Local Foods

Local Foods not only provides a sales outlet for farmers, but can help strengthen a community by stimulating the local economy and creating local entrepreneurial opportunities. Farmers markets can promote food quality by reducing the distance that food travels from farm to consumer. When shipping is less of a concern, produce can be picked when it is full of flavor and tender, then quickly put into the hands of consumers seeking fresh products.

Our Experts

Professional portrait of Bryce Valandra

Bryce Valandra

Curtis Braun

Professional portrait of Gemma Bastian

Gemma Bastian

Jason Schoch

Jennifer Red Shirt

Kristine Lang

Patricia Hammond

Ted Pourier

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Topics

A row of vendor tents at a farmers market.

Farmers Market Operation

Customers expect the food and products they purchase at farmers markets to be safe to consume. Vendors have a responsibility to grow and handle food using good food safety practices. View all food safety regulations for farmers markets in South Dakota.

A male vendor serving a strawberry sample to an older woman at a farmers market stand.

Farmers Market Regulations

Customers expect the food and products they purchase at farmers markets to be safe to consume. Vendors have a responsibility to grow and handle food using good food safety practices. View all food safety regulations for farmers markets in South Dakota.

Featured Programs

Group of students eating lunch at school

Farm to School

Farm to school provides an opportunity for youth in early childcare, educational settings, after-school programs and other settings to experience local foods.

Box of vegetables

Dakota Food Rx

Produce prescription programs have been implemented all over the country to help increase people’s access to fruits and vegetables so they can manage their chronic conditions.

Featured Resources

Bananas at a grocery store.

Pick it, Try it, Like it for Grocery Stores and Sampling

Use these Pick it, Try it, Like it materials to educate consumers at farmers' markets or grocery stores.

Variety of fresh vegetables in blue plastic totes on a table at a farmers market.

Food Safety for Farmers Markets

Food safety bulletins for farmers markets and other direct marketing vendors

Related Topics

Farmers Market Operation, Farmers Market Regulations

Related Content

Producer unloading fresh, farm-grown produce from a delivery truck at a super market.

Regulatory Guidance for Selling Foods in South Dakota

Now more than ever, we are seeing food processors and entrepreneurs in South Dakota bringing their food products, not only to farmers markets, but also to retail stores. This article provides regulatory guidance and outlines the necessary steps required to allow for the sale of foods to retail stores.

Couple harvesting cabbage in a large garden.

Perfect produce? Understanding the standards behind cabbage quality and condition from a production perspective

Learn about the U.S. Department of Agriculture cabbage grading requirements, as they are key to understanding why produce is graded to certain standards before it ends up on grocery store shelves.

Bottles of on-farm pasteurized and packaged whole milk.

Selling Grade A and B Dairy and Dairy Products in South Dakota

There has been an interest in manufacturing and processing dairy products by South Dakota food entrepreneurs. Learn everything you need to know about the basic requirements for processing and selling Grade A and Grade B dairy and dairy products in our state.