Facebook can go far beyond beyond its function as a tool for communicating and keeping in touch with friends and family.
Facebook pages are a lot like personal profile pages but are often run by organizations, blogs, brands, businesses or celebrities and can be effective outlets for the exchange of news and ideas. They also promote interaction among people with common interests.
Earth Eats has compiled a list of our favorite Facebook pages that do this well and are great tools for learning more about food and sustainability.
Top Ten Facebook Pages For Foodies
Food Declaration: This facebook page is a supplement to a website (FoodDeclaration.org) which promotes The Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture Food, a document proposing healthier food and agricultural policy reform to legislators. Unlike many Facebook pages that are extensions of websites, the majority of the activity actually takes place on their Facebook page. The website is used as a place where you can endorse the declaration, while their facebook page is loaded with news stories and discussion among advocates. The Food Declaration Facebook page has taken advantage of a lot of the "page" features: check out the side panels for plenty of pictures uploaded by fans, events, links to news stories, and the other pages that the Food Declaration likes.
Slow Food USA: What makes this Facebook page so useful is its enormous fan base. With over 20,000 fans, there is a lot of conversation and fan posts about slow food. Slow Food USA is a food movement that has a great website. However, their website doesn't offer the kind of reader interaction that their Facebook page does. Be sure to look at the "Photos" tab for some pictures fans have uploaded of their beautiful food creations.
Fair Food: Field to Table: The Fair Food Project is a short film intended to raise awareness about another side of food production: the working conditions and labor issues of migrant farmworkers. Their website (www.fairfoodproject.org) mainly functions as a place you can watch the web documentary and get information about labor issues. This makes their Facebook page a great outlet for supporters and activists to interact. The Fair Food Facebook page posts news stories on labor topics, but also about food safety and fair trade.
Farms on Facebook:Â Facebook pages have created new ways for farms to interact with their communities and customers. Church View Farm, located in Romney, West Virginia, is a great example of this. On their Facebook page, you can communicate with the farmers and other community members as well as view photos of their farm, their livestock and their produce, creating more transparency to the farming process. Church View Farm also posts news stories. Other good examples of farms with Facebook pages are found on the Lucky Layla Farms page, West Wind Farms page and Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms page. See if your local farms have Facebook pages or are active in other form of social media.
Tree Hugger: You may be familiar with this popular blog on sustainability (treehugger.com), but maybe you haven't ventured over to their Facebook page yet. You can access all of the articles and photo slideshows available on their website. You can also see what other fans are posting. Treehugger has an emphasis on sustainable product design, so you can see a lot of cool "green" products on their Facebook page as well.
Better School Food: As the name implies, the organization that runs this Facebook page is a non-profit dedicated to the improvement of school food, a movement that has been accelerated by the announcement of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative in February. What makes the Better School Food Facebook page interesting is that the fans seems to dominate the discussions. This is perhaps a reflection of how much people care about what their children are eating at schools. Check out the photos on the sidebar that fans have uploaded to see the alarming images of the food being served in schools throughout the country.
Roots of Change is a California-based initiative that collaborates with other organizations, nonprofits and businesses that are committed to sustainability. There is a lot of activity on their Facebook page with countless events postings, the photos of events sponsored by the organization and active discussions on the discussion boards. They also have a website at www.rocfund.org
Local Farmers' Markets: A lot of farmers' markets have Facebook pages now, too. The Nashville Farmers' Market and the Omaha Farmers' Market and Bloomington, Indiana's Winter Farmers' Market pages are exemplary of how local farmers' markets interact with their communities through social media. They post event information, locations and hours of their farmers' markets and provide a forum where farmers and community members can talk. As seen on the Bloomington Winter Farmers' Market page, it is also a way to organize and interact with volunteers who help manage the markets.
I Support Farmers' Markets: This Facebook page is run by an advocacy group in support of local farmers' markets. With their big fan base, people are constantly swapping news stories and photos of their own local farmers' markets.
Sharing Recipes with Facebook pages: Facebook pages are also an excellent way of finding and sharing recipes with people of common culinary interests. The Vegetarian Recipe Facebook page and the Raw Vegan Recipe Exchange are good sources for diet specific recipes. Even the popular cooking website, Epicurious, has a Facebook page where fans swap recipes and cooking tips. The pages also offer photos and even videos of food creations.
You can access any of these pages through the Earth Eats Facebook page. Under the "Boxes" tab, you can view more of our favorite pages, and if there are any pages we missed, let us know by leaving a comment. We'd love to take a look!
Learn More:
Is Twitter your preferred social media tool? We have tips for that, too: "Top Ten Twitter #Hashtags for Eco-Foodies"
