Highlights from the Local Food System round table discussions at Starved Rock Lodge (2-11-08) and University of Illinois Springfield (2-13-08)

The round table discussions covered the following LFS topics: why support local foods and why now, defining locally grown/processed, the challenges and strategies of sourcing local foods for meetings, what it means to assess a community food system, producer issues, institutional food buying issues, tips on creating a successful farmer’s market, local food policy, identifying community resources, and outlining goals/criteria for success. The names of the Extension staff who facilitated the discussion are in parenthesis next to the topic title.

General Challenges

·        Misperceptions among food service, restaurant and institutional buyers on what they could and could not do when buying local food. 

·        A great need for education all along the food system chain.

·        Defining local needs to be unique to each community and that this can be a difficult first task.  Consensus isn’t always easy to attain when trying to identify local.  Issues such as growing practices, processing, etc. seem to cause some concerns. 

Discussion Topics

Why Local (Carrie Edgar and Anne Silvis)

• For farmers, markets support income.
• Local markets allow more people to farm, and build the local economy
• Fresh food is better, and better for the environment.
• For the local grocery store, local food is a marketing strategy.
• It’s convenient for the farmer to sell locally.
• Helps to build community; create an economic base to keep younger people in the community.
• Education about where food comes from, and nutrition, is important.
• Can work well for small producers.  Leopold Foundation has more information.
• Food security
• Co-marketing
• Consumer requests
• School lunch programs
• Convenience
• Quality of life  - food, community, diversity, economics
• Level of trust with knowing your farmer
• the environmental and sustainability benefits of local food.

Why Now (Carrie Edgar and Anne Silvis)

• Adopt a school program, example is Dole. Do cookbooks, bookmarks, and refrigerator magnets. Extension’s family nutrition program is an example.
• Encourage people to start gardens, preserve foods, plant a row for the hungry.  We need to support those activities.
• Accommodate various interests and objectives.
• There is only so much time for talking and planning . . . need to take action!

Defining Local (Carrie Edgar and Anne Silvis)

• Where is food grown (produced?) and where is food sold (consumed?)
• State and county lines are often crossed to create a local “region.”
• Can be defined by the product – product must be produced within the region, not
• just business address of the distributor.
• Could include regulations related to organic and sustainable production.
• Maybe the issue is to provide more information to the consumer. Neiman Foods uses “Midwest” grown.
• Definition may depend on the venue (grocery store v. farmers market, for example)
• To find producers, use “market maker” program.
• Specialty growers are developing a website that lists producers.
• Different pricing options – consignment and % of sale; store purchases and resells; local produce can be sold for more.
• Look at the local market like a watershed – where are people (consumers) coming from to shop?

Walking the Talk: eating locally grown in our own business meetings (Deborah Cavenaugh-Grant)

Challenges

·        The cost and difficulty of adding local foods to the already over-loaded list of things to do when organizing meetings

·        Dealing with multiple vendors

·        Facilities have regular food providers

·        Workshops and conferences

·        How to source local foods

·        Many items that hotels receive come prepared or require little effort, and local foods require additional work resulting in increased labor costs to the caterer/food service provider.

Strategies

·        Need to have this as a priority

·        Begin early to work with food service providers and to source local food

·        Use the above resources (and others) to educate food service providers

·        Start slowly - pick a key meeting where you want to have local foods

·        Start small - the entire menu does not have to be local, pick a few seasonal items

·        Need to be knowledgeable about the local farmers in your area (use Farm Direct, MarketMaker and other sources)

·        Develop a budget that will reflect the need for additional funds to support using local foods

·        Need to acknowledge the farmers in the agenda and the chef(s) – introduce and thank them at the meal.

Assessing Community Food Systems (Pat Curry)

·        Assessments are useful when you need information that can only be gathered first hand using methods like surveys or discussion groups and when the cost of doing the data collection is justified.

·        It is not unusual for big information gaps to exist when a new local foods project is under discussion. Because producers are the most important part of a local food system it is particularly important to understand what is important to them. How many producers/growers are in the county?  What do they produce?  Are they interested in selling at a farmers market?  Are educational programs or technical assistance needed?

