Local Food Systems. August 20 th Sustainable Cities Institute

Transcription

1 Local Food Systems August 20 th 2015 Sustainable Cities Institute

2 What we will talk about Introduction Why local? Systems thinking and collective impact Evaluating systems change Local food opportunities in Iowa agriculture Important players in Iowa s food system Role of Iowa State University * Photos by the Leopold Center unless stated otherwise

3 Why local food systems? Three pillars of sustainability:

4 Systems thinking Not just educating consumers or changing individual behaviors Create a system that makes it easier to eat local food

5 Systems thinking, continued Simple Complicated Complex Example Baking a cake Sending a rocket to the moon Raising a child Solution Recipe Technical assistance, Experts Multi-sector collaboration

6 Collective impact Large scale system change requires collaboration from all players in the system This requires time, trust, communication, etc. Gmnetwork.org

7 Evaluating systems change How do we make sure that we are making a difference?

8 Unit of analysis? - Individuals - Families - Businesses - Organizations - Institutions - Communities - Governmental jurisdictions - General populations

9 Unit of evaluation Concept of the unit of analysis in evaluation Individuals Families Businesses Organizations Institutions Communities Governmental jurisdictions General populations Groups and Organizations

10 Unit of evaluation Concept of the unit of analysis in evaluation Individuals Families Businesses Organizations Institutions Communities Governmental jurisdictions General populations Systems

11 Typical Evaluation Focus Time Short-term (awareness, skills, knowledge, attitude change; 1 yr) Medium-term (behavioral, customs, practice change; 1-5 yrs) Long-term (conditions change; 6+ yrs) Unit of analysis Directly Affected Target Individuals Directly Involved Non Target Groups/Orgs Indirectly Affected Populations and Communities

12 Systems Evaluation Focus Time Short-term (awareness, skills, knowledge, attitude change; 1 yr) Medium-term (behavioral, customs, practice change; 1-5 yrs) Long-term (conditions change; 6+ yrs) Unit of analysis Directly Affected Target Individuals Directly Involved Non Target Groups/Orgs Indirectly Affected Populations and Communities

13 Examples of Food Systems Change Extension councils funding local food work Number of grocery stores buying local food Number of farmers growing local food Sales of locally grown food Healthy food access Organizational support for regional food development New school food service policies to buy local food Job creation related to local food commerce Job descriptions that include regional food systems work

14 Iowa agriculture 13.7 million acres of corn in 2012 (45% of all farm land) 7,724 acres of vegetables in 2012 (0.025%)

15 BUT - Opportunities for local food in Iowa Economic opportunities In 2013, local food farms and buyers Created 18 jobs, 39 of which were full-time jobs Sold $13 million in local food

16 Opportunities for local food in Iowa Beginning farmers How many acres does a conventional row-crop operation need in order to make a living for a family? How much does an acre of land cost? How many acres does a diversified vegetable producer need to make a living for a family?

17 Opportunities for local food in Iowa Conservation practices Organic/natural practices that appeal to consumers Diversification, crop rotations Luther college farm, Decorah IA (photo credit Maren Beard)

18 Opportunities for local food in Iowa Healthy communities 1/3 rd of US kids are overweight or obese Growing food and integrating it as part of the curriculum.

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24 Partners we work with Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture RFSWG Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Iowa Food Hub IFSWG Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative

25 Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Groundwater Protection Act Grant programs MFSI Resources, reports, cool tools, calendar

26 MFSI project highlights Global Greens, LSI Des Moines Iowa Food Coop Food Safety Machinery sharing

27 RFSWG

28 Food & Fitness

29 Iowa Food Hub Began by ISUEO in Winneshiek County with food box program Used $500 and barrowed space in a food co-op s cooler in 2012 $330,000 in local food sales in 2014 Up from just over $100,000 in 2013 Purchasing from 37 vendors (including two farmers co-ops) Regular deliveries to schools

30 ISU and local foods Agriculture and Natural Resources: Feeding people 4H Youth Development: Turning the world over to the next generation Human Sciences: Keeping them healthy Community and Economic Development: Helping their communities to prosper and thrive

31 IFSWG Extension faculty, field staff and county working with local foods Work across silos Goal: engaging countypaid extension staff

32 What is our role as an institution? No straight answer ISUEO supports community-based learning and decision-making by providing resources, tools, technical assistance, and facilitation. RFSWG FH managers working group FoodCorps RFSWG

33 Extension: from experts to partners Contribution rather than attribution Building trust Help communities fulfill their goals and objectives by acting as facilitators, co-conveners, and true partners rather than as educators. Photo by the Community Design Lab

34 The Local Foods team Craig - local food grand poobah Arlene and Corry (evaluators) Lynn coalition building Courtney ag urbanism Alice outreach Savanna food hubs Ahna enabling environments Margaret food access Mission: To support resilient food systems and healthy communities through research, education, and community engagement with diverse partners.

35 Coalition building and partnership development Building trust Networking Partnership development Lynn Heuss Hort field day

36 Agriculture Urbanism Toolkit Phase 1: building trust, coalitions, identifying the vision and needs of the community s food systems Phase 2: interviews with food system stakeholders Phase 3: open house with local residents Phase 4: prioritizing tactics and plan for implementation Courtney Long (court7@iastate.edu) Community Design Lab

37 Food Hubs Food hubs in Iowa Cash flow and food hub manager financial litteracy Worksite food box program Savanna Lyons

38 Outreach Within ISU faculty and staff Students Beginning farmers Website Alice Topaloff Beginning Farmers Network Conference at ISU, photo by Luke Gran with PFI

39 Evaluation

40 Enabling environments (Ahna) Food access (Margaret)

41 Thank you! Arlene Alice