about

Vermont's Local Banquet is a free magazine distributed each season (spring, summer, fall, and winter) at various sites throughout southern Vermont. Each issue features stories about Vermont farmers, locally-made food products, and Vermont crops that are grown during that particular season (or meat products that are popular during that season). Each issue also features an article on foraging, a column about an initiative that is creating agricultural change, and a section in which farmers share a favorite recipe involving a crop grown on their land. In addition, readers are invited to write in and tell us their thoughts on farming and local food for publication on our last page, Last Morsel.

Vermont’s Local Banquet, inspired by our belief that local food is a gateway to stronger communities, will strive to be a meeting place for all those who enjoy eating, growing, raising, cooking, or selling locally grown food. Within these pages, each season, we hope to deliver stories and ideas that support and energize our region. We hope to provide ‘food for thought.’

We have come to believe that making an investment in locally grown products brings large returns to our communities. Supporting locally grown food right here at home leads to better health, stronger local economies and less of an impact on our environment. Purchasing food grown locally also allows us to have direct relationships with our local farmers, so we can know how our food is grown and choose to buy organic or hormone-free foods, if that is our preference. We also support our family farmers when we buy from them, helping them maintain their livelihood and provide the quality products we’ve come to appreciate. Keeping our food dollars in the local economy also preserves and strengthens that economy. According to the Vermont Department of Agriculture, if Vermonters shifted just 10% of their food purchases to locally grown products we would add more than $100 million to Vermont's economy. Once we, as consumers, understand how dependence on distant food sources threatens our security and the livelihood of our farmer neighbors, we can understand the value of spending our food dollars locally. Vermont’s Local Banquet's vision is to engage and encourage consumers to become active participants in sustaining our local food security here in Vermont, and wherever one calls home.