Iowa Food Cooperative
I’ve been thinking about joining Practical Farmers of Iowa for quite a few years now and finally did this winter. PFI has been a leader in exploring environmentally friendly and economically successful farming approaches, and promoting local foods for years. About a year ago I read their press release announcing the creation of the Iowa Food Cooperative and knew that I wanted to get involved. I had been seriously looking at ways to evolve this Think Global Eat Local web site into an online ordering system but it was clear that I should see how I could get involved with the IFC instead.
The Iowa Food Cooperative is going to be a web based system that allows consumers to order locally produced products from local farmers on a monthly basis (to start). Those orders will be collected and distributed from a central location (in Des Moines at the start). It is modelled after similar systems in place in Oklahoma and Nebraska. The IFC should supplement existing farmer’s markets and CSAs, by providing more staple products then those markets.
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January 18th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Exciting news! I’ve been waiting for something like this in Iowa, especially in Des Moines. I went to Practical Farmers of Iowa’s web site for more information and came across a survey for those interested in participating in the Coop. They ask about food preferences, locations, best time for pickup, amoung other things. It doesn;t take very long and is good feedback for them. Here is the link to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iMejBWCuUkR7qkJaVaJhwg_3d_3d