.org/

Social Networks

One Local Summer

http://www.pocketfarm.com/?page_id=507

Locavores

http://www.locavores.com/

Slow Food Iowa

http://www.slowfoodiowa.org/

Eat Local Challenge (and other challenges)

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

General Information

Food Routes

http://www.foodroutes.org/

Iowa Network for Community Agriculture

http://www.growinca.org/

Practical Farmers of Iowa

http://www.practicalfarmers.org/

Edible Iowa River Valley

http://www.edibleiowa.com/

Reading List

Omnivore’s Dilemma

Michael Pollan

“One of the ten best books of 2006” – the New York Times. Pollan delves deeply into the natural history of four meals and traces the source of the food back to the source, whether in an Iowa cornfield with UUFA member George Naylor or hunting a wild pig in Northern California.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver says “This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.”

Coming Home to Eat

Gary Nabhan

In this intriguing yet unsatisfying volume, the author chronicles a year of striving for a diet consisting of 90% native flora and fauna, found within 250 miles of his Arizona home. Nabhan is an ethnobotanist with an interest in seed preservation and director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

The 100 Mile Diet

Alisa Smith

The authors of this charmingly eccentric memoir decide to embark on a year of eating food grown within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. Thus begins an exploration of the foodways of the Pacific northwest, along which the authors, both professional writers, learn to can their own vegetables, grow their own herbs, search out local wheat silos and brew jars of blueberry jam. They also lose weight, bicker and down hefty quantities of white wine from local vineyards.

Fast Food Nation

Eric Schossler

Schlosser’s incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining our values and our economy.

Chew on This

Eric Schossler

A version of Fast Food Nation for underage readers.

The End of Food

Thomas Pawlick

Canadian journalist and part-time farmer Thomas F. Pawlick documents the impending food crisis and traces its direct cause to the harmful methods of food production and processing currently used by the so-called agri-food industries to the detriment of everyone’s health and well-being. It’s a bleak picture, backed by hard-hitting evidence and true stories, but Pawlick makes it abundantly clear that it is not too late and devotes the latter part of the book to the many ways that ordinary citizens can take back control of the food supply by becoming active on a local level

Slow Food Nation

Carlo Petrini

The charismatic leader of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, outlines many different routes by which we may take back control of our food. The three central principles of the Slow Food plan are these: food must be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, those who produce the food must be fairly treated, and the food must be healthful and delicious.

one year ago…

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