…it’s the beginning of a revolution. And we need you to join us. That’s what the EAT LOCAL! Campaign, now in its fourth year, is all about. This second edition of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Resource Guide is a comprehensive directory of all the local food resources we’ve been able to find, as well as a kind of manifesto for the EAT LOCAL! Campaign itself. It’s also a celebratory feast in itself, a celebration of local!

The Boulder County EAT LOCAL! Campaign presents positive pathways of engaging citizens, communities, businesses, and local governments to take the far-reaching actions that are required to strengthen the local food system. This ten-year Campaign is working to expand the capacity of our local food system and to promote closer connections between community members and those who grow our food.

The overarching mission of the EAT LOCAL! campaign is to catalyze a more resilient local food system for Boulder County, based on deep ecological principles and a more connected populace, with far less dependence on fossil fuels and petroleum-based inputs.

…According to a 2009 study by consultant Ken Meter (Crossroads Resource Center), “Boulder county consumers spend $662 million buying food each year, including $374 million for home use [and, by implication, roughly $288 million in restaurants]. Only $715,000 of food products (2% of farm cash receipts, and 0.1% of local consumer needs) are sold by farmers directly to consumers.” Based on these numbers[1], we estimate that if Boulder County citizens would purchase only 10% of the food they need for home use directly from county farmers, this would produce $37 million of new annual farm income in Boulder County — an amount equivalent to more than all of the 2007 farm sales in the county…

Our 10-year EAT LOCAL! Campaign for Boulder County takes a multi-pronged approach to increasing public awareness and involving members of our community in the critical work of rebuilding our local foodshed, economy, and relationships with each other and the beings with whom we share our nurturing ecosystem.