Foodborne illness has been all over the news, specifically a Cyclospora outbreak in conventional lettuce and a Campylobacter outbreak in raw milk. The work to trace these outbreaks back to their source reveals something many Idahoans have long understood. When you don't grow your food, or know who did, your risk decisions are in someone else's hands.

That gets us thinking about even more reasons to choose local. Contamination can happen anywhere food is grown, processed, or handled, so local food isn’t a guarantee, but it does offer something the conventional system doesn't: participation. 

As wildfire smoke becomes a familiar part of summer in Idaho, a few simple steps can help keep your garden and your harvest healthy. While smoke may reduce plant growth by limiting sunlight, most established vegetables, trees, and landscape plants recover well once air quality improves. The best thing you can do is keep plants consistently watered, but avoid overwatering, and if conditions are unhealthy, postpone gardening tasks until the smoke clears.  

Future Roots connects farmers directly with chefs, schools, and shoppers, puts patient, flexible capital in the hands of food producers and small businesses , builds connections across the food supply chain, creates events and educational tools that make eating local easy and joyful, and inspires better meals and reduce food waste in school cafeterias.

On Saturday, November 15, over 450 people packed The Sage School campus in Hailey. They chatted with neighbors and eagerly stocked up on local food for the winter at our inaugural Root Sellers event. It was a joyful celebration of local food that beautifully represented our approach to food system transformation.

Fill your Thanksgiving table with local food from these producers. From side dishes to full meals, local farms, restaurants, and food artisans can help make every aspect of your celebration exceptional.

October is School Food Month, and we’re celebrating the inspiring efforts happening across our local schools to promote local products, nutrition, and community engagement.

“Put simply, agroforestry is farming with trees,” explains Brooke Bonner, owner of Drinkers of the Wind Farm. “That can mean anything from a homeowner’s backyard food forest to a large-scale…