MADISON, Wis. - Whether you're looking for locally grown organic food, a restaurant that serves locally grown food or a farmer's market, a new website puts the information just a click away.
The REAP Food Group in Madison has launched farmfreshatlas.org, which features more than 800 listings for sources of locally grown food all over Wisconsin. Hannah Wente, communications director for the REAP Food Group, said the site connects people all over the state with fresh local food.
"We hear all the time from people that they want to support local farmers but they're not sure how to do that," she said. "So our goal with this site was really to increase local food purchases in Wisconsin and connect people to local food experiences."
Each farm or business on the site pledges to ensure that they practice environmental sustainability and sell products that are grown or produced on a family farm or cooperatively owned farm.
According to Wente, the new website is the natural evolution of the printed farm-fresh atlases that REAP Food Group has been producing since 2002.
"It's a fun, interactive site," she said, "and people are able to find things that are either close to their house or, when they're traveling - if they're going to Door County or something - they can look up farms and activities in the area."
In addition to farmer's markets and restaurants, farmfreshatlas.org also lists local food events from farm tours to chef demonstrations.
Wente said people these days care more and more about where their food is coming from.
"There's definitely a demand for more transparency in our food," she said, "and this is a tool that people can use to really support local farms that are farming sustainably, reducing pesticide use, treating their animals well, treating their workers well and supporting the local economy, too."
The farmfreshatlas.org site is funded by local and U.S. Department of Agriculture grants.
