The Good Food Festival this year in Chicago included a moderated panel discussing the definition and merits of ‘local’ food. Panelists had a wide range of opinions on what constitutes a local food product and whether buying local is inherently ‘good.’ For most panelists, the answer is: It depends.
In particular, panelist Rick Bayless, founder of Frontera Grill, stressed the importance of locally sourced ingredients as a tool for story telling.
What we’ve learned here at Localize after 5 years of running local food labeling programs is that understanding drivers behind local food purchasing is key to telling the story that shoppers most want to hear.
In our upcoming series, Localize will be exploring the underlying drivers behind local food preferences and the characteristics of local food that are grabbing the attention — and dollars — of consumers.
Check out the first post in the series where we discuss:
How to give consumers what they want when there is no single definition of ‘local.’
How local product labeling differs from from fresh to center-store.
Stay tuned to the series as we explore the following underlying attributes that drive local product purchasing:
- Health
- Environmental impact
- Local economy
- Freshness
- Quality
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