·        Poorly designed assessments can consume many resources and culminate in limited or useless data. Always involve a few stakeholders and someone who has applied research skills early in the process to avoid failure.  It is a good idea to look at examples of other surveys/approaches but be careful about just adopting an approach that was used in another place. The best questions for surveys and discussion will reflect unique local characteristics of the food system.

·        Assessments can also have positive public relations benefits because they encourage sharing and create interest in the local foods issue. Keep your assessment efforts in public view.  Press releases can be used to alert people that the assessment is taken place to generate interest and give potential respondents/participants a heads-up. The results should be widely distributed.

Producer Issues

·        The success of any local foods initiative is highly dependent on producers. Currently it seems like we have too few producers to meet demand so they need to be front and center in any discussion of local foods. Expanding production could be achieved by increasing production at existing farms, or recruiting new producers. Both of these strategies have potential but it seems little has been done to develop an understanding of how to accomplish these objectives. Some believe that this problem will go away as demand and prices increase, which in turn increases profitability and pulls producers to this line of business.

·        Educational programs need to be expanded.  They should address not only the seasoned professional but those who are ‘thinking about’ producing for a local market. The Farm Beginnings program needs to be more accessible across the State. University of Illinois Extension is probably the best positioned organization to assume leadership for educational programming but many other institutions including high schools, community colleges, not-for-profits, producer organizations and others are active. More coordination is needed.

·        Technical assistance is needed at all levels for local foods producers and organizations that are proponents of local foods systems. The enormous diversity of products and production practices makes this a complex challenge. The Internet offers the most realistic method for delivering information and creating forums for discussing production issues.  Mentoring or creating connections between producers to leverage experience may also be an opportunity.

·        Access to capital is potentially a problem although many traditional agriculture lenders are becoming more familiar with local foods producers business models and financial needs.

·        Despite the abundance of high quality farmland in Illinois there is some concern that small acreage parcels may not be readily accessible in many places. High land costs may also be a barrier. There may be an opportunity to work with the larger farm units on lease arrangements in some locations.

·        The lack of market information is a problem for many participants in a local food system. Market information includes the types of products available, pricing, quantities available, quality standards, distribution systems, and other characteristics of producers and consumers. The lack of market information is particularly troublesome for institutional buyers who are increasingly interested in purchasing local foods.

·        Illinois lacks a statewide organization representing the interests of local foods producers. As the local foods movement grows it will be increasingly important to have a voice in state government to advocate local foods policy.

·        Farm tours are a popular and effective method to increase interest in local foods and share knowledge and experience.

·        Without a plan to address succession of ownership retiring producers may not be replaced in some locations.  Succession planning is probably an unfamiliar topic for most local foods producers but may be an option that provides economic benefits to the producer and sustains a local business.

·        Local foods production is labor intensive. Availability and cost of labor are emerging as potential problems for some producers.

·        There are several factors that were suggested to be inhibiting new producers:

o       Lack of leadership

o       Social pressure from commodity oriented producers

o       Lack of dependable/guaranteed markets for products

o       Lack of technical assistance addressing production practices and business management

Institutional Food Buying Issues (Leslie Cooperband)

• Farm to School Programs: Extension involvement with a local school given grant funds to purchase local foods. Health Department concerned about foods coming from “approved sources.”  This comment is pervasive not just in schools but in other institutions such as restaurants. Also don’t know how to deal with many vendors (i.e. farmers) when used to dealing with one food purveyor like Sysco.  Another example of a non-profit organization (Seven Generations Ahead) having a goal of working with 300 elementary schools in Chicago and suburbs; were only able to get apples into several of the schools for one week. 

• Illinois State University higher administration has been pressuring the ISU Dining Services to source more food locally, but they can’t find the food or it is too expensive.  They are considering starting with just one dining hall and offering a special meal plan with a local foods option.

• Can institutions like grocery stores contract with local farmers to raise the crops or livestock the stores want to purchase? If so, what would those contracts look like? Are there farmers already out there who might be in a position to build a relationship with a grocery store—Fairbury farmers and Dave’s Supermarket were cited as an example of farmers approaching a local independent grocery store and creating a farmers’ market within the produce section of the grocery store.

