Local Food
Local love.
Hi everyone! Nice to be here.
Now can I let you in on a little secret? Since moving to Toronto, there’s really just one thing I want and it’s very simple. I want to know where I can eat in this town!
Okay, maybe that’s a bit whiney. But think about it. Finding places to eat, places that serve or sell good, real food is not as easy as it sounds. The truth is I needed LocalFoody before I knew it existed. And seeing as I’m pretty typical, I’m going to make the sweeping assumption that, if you’re reading this, then you need it too.
Why do you need LocalFoody?
Well, because you care, at least most of the time, about yourself and the world around you.
You care about the food you eat.
Local food is fresh. And fresh food is tastier and better for you.
You care about the environment.
Local food is green; it doesn’t travel half the planet just to sit on your plate for 2 minutes before it’s gone.
You care about the economy.
Local food helps our farmers. They need us — and we need them. We can do our part.
You care about the future.
Local food is political. Vote with your wallet and send out the message that consumers (I prefer “citizens”, but anyway) demand access to real food!
And what is real food?
It’s food that is fresh, natural and contains ingredients you can pronounce and recognize. Real food is safe to eat; it is not full of chemical additives, artificial preservatives, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and genetic modifications. It is food that IS food. Like grandma (bubbie, nana, mamie, oma, avo, etc) used to make.
Like I said, I want to know where I can eat in this town. And at LocalFoody, we’re going to find out. We’re going to bring the farm to the city. And we’re going to bring people to local food.
Thanks for joining us!
So, what is LocalFoody and why did we start it?
It all started when we were on vacation last winter. Nothing like sitting by the pool miles away from the closest Internet connection to create time and space to do some reading. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” by Michael Pollan was at the top of my reading list, and it really changed the way I think about food.
From the description of the Industrial Food System, to big Organic, to Joel Salatin’s amazing Polyface Farms, I found myself driven to find out more about the local food movement and the hundred mile diet. But we were offline in Mexico. I resolved to do some online research when we got home, and find “that site” that would allow me to find good, local, organic food producers and distributors.
Well much to my surprise, I didn’t find “that site”. There was a long list of great sites that talk about Organic and local food, even a really solid directory site (LocalHarvest), but nothing that uses the power of geolocation and social networks to create a great simple-to-use web experience around finding good food.
They say that people come up with the best ideas in order to scratch their own itch. LocalFoody is our attempt to solve our own problem – a quick and easy way to find good food near us. We’re working hard, and hope the end result is useful to you, too.
So who are we?
LocalFoody is a small group of people who are passionate about Food and Interactive Media. Our mission is to Help People Find Good Food. By “Good Food” we mean local, organic, sustainable food. We will “Help People” using simple, web-based technology. We are based in Toronto, Canada, but want to provide tools to help people and communities everywhere in the US and Canada.
We are just beginning the journey, so stay tuned as we develop and share our plans and ideas. And please, join in the conversation.
