Vermont Fresh Network

created October 1st, 2009 by Peter Oliver | Comments

“The Vermont Fresh Network encourages farmers, food producers and chefs to work directly with each other to build partnerships. Building these regional connections contributes to stronger local communities and their economies.”

Buying local produce can be difficult. Determining whether or not all the ingredients in a particular product actually came from where the product was produced is next to impossible. Check out one man’s attempt. The Vermont Fresh Network aims to change that. They remove the difficulty from the consumer and build the decision to purchase local food into the supply chain of restaurants and grocers around Vermont.

This reduces food distributors (middlemen) who take huge cuts out of a food producers margin. Many of these Vermont farmers were barely scraping by. Additional profits by reducing distribution costs is the break many of them needed to stay afloat.

In addition, direct farm to consumer sales in a small region like Vermont dramatically reduces the amount of imported products needed as the prices can finally be competitive. With reduced imported products come reduced transportation and all the costs associated with it such as truck emissions and road usage.

Regional food networks that support direct farmer to consumer / restaurant interaction benefit local economies substantially. Do you know of other regional food networks like the Vermont Fresh Network? Let us know.

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