• City of Bloomington is trying to get local foods into ISU and local grocery stores; they are using examples from New York State.

• One participant expressed concern that this locally-based food system is new and undeveloped and could be seen as a threat to the current globally based food system—concerned about backlash from individuals or institutions entrenched in global food system as more institutions start purchasing local foods.

• Suggestion to educate veterinarians and health care professionals about the benefits of locally grown foods so that they can become advocates for promoting local food consumption in institutions.

• Roadblocks to more institutions buying locally grown foods and needs suggestions:
1. Not enough producers and/or producers with enough volume to meet institutional needs or even needs of individuals who want to process raw products into value added products
2. Public schools have to award contracts for food procurement to lowest bidder (this almost always excludes the local food vendors who typically charge more than conventional food distributors)
3. Need someone to do some minimal processing of raw foods—precut, ready to serve; e.g. can’t just sell corn in the husk to schools; it needs to be husked and kernels cut off the cob
4. Have to work within a very rigid budget for food purchasing when local foods typically cost 2-3 times more than conventional foods
5. Health Department restrictions or institutional food buyer perceptions that the food vendor needs some sort of certification before the institution can purchase from them
6. Institutional buyers need help in identifying medium sized produce and livestock producers in the state or region who are growing the quantities that institutions need—better data in Market Maker maybe
7. Need for intermediary business (i.e. a distributor specializing in local foods) who institutions could work with instead of having to work with each farmer. Many restaurants, caterers and other institutional food buyers have expressed concern and frustration about having to contact many producers with different products, different payment structures, etc.  Need good communication and development of set of expectations for both food buyers and producers.
8. Need to educate food buyers about seasonality of foods in Illinois climate so they know when products will be at their peak and so they could stock up on certain products and preserve them (canning, freezing, etc).
9. Need to develop a business structure regionally that increases farmer (producer) capacity and increases consumer awareness about local foods.

Measuring Outcomes (facilitated by Carrie McKillup, Kyle Cecil and Kari Houle, Knox County Extension)

·        At both locations, discussion centered on defining what you want to accomplish prior to beginning an initiative.  Utilizing the logic model approach, facilitators discussed measurable outcomes and indicators.

·        Information regarding University of Wisconsin website and their outcome measurement information was distributed.  Key items discussed included:

-               How do you define your outcome indicator so that it is measurable?

-               How do you know if what you are measuring indicates what you state?

-               When do you use surveys?

-               What information is currently available from public sources as baseline data?

-               How do I define success?

·        Both groups also discussed the advocacy component in LFS work.

How to Create a Successful Farmer’s Market (Anne Silvis)

• Consumers have expectations that vendors will be there each time. But managers claim that it is important for producers to have some flexibility.
• Consumers need education about what is available and when.
• Vendors need to be there consistently so as not to disappoint consumers.
• Vendors need a “hook” to get customers in for the first time.
• People who shop at a farmers market are looking for a personal relationship with the grower.  PR is important. Word of mouth is very important. Producers should expect questions about products, the growing process, etc.
• Producers should think about extending the season by drying, preserving, etc. to stock winter markets.
• Market oversight: visit vendors to make sure local foods are “local” and other rules are enforced. Could be resolved by labeling accurately.
• Decide what you want the market to be and hold to it, rather than letting vendors evolve the rules. Define the product (based on producer ability and consumer need).
• Community economy may influence the market.
• Figure out a way for access to WIC to be streamlined. Provide EBT at the market. Make produce and products from the farmers market more easily available to low-resource populations.

Local Foods Policy

·        Local foods policy in Illinois received a significant boost in 2007 with the passage of the Illinois Food, Farm and Jobs Act of 2007.  One provision of the Act is the formation of the Illinois Local and Organic, Food and Farm Task Force.  This group will be the first to address local foods policy issues in Illinois.  Detailed information about the Task Force is available at this web address http://www.agr.state.il.us/marketing/Mkt_ILOFFTaskForce.html.

