Why buy locally produced products?

When you buy from nearby producers, in addition to supporting them, you are helping your local economy and promoting community sustainability. Here’s more information.

Keep currency in your community

When you purchase from a locally owned business, you are keeping dollars in your community. Did you know that locally owned businesses are more likely to donate to local charities and fundraisers than their national counterparts? For more information you can read the Michigan University publication Why Buy Local? An Assessment of the Economic Advantages of Shopping at Locally Owned Businesses.

Support local jobs

When you buy local, you are supporting jobs in our community. Your purchase directly supports farmers and farm workers, but also people who have jobs in support industries that provide supplies and services to farms and farmworkers. In a 2013 study that looked at the Economic Importance of the Aquaculture Industry in Indiana, researchers estimated that for every 1 aquaculture job there was an additional 0.66 jobs supported by the industry.

Promote Sustainability

When you buy local, you are using the influence of your purchases to support sustainable industries in your community. Shopping for locally produced fish, whether in your community or one nearby, means you are buying products that have traveled less to get to market. The carbon footprint associated with transportation is less than those of companies shipping over long distances.

Where can you find locally produced fish?

Eat Midwest Fish Finder – Aquaculture products raised in the North Central Region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin).

Eat Wisconsin Fish (EWF) website – Wisconsin produced fisheries and aquaculture products.

Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder– Great Lakes fisheries and aquaculture products.