Fresh, locally grown foods don’t just taste delicious – they are better for you, your community, and the environment. When you buy local food, you vote with your food dollar. What is Local?

Enjoy excellent taste and freshness

Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries. And local farmers often cultivate varieties of fruits, veggies, and livestock that are bred for flavor and suitability to our region rather than for uniformity and ability to travel.

Know what you’re eating

Buying food today is complicated. What pesticides were used? Is that corn genetically modified? Do those eggs come from free range chickens? What does “free-range” really mean anyway? When you eat locally, it’s easier to get answers. You can build relationships and trust with farmers, bakers, and stores.

Support endangered family farms

This is a critical time to support your farming neighbors. Buy locally and ensure that more of your money goes to the farmer and local farms can stay in business.

Strengthen local economy & communities

Buying locally keeps your dollars circulating in your community and is an investment in healthy communities. Wisconsinites spend $192 billion annually for food. If we all spent just 10% locally, that would be $1.9 billion that would stay in our communities.

Protect the environment & reduce your carbon footprint

Most food travels over 1,500 miles from farm to plate. Buying locally grown food reduces pollution and our dependence on fossil fuels while preserving farmland near our cities. Your food dollars make a difference in building a sustainable future.

Get in touch with the seasons and get to know your region better.

When you eat locally, you eat what’s in season. You’ll remember that strawberries are savored in early summer and tomatoes later in the growing season. In the winter, foods like squash make a lot more sense than flavorless tomatoes from the other side of the world. You’ll likely have a chance to try varieties Find out what is grown in your area of the country. Visit farms and see how food is grown.