·        There are currently many local foods councils, organizations and advocates at the local level. This is a unique strength but presents many challenges to development of a local foods policy.  Creating a “collective voice” for local foods will require a degree of coordination and collaboration that does not currently exist. Gaining a political voice for local foods will require development of clear, consistent messages that inform and inspire.

·        Policy addressing producers is a particular concern.  Creating new regulatory burdens could suppress interest and slow growth in the number of producers. Producers are perhaps the least well organized of all constituents in the local foods system. Identifying collective priorities for such a diverse group will require a rigorous effort.

·        Local foods supporters need to be vocal advocates even if the message is a simple one. Politicians are more likely to pay attention to issues when they receive input from their constituents.

·        Local foods policy advocacy should be sensitive to the broader agricultural policy environment dominated by commodity-oriented agriculture. Working with these organizations has obvious advantages while conflict could create serious obstacles.

Identifying Resources (Margaret Larson)

·        Identify key people in the community who may have information but don’t have a reason to do anything with it—aren’t charged with informing the public.  Partner with them in an effort to make their work known.

·        Locally grown is not just trendy-it is here to stay.  Communicate this with the community and possible partners.

·        We must facilitate conversations between producers and processors—this was suggested by a chef as a necessity.

·        We need to identify and market resources to match a product, such as cheese, with a chef.  Market Maker, Farm Direct and others are all good programs and resources.  Can they be merged into one program which is highly visible?

·        Institutions to use local food—State of Illinois, Casinos, and the major universities.  Look at universities as a place to start raising consumer awareness.  The message will spread if you make an effort to inform students. 

·        Find new and multiple ways to work with producers on how to grow and market their products.  We need to connect with commercial food and vegetable growers as well.

• We need regional connectors and organizers—does Extension have the capacity to fill this void?  Organized regional groups could form coalitions and begin to change the way we eat.
• Handouts
• A Guide to Discovering Community Food Systems, Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri Extension
• Resources for Farmers Markets in Illinois, U of I Extension-Stephenson County
• Marketing Resources on the Web, Andy Larson, formerly U of I Extension

·        Look for unique opportunities for partners in communities.  Keep in mind that these potential partners will be different in each community.  For example, the Farm bureau may provide funding in one county, promotion in another, and have no interest in yet another.

·        U of I Extension should be a resource in every county, since there is already a presence.

·        Farm beginnings is a great resource, but unfortunately limited in opportunities to two in the state.  Can this program be replicated in other areas to provide more access to potential small farmers?

·        Farm Doc and Fast Tools are great programs and resources on the web, but are aimed at providing assistance to the large producer.  Is there a way that these programs can be tweaked to be useful to small producers?  Since a great deal of work has already gone into their development, it would be great if they could be useful for the local foods audience and then heavily marketed as such.

·        Also needed are tools to be used to determine the effectiveness of diversification.  Is the Illinois Specialty Growers Association a resource for small growers?  If so, how can we tap into them?

• As we identify partners, we need to be mindful of the mission of providing access to all.  Are we addressing needs of all socioeconomic groups?

Outlining Goals/Criteria for Success (Carrie Edgar and Anne Silvis)

• Education on the environmental and sustainability benefits of local food. 
• Being as inclusive as possible seem to be important to success and that by educating consumers we can let them ask the questions that matter most to them as individuals.
• Need to be able to recognize changes and trends.
• Revise every year to make adjustments.
• Involve media – get local newspaper involved.
• There is awareness among consumers but not enough producers/production.
• Develop and encourage more producers.
• Need to develop University training for small scale production.

Resources

• A Guide to Discovering Community Food Systems, Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri Extension
• Resources for Farmers Markets in Illinois, U of I Extension-Stephenson County
• Marketing Resources on the Web, Andy Larson, formerly U of I Extension
• A Guide to Serving Local Food at Your Next Event, Gary L. Valen and Meredith R. Taylor
• Local Foods Dinner Planning Checklist, Land Stewardship Project
• A Sense of Place: Serving Local Food at Your Meeting, Washington State University, Food and Farm Connections Team
• Why Buy Local Resource Guide ppt
• http://www.extension.iastate.edu/pubs/ local foods
• http://www.extension.iastate.edu/hrim/localfood/ local food website