Spreading the Good Food News
Highlighting a pair of recent articles I wrote for other publications
Sometimes the Best Things in Life…
…. are right outside the window, as was the case last evening.
Local Food, All Over the Place
The vast majority of my musings about our local food community are right here in Local Food Forum, but I do get around a bit. The following are links to articles I produced for a couple of my other awesome partners.
Natural Awakenings
Thank you, Natural Awakenings, for publishing my article headlined The Healthy Food Movement: Pandemic Trends are Shaping Better Local Food Systems. It is great to be able to reach a national audience with some of the concepts that Local Food Forum reports about frequently:
“When the long supply chains of the conventional food system became disrupted, many Americans found themselves feeling insecure about food availability for the first time in their lives. The industrialized food system that had operated so efficiently for many generations had relied on long and complicated supply links; when they broke down or became gridlocked, the result was empty supermarket shelves and long waits for home deliveries…
Faced with the system’s shortcomings, a noteworthy outcome has been a surge in demand for healthier food production using sustainable and humane practices. Unable to drop by a nearby grocery store and get whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it, many consumers began buying locally grown produce for both practical and environmental reasons. After two high-growth decades, farmers markets initially took a hit during pandemic closures, but they have since bounced back with renewed energy. A wide range of innovative solutions are being pursued by e-commerce entrepreneurs and food-equity advocates to get healthier local food into more hands and more neighborhoods.
Click the first button below to read the full article, and the second button to learn more about (and from) Natural Awakenings Chicago, the local edition of this renowned holistic lifestyle publication, which is published by Peggy Malecki, a dear friend of Local Food Forum.
Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois
The theme for my July contribution to the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois directory is farm-to-table restaurants. Chefs and restaurateurs who source fresh, delicious ingredients from nearby producers play a big role in supporting Illinois' local farm community.
While big-city chefs such as Chicago’s Rick Bayless have received numerous plaudits for their local sourcing, there are many restaurants in smaller communities — some of which are very close to their local farm country — that are also committed to farm-to-table ingredients. One of these is Magnolia's in the west-central Illinois city of Macomb, where chef/owner Lisa Ward's Southern-accented cooking has been a crowd-pleaser for more than a quarter-century.
Learn about Lisa's farmer friends, her support for young farmers, and her position as a pillar of the local business community. And check out farm-to-table restaurants near you on the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois directory.