How do we uphold the integrity of local food?

As more consumers demand local food, some vendors have expanded their concept of “local” in questionable ways. How do we know what is the Real Deal?

Our research for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) found that the foremost quality of local food is that it creates community connections. To learn more, see: The Real Deal: How Do We Define “Local” in a Meaningful and Measurable Way?

Economic Impact Reports!

Critical Analysis of Economic Impact Methodologies

Economic impact analyses often are not as useful as they might be because the data used in calculating impacts is not as precise as users think it is. Furthermore, impact analysis software such as IMPLAN is often used inappropriately, since it is not fully sensitive to the business sectors that drive local foods work. Ken Meter and CRC Associate Megan Phillips Goldenberg have produced a critical analysis of these methodologies, and suggest new directions for measuring economic impacts. This is part of a larger report published by the Illinois Public Health Institute with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Exploring Economic and Health Impacts of Local Food Procurement

Interviews with local food leaders in five selected regions across the U.S. showed how farm-to-school and other institutional food purchasing can help create, and help lead to, positive economic and health impacts. Drawing upon case examples from Vermont, Louisville, Southwest Wisconsin, Tucson, and San Diego, this new report highlights the ways in which economic and health impacts may be measured. Meter and Goldenberg were part of the team that produced this study, published by the Illinois Public Health Institute with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Emerging Greenhouse Technology in the Netherlands (2012)

The Koppert Cress greenhouse near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, aspires to be the “world’s most sustainable greenhouse.” Here, micro-greens are grown under LED and natural light, then shipped to gourmet restaurants globally. This first-hand report offers a glimpse of pioneering innovations at all stages of production. The firm also operates a similar greenhouse on Long Island in New York. Download report below:

Download Greenhouse report with pictures (large file – 98mb)

Download Greenhouse report without pictures (text-only – 131k)

Local Foods: Potential to Build Wealth & Health in Alabama (2012)

The Food Bank of North Alabama published a beautiful four-color brochure showing the results of Ken Meter’s study of their region’s farm and food economy in early 2012. The findings were unveiled for the first time at a public meeting sponsored by the Commissioner of Agriculture, John McMillan, in his offices in Montgomery. Read about the food bank’s vision for economic development in the Huntsville region. Posted with the permission of the Food Bank of North Alabama.

Local Food Systems: Building Health & Wealth in the Delta (2012)

The Delta Fresh Foods Initiative commissioned the Mississippi Delta Farm & Food Economy study from Ken Meter in early 2012. They used these findings to produce a colorful brochure, outlining their case for addressing what they call a “double crisis of food and health” by building a strong and resilient food system in the Delta. “The key to economic recovery in the Mississippi Delta will be to bring the economy back home,” DFFI says, and their document shows just how they will do that. Posted with the permission of the Delta Fresh Food Initiative.

Promising Community-Based Food System Initiatives (2010)

Looking for inspiration? Here is a concise overview of some of the reasons the community-based food movement must flourish, with selected examples of groundbreaking local foods initiatives across the U.S.

The Potential for Urban Agriculture (2009)

Urban Agriculture holds great potential. Did you know that forty-one percent of all farm commodities are sold from farms in metropolitan counties? And that 55% of the money made from producing farm commodities was made in metro regions?

Proposals for Census of Agriculture 2012 (2009)

What if the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture helped communities measure their own health, wealth, connection and capacity, not just farms and commodities? Read these recommendations by Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center.

Local Food as Community Economic Development (2008)

Local and state governments now spend $50 billion per year giving incentives to businesses, and often don’t get much in return. Building community-based food systems is a better way to refashion the U.S. economy.

Local Food Systems: Building Health & Wealth in Metro Denver (2008)

Food has become a leading cause of death, rivaling tobacco. Colorado spends $874 million per year to pay for the medical costs of obesity. The Metro Denver Health and Wellness Commission asked Angie Tagtow and Ken Meter to show the potential local foods systems have to reduce public costs for food-related health conditions. Data like this might help your local officials support the local foods cause.

Neighborhood Balance Sheets Assess Local Economies

How does a low-income neighborhood create a regional destination? First, by understanding its local economy, and then by acting together to strengthen existing capacities. See Ken Meter‘s White Paper, written for the American Planning Association (APA) (1998).

AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD
Sustainable Food System Assessment: Lessons from Global Practice

A new book, Sustainable Food System Assessment: Lessons from Global Practice, edited by Alison Blay-Palmer, Damien Conaré, Ken Meter, Amanda Di Battista, and Carla Johnston, was published by Routledge Press (UK), released on December 12, 2019.

This book features cutting-edge scholarship on food system assessment written by several scholars working in diverse regions internationally. One chapter, written by Ken Meter (pp. 66-90), covers techniques for performing food system assessment in complex adaptive systems—when conditions are changing so rapidly that measurements quickly become obsolete.

