Colorado’s many agricultural products have made our state a great place for eating local. The Colorado Department of Agriculture, with its Colorado Proud program, has highlighted Colorado’s culinary contributions for years. Recently, however, the locally-grown food movement has gained in popularity, and the new buzzword is agritourism. This fall, the Colorado Tourism Office is helping to promote agritourism and local food products in Colorado with the Colorado Roots Restaurant Challenge. In this contest, locally-owned restaurants can enter to win prizes for the best menu, website, advertising, decor, and design that promotes Colorado agritourism. If you operate a locally-owned restaurant, enter today! Contest ends October 1. For a directory of Colorado restaurants that use local ingredients, check out the Colorado Proud Restaurant Guide.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture has put together a helpful webpage of Agritourism Resources. Be sure to also visit the Colorado Proud webpage for additional resources on local food products. A fun feature of this webpage is that each month it highlights one Colorado-grown ingredient with a special recipe.
The Colorado State University’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics has also produced a number of reports on the local food movement, available from our library, including:
- Selling Local: Campaigns to Encourage Local Consumerism
- Buy Local, Buy Fresh?: Exploring Local Fresh Produce Consumer Motivations and Interests
- Colorado Wine Consumers: Tapping Interest in Local Wines
- Agritourism in Colorado: A Closer Look at Regional Trends
- Exploring the Increased Interest in Fresh Produce
- Who Are the Locavores and Where Do They Shop?
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