Governor John Lynch has announced Monday, Aug 3 – Sunday August 9th, 2009 as Eat Local Week in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food along with Seacoast Eat Local, a group of consumers, chefs, growers and activists, is promoting New Hampshire Eat Local Week to encourage Granite Staters to eat locally grown foods.

Gail McWilliam Jellie, director of the Division of Agricultural Development at the state agriculture department, hopes that the Eat Local Week will be used as a tool for those who are just diving into eating local by pointing them in the right direction.

“If this event garners more interest from people who weren’t interested before, then that is great,” Jellie said.

Over the past few years the public’s trust in food has been tested with the recent salmonella outbreak and the 2006 spinach and lettuce illnesses caused by E. coli. Jellie said local markets in New Hampshire have helped repair that trust with the promise of fresh and safe vegetables. Check http://seacoasteatlocal.org/nheatlocalweek/#content.