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buying local

I don't live near Wood River, but I thought this was incredibly cool:

Idaho's Bounty - Wood River Valley-based Internet Coop

Excerpt from Mountain Express News article - go to www.idahosbounty.org for more info.
Spurred by concerns about "peak oil," dissatisfaction with industrialized farming methods, and a growing demand for local produce, about 40 organic farmers and ranchers, entrepreneurs and community leaders met in Hagerman in late February to establish the "Idaho's Bounty" food cooperative. The co-op organizers plan to link regional growers and food producers from the Magic Valley and Hagerman with Internet-based food shoppers in the Wood River Valley.
Building on recent interest in farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture programs, the Idaho's Bounty meeting was called to present the results of a survey conducted by Ketchum-based AmeriCorps volunteer Laura Theis. The survey, which reached 1,200 homes in the Wood River Valley, was designed to measure support for a "re-localized" food economy based on regional cooperation between food growers and food consumers.
"There was a very positive overall response to the survey," said Theis, who has worked for the Environmental Resource Center in Ketchum since October, "Thirty percent of e-mails were returned with 455 responses, showing that 99 percent of respondents consume organic products."
How to go about supplying this demand locally was the topic of the Idaho's Bounty meeting.
"We hit a wall at the farmers' markets because you could only reach so many people that way," said Shoshone farmer Fred Brossy. "It's a big frustration that we still send most of our produce out of state."
Brossy and at least 20 other farmers and ranchers dined on a smorgasbord of local produce, cheeses, grilled lamb, pork sausages and local wines during the meeting at the Hagerman home of James and Leslee Reed on the edge of the Snake River. All present expressed enthusiasm for the Idaho's Bounty co-op plans and set about organizing a buy-in network to bring local food producers and food consumers together in the near future through direct-marketing, local distribution and community ownership.
The project is based on similar grassroots co-ops in Oklahoma, Montana and elsewhere. Idaho's Bounty producers and consumers will pay an annual membership fee of about $75 as well as a percentage of sales to cover Internet marketing, shipping and bookkeeping services for local production, distribution and consumption of everything from eggs, herbs, fish and vegetables to milk, cheese, pork and beef. In return, co-op members will get to know their local farmers and ranchers, and have some control over their food supply.


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