5 Great Sustainable Food Web Communities

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-01-09 11:00:00 +0100
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I chose the explosion in use of the Internet to connect farmers and consumers as a top sustainable-food trend to watch in 2010.

It may be the top trend to watch where local food is concerned, because as social entrepreneur and local-food activist Timothy Will said, broadband Internet connectivity is the key means for rural farmers to "fight back" against the decline of their communities and way of life.

So where is the good stuff happening on the Web? Try these five sites on for size, and you'll get a hint of how modern technology is going to be just as important to farmers — not to mention the rest of us — as the age-old dirt they till.

  • Home Grown: A new addition to the local food cyberverse, this is a true online community where local-food-lovers can gather and converse.

  • Food Hub: I have previously extolled the virtues of this full-service online marketplace run by Ecotrust.

  • Sustainable Table: An all-around solid site with scads of information about healthy eating and local, sustainable food, as well as recipes, shopping guides and news feeds.

  • Local Harvest: The most thorough directory of all things local, sustainable, organic and wonderful in food, featuring a great search function and a helpful map feature.

  • 100 Mile DIet: Focused on how to eat very local, this site allows you to pledge yourself to the lifestyle and provides resources to guide you on your way, including state-by-state local eating links.

There are plenty of other great sites, especially those featuring heritage species, such as Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste, and regional sites like Will's Farmers Fresh Market, which serves several North Carolina counties. But I'll leave those for another blog post, or for the comments section below. Anyone?

Photo: stock.xchng

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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