The Vermont Fresh Network is a statewide organization celebrating partnerships between Vermont Farmers and Chefs. The overall purpose is to create relationships between Vermont's finest growers and restaurants. Their goal is to educate the public on the local agricultural industry and to create a means of communication among chefs, restaurants, producers, distributors and farmers in order to allow maximum utilization of Vermont fresh quality products. One of the biggest issues faced by farmers and the Vermont Fresh Network is that of distribution and delivery of local agricultural products. The distribution expense to small farms is a major concern. Many of the small farms cannot afford to have the large distributors in the area deliver their products and thus have to find alternatives. This often means delivering the products to the chefs and restaurants themselves. This delivery takes away from their other duties and limits their geographic area of distribution.
The intern, Bradley Corr, used GIS to help the Vermont Fresh Network examining the current distribution network with the goal of increasing overall efficiencies and identifying market expansions. The first step was to map or "geocode" all the Vermont Fresh farms, chefs, and restaurants. Special GIS tools were then used that allow complex "network" analysis not possible without the aid of computer technology. This is the same technology that companies like Federal Express use everyday to improve their efficiency. The final network distribution analysis was limited to the central part of the State, but the process developed is being used as a model, and the Vermont Fresh Network would like to complete the rest of the state in the near future.
Clicking on any of the thumbnails will bring up a larger image, though please note that many of these maps as printed are as large as 3' x 4' and so the quality here is much lower.
Vermont Fresh Maps
