What You Can Do

Anyone who eats can positively affect the local food economy.

• Buy directly from local farmers, fishers and foragers.

• Find your local farmers market

• Eat what is in season.

• Eat at local restaurants that use local foods, ask them what is local on the menu.

• Shop at locally-owned markets. Request that they buy and highlight local products.

• If you shop at a supermarket, ask where their produce, meat, fish and dairy products come from. Request that they buy and highlight local products.

• Buy wild-harvested seafood caught by local fishers off the docks in Fort Bragg and in select local markets.

• Throw a dinner party or potluck using foods grown in Mendocino County.

• Grow your own food, grow year-round, eat what is in your garden.

• Join a community garden through NCO’s Gardens Project

• Get involved in a localization groups through the Granges, The Farmer’s Guild, or another organization that is working towards a stronger local food system.

• Encourage legislators at all levels to take leadership in developing policies that support small farmers and local food production.

• Get involved with the Food Policy Council of Mendocino County

• Download and read the Mendocino County Food Action Plan (PDF)

• Teach children to care about where their food comes from. Talk with them about what is on the dinner table and where it has come from.

Most of all … Meet your local farmers, ask to visit their farms, let them know you appreciate that they are farming.