Heard a lot about buying and eating locally-produced food? What’s the big deal?? Well, on Sunday (6/20/10) I saw a “Local Foods Movement” installment of Madison Channel 3‘s “For the Record” series. Olivia Parry, Director of Dane County Planning and Development Dept.’s Institutional Food Market Coalition (IFM), provided information about economic and environmental benefits of consuming local foods, and about her work to get providers and institutional consumers together. Heather Hilleren talked about founding the national localdirt.com web site, where individuals and businesses can find and request locally-produced food. She started it while she was a grad student at UW-Madison–a fine example of a student project that “grew up” (the kind of thing the College of Business & Economics, and especially its Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, encourage).
Watch it (click “For the Record”) 
More information is available, if you’re interested. Check out web sites such as the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (UW-Madison), which has the College Food Project among its activities. CIAS is one of the partners that provides the annual Southern Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlas. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has launched an initiative called “Know your farmer, know your food” to help educate Americans about the benefits of local food. Search article databases for articles such as “Local and Lovin’ It” (Progressive Grocer, May 2010, v.89:no.4, pp.64-68) and “Why local is good for you” (Money, Feb. 2010, no.120, p.28).
Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.
The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and online. Come check out your government at the University Library!
FYI- There’s a farmer’s market in Whitewater (in the Wal-Mart parking lot) every Saturday morning!