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Local food sources growing

According to Mintel, more than half of consumers say it's more important to buy local than organic.  A family farm advocacy group recently released the "2012 Locavore Index" that pegs Vermont at No. 1, surprisingly well ahead of California, who came in at 41.

While the definition of "local" can vary from state to state and region to region, the two most common standards locavores use are food produced within 100 miles or within the same state that it's consumed.

The results were assembled using federal data to determine the number of farmers markets and community-supported agriculture farms (known as CSAs), where customers pay a lump sum up front and receive weekly deliveries of produce and other foods.

The top five locavore states according to the index are:

State Population Farmers
Markets
CSAs
Vermont 621,760 99 164
Iowa 3,007,856 237 487
Montana 974,989 57 148
Maine 1,318,301 88 159
Hawaii 1,295,178 85 135

 

Although locavorism is growing everywhere, the bottom five states are Florida (#50), Arizona, New Jersey, Nevada and Louisiana.

Click here to see the full index.

 

Source: Strolling of the Heifers