Finding it in CyberSpace

Sometimes finding local food is easier said than done. Going to locally owned Nature's and getting 5 lbs of organic flour is no guarantee that the wheat used is locally grown or even US grown. Roadside produce stands, which I used to assume was locally grown produce, many times are enterprising produce sellers who buy their fruits and veggies from the same distributors as Safeway.
Looking carefully at labels reveals that many things that I originally assumed were local products are not. They may be processed, bottled or inspected locally but they are produced elsewhere. Or the company may be local but the product was trucked up from Brazil. I have a hard time heading to the store on a quest for a certain item and finding that either there is no local option or that the labels are so oblique that there's no telling where the food is actually produced.
As much as I love Trader Joe's it is almost impossible to figure out where the product was actually produced. Everything says "Monrovia, CA" because that's where TJs headquarters is located. Everything is packaged, processed and shipped from there. When I contacted TJ's about where their hazelnuts were grown (I figured since 90% of hazelnuts in the US are from Oregon this would be a no-brainer) they emailed me a vague message about their commitment to local food producers and that they try to use as much locally produced product as possible. That didn't really help me much. What does help me are the products that are named for the area from which they come. All the meats, fish and poultry are origin marked and whether they were farmed sustainably. Much of the cheese and yogurt has place origin as well as the fruits and veggies.
Still your best bet is growing it yourself, supporting a local farmer and getting good a preservation for the long famers-marketless winters we Central Oregonians endure. For a little inspiration and some good reading I have listed my favorite websites that I peruse regularly.

http://www.foodalliance.org/
http://www.coic.org/cd/agriculture.html (local workshops on cultivating and supporting local food source)
http://www.findthefarmer.com/
http://www.eatwild.com/
http://www.oregonfarmersmarkets.org/directory.html
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/
http://www.localharvest.org
http://www.tuttifoodie.com
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ (classes on canning and smoking and tips on gardening)
http://www.thegreenspot.org/Enviro-FAQs/Landscaping_and_Gardening/
http://coldzonegardening.com/