About FamilyFarmed.org

Meet the FamilyFarmed.org staff

FamilyFarmed.org is a project of Sustain, one of the country's leading non-profit organizations working for a healthy environment. For the past few years one element of our work has been to support the growth of a regional food system in the Midwest by establishing markets for many organic and sustainable family farms in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Family farms in America are disappearing at a staggering rate. Since the early 1960s, the number of farms in the U.S. has declined by over 1.25 million. The good news is that a growing number of consumers are increasingly committed to buying organic food from local family farms. This food matches their personal values and includes attributes such as freedom from pesticides, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics; production at an appropriate scale; incorporation of fair trade/fair pricing; providing for the humane treatment of animals; and promoting buying local. Research indicates that this sector includes 25 percent or more of the American public.

FamilyFarmed.org is a website, food label, and EXPO that supports Midwestern organic farmers by connecting them with consumers and commercial buyers. FamilyFarmed.org creates sustainable economic development, builds community, and contributes to a healthy environment by encouraging people to buy food from local producers.

Website - The FamilyFarmed.org website educates consumers about the benefits of buying food that is healthier, environmentally sound, and supports local family farmers. On the site, consumers can gain access to information about area producers, including a picture of the farm family or processor and a description of their products and growing methods. This is where consumers “meet” their farmers and begin to re-establish connections with their food, their community, and the land.

Food Label - The FamilyFarmed.org label includes the FamilyFarmed.org logo, the place of production (for example, Illinois or Chicago), and the name of the farmer or processor behind the product. The goals are to make it easy for consumers to immediately identify locally produced food and determine the name of the farm or processor and place of production. The labels are designed to send people to the website to encourage a deeper connection with the producer. The label also helps supermarkets easily promote their local products.

EXPO - At the EXPO, FamilyFarmed.org brings together dozens of local farmers and food producers with direct consumers and trade buyers from supermarkets, restaurants, distributors, and more. The EXPO features educational workshops for the public, farmers and trade; cooking demos from some of Chicago’s best chefs; films about food; kids activity area; bookstore; plenary sessions and an organic café. In March 2005, the FamilyFarmed.org EXPO was held at Navy Pier in Chicago. More than two thousand people attended the event to meet 45 exhibiting organic farmers, farm co-ops and food producers who represented over 400 Midwestern farms. This full-day celebration was the largest event in the U.S. with a local organic food focus.

About Sustain
Sustain transforms complex issues into compelling projects and campaigns so that the public, media, business, and policymakers take action to create a healthy, sustainable society. Through public and private partnerships Sustain encourages sustainable economic development that creates jobs and revitalizes communities in an environmentally sound manner.

Sustain is one of the country's most effective non-profit organizations working for a healthy environment. Sustain has played a key role in many national and regional environmental victories. Our strong images and creative campaigns have been seen in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, People and Time magazines, and most national television networks.

Our name comes from the word "sustainable", which means using resources in an environmentally sound and economically viable way that provides for the long term needs of the community. We accomplish this by creating public education campaigns, developing programs to make "green" industries more attractive to consumers, creating public events, working with the media, serving on advisory boards and councils, and using other means to promote positive change. Much of our work focuses on protecting our physical environment by advocating for clean air, safe food, diverse transportation choices, restored rivers, lakes and natural areas, healthy cities and communities, and abundant open space.

The Roots of FamilyFarmed.org