Buy Fresh, Buy Local South Dakota goes online

January 25th, 2010 by

The Buy Fresh, Buy Local South Dakota initiative has taken another step.  They’ve launched a new website, and stand ready to help South Dakota’s producers and consumers build a more robust local foods economy.

As I wrote in a post a couple weeks ago, schools in our rural communities can play an important role in the growing local foods movement.  Not only can schools help teach children healthy eating habits, but they can stimulate economic development at the local community level.  And as Business Week recently reported, local foods initiatives play a more significant role in economic development than most people realize.   

The Buy Fresh, Buy Local South Dakota website is another educational tool for helping people learn more about foods grown in the region.  It includes a calendar of upcoming events and a  forum for asking questions.  I intend to keep it on my radar, and will turn to it with my questions. 

Currently, there’s only one question in the forum.  In a nutshell it acknowledges the difficulty of buying locally grown foods during our winter months, and essentially asks, “How can we get more?” 

I’m anxious to learn what ideas others will add to the conversation.  My response might be, let’s be more aggressive in our support of local foods this spring, summer, and fall, so that more of our producers feel comfortable making the financial investments required to turn their operation into a year-round production.  That would be something to look forward to!

 

Tags: , ,
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments ( 0 )

No comments yet

Leave a Reply