By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Looking for locally grown foods? Then look for the logo.

The Tri-State Local Food Policy Council hopes to encourage producers to use its logo beginning this spring to promote whole foods grown within the council's 35 counties in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, or processed foods with 80 percent of their ingredients from the counties.

"If you look at what's happening with fuel costs, public sentiment about food safety and point of origins, now is a great opportunity for us to join together and really put forth a message that we do have products that fit what the consumer's looking for," council member Jonathan Tuttle said.

Plans call for distributing the logo to producers at area farmers markets and other events and by mail. In exchange for a $10 fee, producers get the right to use the logo, suggestions for placing the logo and "talking points" on the locally grown effort.

Council members hope to see the logo used at grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets and potentially on individual products or produce.

"A lot of people don't really understand what local means. It's good for your family, good for the environment, good for the economy," Tuttle told council members.

A larger effort would help put producers in the role of advocates for locally grown, a resource of information promoting the benefits to other producers, consumers and commercial businesses.

"We as producers of food and fiber have become a faceless industry. Part of what I see as branding of locally grown is putting a face back on local producers," Tuttle said. "We are locally grown. We are here. We've got stuff."

The council, spearheaded in February 2007 by the University of Illinois Extension Adams/Brown Unit as an outgrowth of its Locally Grown effort, works to build awareness and access to local foods.

Council members took the approach of "if we build it, they will come," which has helped make consumers more aware of what's available in the area.

An even bigger challenge will be growing the number of growers to increase the supply of locally grown foods.

"We've got to get new people to come in, raise vegetables and meat. They can get into the system and make money from it," Tuttle said.

"There's more demand than product," said Carrie Edgar, Adams/Brown Unit leader, who cited an example of Illinois State University, which wants to buy 10 percent of its food from local sources. "They can't find it."

-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379