Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Multistate Project NE-1012 Sustaining Local Food Systems in a Globalizing Environment: Forces, Responses, Impacts Accomplishments 2002-2007 The goal of this project was to increase systematic knowledge of how communities can generate, support, and benefit from more localized food systems. We proposed several interrelated objectives for examining ways to sustain local agriculture and food systems in a globalizing environment. Throughout the life of the project, we focused more on the first three project objectives: (1) collaborate with food system stakeholders to identify high priority information needs; (2) examine policies, projects and events that transform local food systems; and, (3) explore ways in which local communities respond to the forces of globalization. Toward the end of the project, we addressed the fourth project objective to look at the economic, social and environmental contributions of local food systems to the community. The principal accomplishments of the project are reported according to our project objectives. Objective 1. Collaborate with local food system stakeholders and food citizens to identify high priority information needs and the forms in which information should be shared. All project participants, including those without extension/outreach appointments at their respective institutions, incorporated active public engagement and outreach into their project work. In response to the identified needs and interests of, and often in collaboration with local food system stakeholders in each state, project participants developed research protocols in each state to carry-out a variety of applied research projects. Several of the chapters in Remaking the North American Food System were co-authored by project participants and non-profit or government agency collaborators. Some of the key illustrations of collaboration with local food system stakeholders and food citizens include: " California. Feenstra identified key food systems leaders (UC Cooperative Extension directors and farm advisors, marketing experts, farmers, county government officials, agricultural commissioners, land use planners, school food service, non-profits) in Stanislaus, Placer and Yolo counties and partnered with them to analyze important direct marketing venues in that county for farmers. The county stakeholders helped guide data gathering, interpret and disseminate results. " Kansas. Middendorf worked with Extension educators to improve their skills in engaging Latino audiences with culturally appropriate educational programs. " Massachusetts. Mangan worked with low-income immigrant populations to learn about culturally appropriate fruits and vegetables that farmers market vendors could begin to grow and market. " Michigan. Bingen coordinated a statewide survey of certified organic growers and interviews was undertaken in part to help identify research needs and policy concerns, as well as marketing strategies and issues. DeLind worked with the Allen Street Neighborhood Association to help secure funding to launch a Farmers Market that responded to neighborhood needs. Hamm collaborated with the Michigan Food Policy Director staff and Michigan Department of Agriculture Legislative Liaison to identify needs and opportunities to carry out food policy council report recommendations. He also worked with the staff of Eastern Market Corporation determined outreach information needs, and with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to identify food system needs for the food and fitness initiative. " Minnesota. Murray organized a Food Summit that brought together various stakeholders of local food systems and led to the creation of the Twin Cities Food Council and identified opportunities for three Farm-to-School initiatives. " Missouri. Barham collaborated with producers, wineries, processors, locally owned restaurants and B&Bs, other locally owned businesses with unique regional products, public officials, academics, and industry associations to design the Missouri Regional Cuisines Project. The project models the process of geographical indications formation in a New World context. A pilot region, the Mississippi River Hills, was established in a six-county area of the state in 2003 and local leadership has since initiated a non-profit association to direct the project. New York. Gillespie, Lyson and Wilkins conducted community dialogues to gather information on the opportunities and barriers for local food system development; they also made tools available to citizens and entrepreneurs interested in local foods or in local agriculture and food enterprises for local economic development. " Oregon. Lev organized local food system conferences and trainings with farmers market vendors, managers and customers to assess and identified key needs for farmers markets; he helped market managers improve the collection of information to improve market operations; and, he worked with the Lane County (OR) Food Coalition to ensure collection and analysis of useful food system information as well as documenting the willingness of consumers to pay for high quality local products. " Pennsylvania. Thomson facilitated community dialogues similar to those in New York. In addition, Hinrichs facilitated meetings with Penn State meat scientists and personnel from the Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture Association (PASA) to discuss research and training needs to ensure the viability of Pennsylvanias historically vibrant small scale meat processing sector. Both Thomson and Hinrichs responded to demands by growers for more information about the effects of on-farm food safety audits based on good agricultural practices and the link between food quality and safety standards. " Puerto Rico. Carro-Figueroa organized meetings with farmers, Extension educators and others, as well as non-traditional food system stakeholders such as organic farmers and farmers' markets organizers and participants, to gather input on how local research and education programs could become more responsive to their needs. More recent efforts included participating in meetings with, and delivering presentations to, environmental and labor organizations with an interest in land use policy and food security issues. " Washington. Ostrom conducted a needs assessments of small and limited resource farms and with new immigrant enterprises regarding their participation in sustainable