The Obama administration announced the “Local Food, Local Places” project to provide expert advice to rural communities to use local food systems as an engine for economic growth. The announcement was made during a Webcast meeting of the White House Rural Council. “The No 1 trend in restaurants and grocery stores is locally and regionally grown food,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Vilsack also announced updated result for the “Farm to School” program that encourages schools to buy food locally for their meal. Some $386 million of goods was purchased by 4,322 school districts from local producers and processors during the 2011/12 school year. “Literally, thousands of schools are interested in having this closer connection,” said Vilsack.