Hello-
my name is Kelcey Rusch, and as a senior culinary arts student at Paul Smith's College, I am working to gather people's definition of "local" food. The word has seen increasing and varied use over the last decade, with no legal limitations. I am also trying to find if there is a gap between what restaurant professionals mean when they put it on a menu, and what consumers expect when they see the word. I have created a survey designed to help outline a definition. Filling it out will not take more than 15 minutes of your time, and I would appreciate your contribution to the discussion.
Thank you-
Kelcey R

Survey:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGVITFZkbUFSaEk3R1UySU5pSE0wMnc6MQ

[[definition of "local" food. The word has seen increasing and varied use over the last decade, with no legal limitations.]]

Thank god there's no legal restrictions!

Among the poorest ways of controlling anything is by law. With the bureaucratic nonsense and cost that is now required to be known as "organic" - which deals more in financial records than anything else - can you imagine what hoops restaurants would have to jump through in order to advertise "local food"? They'd have to have a full-time auditor on staff, pestering suppliers for declarations of authenticity.

No thank you!

I define local as within biking distance, so you can go out to the farm, fill up your panniers (or bike trailer) with food and bike home. This is 25 miles for most casual cyclists (50 roundtrip).

Local can mean most anything and should!! For some areas of the country 5 to 10 miles can be considered local while in other areas it could be 300 or more. We do NOT need a definition of local food other than saying it's as close as we can get it.

The concrete business is an excellent example. Families will buy a concrete mixer with vendor financing. Then the owners will double up on their debt by using the equipment as collateral for new loans. Finally mixing companies sell their ready-mixed concrete on credit to developers. This overleveraged pyramid could easily collapse like a house of cards.

This bill is 1,500 pages long. Here is a small excerpt from it which will affect so many people in our nation.
http://www.zimbio.com/Stop+Snoring/articles/DRa2cbepUdb/ZQuiet+Review+Try+30+Day+Trial+Stop+Snoring

This bill is 1,500 pages long. Here is a small excerpt from it which will affect so many people in our nation.http://no2maximussite.com/

Some such as schools and hospitals may be to an extent self funding or based on volunteer effort.
http://niwalireview.com