Northwest Arkansas has some of the best farm-to-table restaurants and is honestly one of the best farm-to-table places in all of America. The state is heavily agricultural and has amazing local food facilities.
The Walton Family Foundation offered $31 Million to Springdale, Arkansas, to build the Market of Ozarks, where farmers can sell to restaurants and other clients. They also have a food initiative to support local agriculture, so the state is a self-sustained network regarding food.
This article will discuss the network of agricultural production and how it ties in with the restaurants of Northwest Arkansas. I’ll also go over the facilities helping the state be more self-sustained when it comes to food, so read on!
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The Farm-to-Table Restaurants
In the last couple of years, specifically the last five years or a little longer, many people have been moving to the area and have built farm-to-table restaurants right here in NWA.
I have talked about some of these restaurants. These include Farmer’s Table, the Hive, which is located in Bentonville, and 21C hotel in downtown Bentonville, Conifer, and Heirloom.
There is also the Prelude Breakfast Bar located right in Fayetteville. You can watch a video about the amazing food at Prelude on YouTube here –
There’s so much agriculture outside of NWA city, and so many restaurants inside the city, which builds a whole ecosystem that makes NWA a unique area.
This ecosystem is based on using material from outside of NWA city agriculture and using it inside the NWA city restaurants. Other bigger areas don’t have this unique situation.
Take Austin, Portland, or some East Coast areas, for instance. You can’t take the actual material and agriculture and bring it inside the cities because it causes a price hike. However, this movement of materials works out in NWA because it’s not that far out.
Many NWA restaurants are pushing towards farm-to-table and big farmers’ markets located in Beville. Read my article to learn more about Northwest Arkansas farmers’ markets and the ones you absolutely must visit if you’re in the area.
The farmer’s markets are possible because there are a lot of farms and a network of farmers outside of NWA. These farms partner with restaurants to produce consistent products in NWA. This network prevents the need to outsource, as it happens everywhere else.
If you talk to the restaurant owners around the area, they say they love using localized agriculture because they know what they’re going to get.
Since they know the local farmers, they can visit these farms and get chickens, for instance, from the area and be assured that these animals are being treated fairly versus a larger scale farm.
Many of these restaurants use networks of farmers to get the materials they can cook in their restaurants in contrast to outsourcing to big other farms in general.
Another important topic to learn about Fayetteville are the best breakfast places in Fayetteville!
Food Initiatives Making NWA Self-Sustained
The Walton Family Foundation has a food initiative right in Northwest Arkansas that’s helping cultivate more farmers and agriculture.
The initiative is why NWA is an example of how other cities and areas can use their agriculture instead of outsourcing. The Walton Foundation is pushing this initiative because many areas don’t have this kind of initiative in general.
City councils will try to have initiatives, but the Walton Foundation, plus other people, are making NWA a hub for restaurants and other local places to use local ingredients. The initiative ensures that local produce isn’t difficult to access, so more people are encouraged to support their local farms and farmers.
A great example is the Ozark co-op, located right in Fayetteville. The Ozark co-op uses many locally sourced materials versus outsourcing from different places.
So NWA is setting this example of integrating restaurants, actual grocery stores, and farmers in a network to sustain their agriculture and food sources locally.
NWA has some benefits because it has Tyson locally, so many farmers are naturally set up for that. So the ecosystem, the actual distribution, and transportation are geared towards self-sustainability, making the process much easier.
But then again, it is a good example of what other areas can do. They don’t necessarily need to have a Tyson, but they can have something similar to catapult the area.
Planning to move to Fayetteville? Here are a few Tips To Move To Fayetteville!
Also, I have a 3-day itinerary that can help you decide what activities to do if you’re overwhelmed by everything Northwest Arkansas has to offer.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a foodie, a sports person, a sightseer, or want to spend quality time with your kids; I have something for you. Check out the link below to learn more:
https://www.allthingsnwa.com/3-day-itinerary-northwest-arkansas
The Market of the Ozarks
A brand new building is being built called The Market of the Ozarks, located right in Springdale, which is an incredibly important initiative supporting farmers and restaurants.
A grant was given to Springdale from the Walton Foundation and other people to build a 45,000-square-foot (1.03 acres), $31 million hub in Springdale.
This building will bring together farmers around the area, who will bring their produce into this hub, versus restaurants and other people going to outsource elsewhere.
Such a building will make a big difference in distribution and transportation because the farmers can have their stands all year long and won’t need farmer’s markets.
Restaurants and other people can go to the hub and buy items locally instead of going to other places in the country. This kind of hub is a really interesting idea, and more so because of the fact that Springdale is the center of all of NWA, and Tyson is in Springdale.
With the Walton foundation partnering with Springdale, you can go to this hub and buy locally sourced items, and so can restaurants.
The Ozarks is a major game-changer as people can easily buy locally sourced produce, without having to go a couple miles outside of town or different areas to source. Instead, people can just go right to the Ozarks building right in Springdale.
Conclusion
There are a lot of initiatives in NWA that support local farms and agriculture. Restaurants are pushing farm-to-table menus, supported by initiatives by the Walton Family Foundation.
These initiatives, like the Ozarks market, support local farmers ensuring easy access to local produce for restaurants and individuals alike. So Northwest Arkansas is almost completely self-sustained when it comes to food.