and local food system development; a database was developed of one hundred new Hmong farms and 300 new Latino farms missed by previous agricultural census efforts and statewide agricultural programs. She also undertook surveys to gather better information on how new food initiatives addressed consumer needs and interests. A citizen advisory system for the WSU Small Farms Program was established to ensure ongoing stakeholder input into WSU food system research and education programs. A statewide, interdisciplinary, Small Farms Team adopted the mission of working with communities to foster profitable family farms, land and water stewardship, and access to healthy food. " Wisconsin. Kloppenburg and Stevenson helped to organize the fifth annual Food For Thought festival and the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project " West Virginia. Brown worked with WVU Cooperative Extension to build a database and website on the states farmers markets and the basics of e-marketing that is responsive to the needs and concerns of farmers market vendors and organizers. Objective 2. Identify and analyze ongoing and potential forces that are maintaining or transforming the relationships between localities and their food systems. The project research framework under this objective identified three categories of forces: 1) long term historical and structural trends (e.g., changing transportation technologies and routes, increased urban sprawl, aging and changing ethnic-racial demographics in some rural areas, shifts in gender roles and labor market participation, rising costs of health care); 2) one-time events and turning points (e.g., local factory or plant closings; extreme weather events such as floods, drought, fire or freezes; sudden shifts in local governance regimes); and, 3) policies at the local, state, federal and potentially international level (e.g., Federal commodity subsidy payments; Conservation Reserve Program; farmland protection incentives; HACCP regulations; WTO rulings). Illustrations from our research include: " California. Research in Stanislaus, Placer and Yolo counties identified several long term trends such as increased global agricultural trade, urbanization and farmland disappearance, labor supply and cost issues, and shifting requirements for environmental compliance that have shaped the opportunity and need for developing local food systems, and in particular influence opportunities for farmers trying to enter institutional markets. " Iowa. Hinrichs research on small scale meat processors and meat lockers found that most of these businesses believed that the adoption of HACCP requirements had improved their enterprises. At the same time she found that compliance with HACCP helps to explain the dramatic reduction overall in small scale meat processing sector in the Midwest in the last 10 years. " Missouri. The work carried out in Missouri focused on the institutional form of geographical indications (GIs, or labels of origin) as they are known in Europe. Aspects considered included the rural development impacts of these institutions; comparisons between the legal context in the EU, Canada, and the US for GIs; environmental impacts of production in a GI context; and creation of new rural development initiatives in the US leveraged by the value-added potential of a GI quality product. " Puerto Rico. Based on assessments of the restructuring and concentration of retail outlets in the island, Carro-Figueroa found that the concentration of large supermarket chains on the Island and changes in Federal food distribution/nutrition programs have influenced the patterns of development and activity in retail farmers markets in Puerto Rico. " Pennsylvania. Based on geospatial data, it was found that school districts located within food deserts were more likely to be structurally and economically disadvantaged, and that there was a positive relationship between location within food deserts and increased rates of child overweight. Findings indicate that interventions targeting individual behavioral changes may have limited impact on improving nutritional and health outcomes for children, and that food system infrastructure concerns should be incorporated into state, community and school policies and programs. " Washington. Ostrom and Jussuame found that barriers to direct marketing local meat and dairy products, county health codes, state regulations governing on-farm poultry processing and federal regulations restricting co-packing by state certified poultry processors all posed impediments to the development of a viable local meat and dairy sector. Objective 3. Examine the diverse strategies employed by local food system stakeholders to create and manage ongoing and potential change in the food system. Most project activities identified, examined and contributed to the implementation of various strategies for localizing and re-localizing food systems. Key activities included: " Farmers Markets. The project generated considerable data on the social organization and development of farmers markets. Project activities centered on developing entrepreneurial capacity, urban-rural differences among markets, relationships with local units of government, and farmer-vendor characteristics. Various types of studies of farmers markets and vendors were undertaken in California, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In addition, in Washington a Farmers Market manual was developed and farmers market managers were trained in developing strong management structures and stronger community support for their markets. Similar training took place in Oregon and Michigan. " Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Important long-term analyses of producer and consumer experiences and expectations of CSAs in Minnesota and Wisconsin were completed. In Michigan, New York and Iowa (with a study in Vermont) analyses sharpened our understanding of both the community and nutritional gains possible through the CSA model and potential limitations in terms of democratic participation, equity outcomes and transcending traditional gender roles. " Farm-to-Institution Initiatives. Activities included collaboration with emerging farm-to-school programs and assessments of their relative success in building stronger links between schools and state food and agriculture. For example, in: o Wisconsin action research centered on the development of the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project