Buy Fresh Local Nebraska 2012-2013 food guides available

2012 BFBLN Local Food Guide Cover
2012 BFBLN Local Food Guide Cover

It's easy to buy locally. Buy Fresh Buy Local Nebraska 2012-2013 Spring Food Guide is now available! Pick one up today at your local farmers' market or business (check out our website for local listings) and discover all the ways you can purchase and enjoy fresh, local food this year.

Or download the Buy Fresh Buy Local Nebraska 2012-2013 Spring Food Guide from the UNL's FOOD website (http://food.unl.edu/web/localfoods/home).

You have probably seen the BFBLN bumper stickers, posters, or t-shirts and tote bags around promoting "Buy Fresh Buy Local®." It's not just a marketing program, it's a philosophy that directs Buy Fresh Buy Local® Nebraska members in rebuilding local economics, starting with economies of food and food raised through environmentally sound methods.

The $10 Solution
If each of the 796,793 households in Nebraska committed to spending just $10 per week on locally grown foods we would keep more than $414 million of our food dollars circulating here in Nebraska, helping both family farms and our local economy. And we would have the added benefit of eating fresher, tastier, healthier food! Source- 2010 US Census Bureau

7 Reasons to Buy Local This Season

1. You get to know Nebraska’s seasons and Nebraska farmers, who are very knowledgeable about the food they raise. They can tell and show you how they raise your food, what growing practices they use, when and how the food was harvested and how they handle the food for your purchase. Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown allows you to choose food from farmers you trust.

2. Buying local strengthens food security. When you buy local food, you know that the food is from a local farmer that eats and trusts the same crops you do.

3. With the purchase of locally grown food you are preserving a taste of yesterday. Farmers are planting and harvesting a multitude of re-discovered heirloom treasures and raising rare and endangered heritage breeds of animals and poultry that are likely be impossible to find on most produce and meat counters. These farmers are ensuring the survival of thousands of diverse varieties and flavors that would otherwise be lost.

4. By supporting local food you are supporting Nebraska’s vanishing family farms. Did you know that less than 1 percent of the U.S. population claim farming as an occupation? On average only 10 cents of each dollar spent on food returns to the farmer. The other 90 cents goes to corporations for packaging, marketing, transportation, etc. Farmers who sell direct to consumers receive 80 cents of each food dollar.

5. Buying local strengthens the regional economy. Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community and increases local food security. With each local food purchase, you ensure that more of your money spent on food goes directly to local farmers and the local farmers often put their money back into the community.

6. Enjoying local food protects the environment and improves land stewardship. While most conventionally produced food is extremely resource intensive, traveling an average of 1,500-2,500 miles from field to plate, local food is not. This reduces fossil fuel dependence, carbon dioxide emissions, and use of packing materials and garbage.

7. Buying local food protects open spaces and farmland. Keeping local family farms economically viable is critical to preserving the beautiful landscapes you see in the rural agricultural areas known as “foodsheds.” By supporting Nebraska’s family farmers you will ensure the farmland used to grow food remains preserved, now and in future next generations.

More details at: http://buylocalnebraska.com/