Snuggle Up to Local Eats: Food Within Reach Uses Maps to Pinpoint Regional Foods

Have you heard of Google's Street View? It's made by the lovely folks at Google who have taken a little drive down streets in your local area, taken some photos, and posted them online. You can see your street, your parents' street, and your friend's street, even if it's in another city. It's a little creepy and it can provide loads of nosey entertainment.

Imagine a Street View for local produce. If you could zoom in on your region, your city, and your neighborhood and find out which stores are selling local produce, wouldn't that be grand? If you could look at your region and source out summer produce to buy in bulk, planning a route around rural neighborhoods, you could save on time, gas, and research. Perhaps you could even plan a regional food holiday based on the food purveyors that you found as you zoomed in and out of regions, looking for local delicacies.

Nanaimo-based Food Within Reach is piloting this concept in British Columbia, Canada. The company uses mapping technology to pinpoint the areas where local food grows and is sold. It connects those who buy, sell, and produce local food. If you are going for a lovely country drive to get some blueberries, the map can let you know who is growing cucumbers and corn around that blueberry farm. Or perhaps you need to pick up some honey or some local meat?

The concept is simple, but it takes a load off the minds of those who attempt to source local food. One of the reasons that we try to eat local is to reduce the carbon footprint of our food. We also like supporting local farmers and building relationships with those who grow our food. However, battling the whims of the internet can exhausting. First, try to source your food. Then try to map out a route that involves a few stops, to save on gas and reduce your climate impact and be efficient with your time. It would be lovely to look at a map, see what's available, contact the farmers and plan a seasonal trip or two to gather local produce.

First, Vancouver. Next, the world? Users are welcome to upload information: the maps are interactive and open to the public. Would you use mapping technology like this in your city or town? Would it help you as an agricultural producer? How important is it for you to have a virtual "reach" to the local people who might consume your product?