in Madison. o Minnesota researchers monitored the course of farm-to-school projects at the Univ. of MN-Morris, and in the K-12 school districts in Hopkins and Willmar. o New York studies looked at the information needs of different stakeholders, including surveys of the practices, attitudes, and interests regarding local foods of dining directors at colleges and universities as well as awareness of the seasonal availability of local products in addition, the Cornell Farm-to-School Program website provides news updates, resources, policy updates, and an interactive map where farm to school projects in New York are highlighted. o California assessments were made of the impacts of one countys farm-to-school program for local growers, participation and consumption patterns, using an innovative digital photo method to assess what foods and how much children put on their plates at the salad bar. o Maine the Farm Fresh Connection (FFC) a program that connects local farmers to institutional food markets (especially colleges, restaurants, and local independent food stores) received assistance to transition in becoming a for-profit firm. o Comparative case study research of two emerging farm-to-school initiatives (rural and urban) in Pennsylvania established the important of school and community context in shaping organization of and justifications for such program. Findings suggest that one-size-fits-all farm-to-school interventions may have limited success. Rather, the substantive foci of farm-to-school may need to vary from site to site, and perhaps over time, to increase the prospects of program sustainability and positive impact. The Farm-to-Hospital program in California set the framework for collaboration with the Physicians for Social Responsibility (SF) to conduct an evaluation of how farm-to-hospital programs are working in the greater Bay Area. The farm-to-hospital work spawned new initiatives in the health care industry including: research and coordination of a local poultry procurement initiative with the Bay area Hospital Leadership Team; preparation of an information brochure to help food buyers in hospitals understand food myths vs. facts, including information related to small, local farms; a web-based information portal on SF PSR site for Bay area hospital food service directors, clinicians regarding sustainable local food; and support and networking through meetings and technical assistance for Bay area sustainable local food initiatives. " Food Policy Councils. In addition to assessing the social organizational patterns, operations and impacts of U.S. food policy councils over time, work in Michigan has been directed to launching a state council and to assuring its viability and responsiveness to state needs. " Geographical Indications/Labels of Origin. Several project researchers examined efforts to implement label of origin systems and place-based values as a European-inspired approach to diversifying agricultural systems and supporting sustainable rural development. Examples of these efforts include: o the Missouri Regional Cuisines Project, which links regional specialty products, both existing and emerging, to rural tourism, community economic development and environmental quality. o Minnesotas Superior Grown and Pride of the Prairie; Pennsylvanias comparative study of state identity marketing programs for food and agricultural products; and, o Michigans effort to identify and incorporate place-based values into rural development planning in a northern rural county. " Buy Local. Two project researchers collaborated on a national comparative study of the motivations, strategies and approaches in regionally specific variants of recent Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaigns. In addition, in: o West Virginia, a website, WVfarm2U.org, was developed to help consumers find West Virginia farms, farmers markets, and food products, and to provide an online format for chefs to purchase products from farmers. o Minnesota, a three-day workshop, Alternative Marketing Approaches and Distribution Channels, brought together farmers market managers, Extension educators, faculty and graduate students and others to learn alternative marketing strategies including rapid market assessment (RMA) at two farmers' markets; visits to community supported agriculture farms and a variety of retail outlets (i.e., grocery stores, cooperative markets, farm stands). o New York, the Northeast Regional Food Guide was redesigned to facilitate adoption and teaching of healthful food choices that are seasonally varied and locally-based. The groundwork was also laid for a new web site that promotes food citizenship. o Barham, Feenstra and Hinrichs collaborated on a conference presentation that compared the structure and effects of product labeling efforts at different scales, including the county (Placer County, CA), state labeling programs (i.e., AgriMissouri, etc.), and geographical indications (based on ecological factors combined with traditional know-how of producers). Objective 4. Document and assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of efforts to create and manage ongoing and potential change in the food system. In addressing this objective, project researchers paid particular attention to identifying how research articulates with policy development and implementation in ways that support viable local/regional food systems. Specific illustrations of efforts to achieve this objective are: California. Reports from work in each of three counties (Stanislaus, Placer and Yolo) identified the economic impacts of various direct marketing strategies. In addition, interviews, economic analysis and consumption/waste studies helped to determine the economic and nutritional impacts of the farm-to-school program in Yolo County. Missouri. Barham organized a conference in 2005 in St. Louis, Missouri, entitled: Geographical Indications and Sustainable Rural Development: Exploring the Connections. Presenters from several EU countries, including producers with geographical indications for their products, presented policy impacts and opportunities of GIs in a global context. Several NE-1012 researchers were present to take part in special research sessions intended to foster collaborative research projects on GIs with EU researchers attending (further program information and PowerPoint presentations given are available at: http://extension.missouri.edu/GIconf/presentations.html).