For centuries salt was so valuable that soldiers were paid in it and entire wars were fought to control it For most of history salt was one of the most valuable things on earth Soldiers were paid in it and the word salary comes from that Nations fought wars just to control where it came from The seasoning in your cabinet once ran the world Support real food made the old way Find local producers on Localize

One five gallon bucket can turn a single seed potato into a real harvest, and the grocery store never mentions it. Fill a bucket with soil, plant one seed potato, and it fills the container with tubers by summer's end. When the plant dies back, gardeners tip the bucket over and the potatoes roll out clean. A porch lined with buckets stores real calories, which almost nothing else on a balcony can claim. Find seed potatoes and growers near you on Localize. Sources: Old Farmer's Almanac

Scientists found a probiotic that helped the body grab microplastics and flush them out The strain latched onto plastic particles in the gut Animals given it cleared more of the microplastics from their bodies Fermented foods are full of the same kinds of bacteria Find raw dairy and ferments near you on Localize

Watermelons in old paintings were pale and swirled and looked almost nothing like the red fruit we grow now A famous old painting shows a watermelon that is pale and swirled and full of seeds It looks almost nothing like the deep red fruit we grow now Centuries of breeding changed it completely The food on your table has been redesigned more than you think Support real fruit from real farms Find local fruit near you on Localize

New York turned its rooftops into working farms, and the biggest ones harvest tens of thousands of pounds of vegetables a year. Brooklyn Grange farms real soil on rooftops in Brooklyn and Queens instead of gravel and tar. The soil also helps the roof absorb stormwater and cool the building below it. Restaurants a staircase away buy produce that never sees a delivery truck. Find urban growers near you on Localize. Sources: NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Brooklyn Grange

A farmer just won the right to tell people what he is already legally allowed to sell. Courts have repeatedly sided with small producers fighting state bans on advertising legal raw dairy products. The pattern is the same, a state allows the sale but bans the farmer from marketing it. Judges have called that a First Amendment problem dressed up as food safety. Find farms selling direct near you on Localize Sources: Institute for Justice

People leave little free pantries on the sidewalk stocked with food so anyone can take what they need any hour People build small pantry boxes on the sidewalk and keep them stocked Anyone can take what they need at any hour with no form and no questions Neighbors quietly refill them overnight A wooden box on a post feeds a block better than any program Support neighbors feeding each other Find local food near you on Localize

There is a nationwide network where people trade a day of farm work for a bed and a home cooked meal. WWOOF connects volunteers with organic farms that host them in exchange for food, lodging, and hands on teaching. No money changes hands between host and volunteer, only labor for room and board. Volunteers learn a working season from the inside, the way farm knowledge has always passed along, person to person. Find working farms near you on Localize Sources: WWOOF USA

Carrie Underwood spends her mornings collecting eggs, not accepting awards. The country star keeps a flock of chickens and a large garden on her Tennessee property. She cans and preserves the harvest herself, a practice she credits to her grandmother. Her family eats from that land before anything store bought reaches the table. Find homestead food near you on Localize Sources: Taste of Country

White bread was once a rich persons luxury and the poor were left eating the healthier brown loaf White bread used to be a luxury only the rich could afford The poor ate the darker loaf that we now know was better for them Fashion flipped the whole thing on its head The cheap healthy bread became the one nobody wanted Support real bread made by real bakers Find local bakers near you on Localize

Native farmers figured out a nearly perfect farming system centuries before agronomists had tools to explain why it works. In the Three Sisters method, corn stalks trellis the beans, the beans feed nitrogen to the soil, and squash leaves shade out weeds. Agronomists have since found a Three Sisters plot can produce more food energy and protein than the same crops grown apart. Browse native and heritage growers on Localize Sources: Cornell University

A twelve year old enslaved boy solved a problem that stumped growers for centuries:

John Deere was accused of running an illegal monopoly:

One of rap's biggest names spends his mornings walking a buffalo herd, not a red carpet. Rick Ross keeps cattle and horses on his Georgia estate, Promise Land Farm, and recently added buffalo. He mows the three hundred acres himself and posts the farm work instead of hiding it. He talks about the animals as daily discipline, not props for photos. Find local ranchers near you on Localize Sources: XXL

Nuns blocked a pipeline company off their farmland by planting a chapel and crops right in its path A pipeline company tried to run its line straight through farmland the sisters owned So the nuns built a small chapel and planted crops right in its path They turned the fight over the land into a stand for the food it grows Faith and a field held off a corporation Support farms standing their ground Find local farms near you on Localize

A twelve year old enslaved boy solved a problem that stumped growers for centuries:

John Deere was accused of running an illegal monopoly:

Microgreens can out earn steak per pound and grow in about the time it takes to binge a TV season. Trays of young greens reach harvestable size in roughly ten to fourteen days from seed, needing just a shallow tray and light. Restaurants and markets pay a premium for their concentrated flavor and short shelf life. That lets small growers run real businesses out of basements, garages, and spare rooms. Localize makes it easy to find microgreen growers near you Sources: Cornell University

Hugh Jackman built a coffee company that keeps almost none of its own profit. In 2009 he traveled to Ethiopia and met a coffee farmer named Dukale, then promised to bring his beans to the world. He launched Laughing Man Coffee in 2011 and still routes its profits back into the farming communities it sources from. It is a quiet rebuttal to an industry where the grower usually gets paid last and least. Find direct trade roasters near you on Localize Sources: Laughing Man Coffee

Saffron costs more than gold because every red thread is pulled by hand from a flower that blooms one week a year Saffron is worth more by weight than gold Every red thread is the tiny center of a flower that blooms about one week a year It all has to be pulled by hand which is why it costs what it does The most expensive spice on earth is just a flower and a lot of patience Support hand grown food worth the work Find local growers on Localize