Sustainable Food System Assessment: Lessons from Global Practice Free Download!

ECONOMIC IMPACTS!

Community-Minded Ways to Develop Economic Impacts

Megan Phillips Goldenberg and Ken Meter collaborated to write a seminal review of the scholarly literature covering economic multipliers, and offer community-minded ways to strengthen economic multipliers — rather than devoting scarce resources hiring consultants to produce estimates that are not very accurate. We recommend greater use of social network analysis to show local stakeholders how multipliers are built. Our essay is part of a Special Issue covering the USDA Economic Impacts Toolkit (Goldenberg and Meter were among several co-authors), published by the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

Building economic multipliers, rather than measuring them: Community-minded ways to develop economic impacts

Building Soil Health in New Mexico

Ken partnered with the New Mexico Soil Health Working Group to interview some of the most experienced soil builders in the state. They share their successes as well as dead ends they have encountered. Interviews include Diné (Navajo), Pueblo, and Latino farmers and ranchers. Lessons from New Mexico, one of the more challenging environments for building organic matter, can be adapted for other climates, because soil health principles are universal. One of the key insights the growers gave was that soil health builders require supportive community networks and loyal buyers.

Building Soil Health in New Mexico

Proposed Food Hub for Northern Utah

The City of Salt Lake and its food policy council asked Ken to assess the feasibility of launching a food hub that would serve farmers in the northern part of the state. Although the region has several long-standing, productive produce farms close to metro consumers, and a solid core of produce distribution firms, the study raised several cautions about whether a food hub would benefit farmers or the broader region.
How Feasible is a Food Hub for Northern Utah?
Accompanying data reports:

Northern Utah Farm and Food Economy

Background Data for Wasatch Front Metro Counties of Utah

Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Rosebud) Farm & Food Economy

The Rosebud Economic Development Corporation asked us to compile economic data covering tribal farms and the local food economy, as part of the tribe’s Food Sovereignty Plan initiative. Sicangu Lakota Oyate Nation Farm & Food Economy

New Hampshire Farm, Fish, & Food Economy (2019)

The National Family Farm Coalition held a nonpartisan forum for presidential candidates in New Hampshire on November 5, 2019. Ken Meter prepared a study of the state farm, fish, and food economy, and was keynote presenter at the forum. New Hampshire Farm, Fish, & Food Economy
Food Solutions Forum website.

Hawaiʻi Food for All (2017)

The Hawaiʻi Department of Health, using SNAP-Education funding, commissioned this food system assessment focused on poverty in partnership with The Food Basket (the food bank on the Island of Hawaiʻi), The Kohala Center, Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, and the Blue Zones Project.

Hawaiʻi is one of the nation’s leaders in fostering local food production, since farmers and civic leaders alike recognize the islands’ extreme vulnerability, given their dependence on imported food sourced more than 2,500 miles away.

Still, despite a thriving tourism industry, Hawaiʻi endures immense issues of poverty, homelessness, and in-migration of vulnerable populations. The state’s historic legacy of plantation agriculture has often contributed to poverty.

New community-based forms of agriculture are emerging on each of the islands. Our report highlights several of the most prominent initiatives, focuses on the networks they are building, and also calls for sustained state support for community based food networks.

Significantly, we argue that since the Hawaiʻi Constitution declares land and water as part of the Public Trust, placing a responsibility on the state government and its citizens to protect these valuable resources, the state should formally declare community-based food systems to be part of the Public Trust as well.

Our report includes what we believe is the most comprehensive overview of Hawaiʻi agriculture ever published.

Hawaiʻi Food for All (2017)

Alaska: Building Food Security in Alaska (2014)

Like most other states, Alaska imports about 95% of the food it purchases. Yet this state is more distant from prevailing food production regions than other states. Alaskans feel a special sense of vulnerability. Despite a rich history in dairy and cattle production, most of these foods are now imported. Much of the arable farmland has been paved over by development. Moreover, Alaskans who wish to purchase some of the $3 billion of seafood harvested from its ocean waters typically have no choice but to buy through Seattle vendors.

Still, farms produce a rich variety of crops and livestock. Direct sales from farmers to household consumers run at 13 times the national average, amounting to one of every six dollars farmers earn selling food to humans. Lettuce, peppers, and cucumbers are available year-round from indoor farms. Chickens are grown inside greenhouses that rely upon surplus heat from nearby buildings.

In no other state is harvesting wild foods as important. Subsistence and personal use hunters bring in an estimated $900 million worth of salmon, caribou, moose, foraged greens and berries, and other foods. Yet even here, hunters and gatherers face special challenges: a decline of hunting skills, weakening ice, changing migrations, and radioactive fallout.

Our study, written by Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg, offers practical steps for building a more reliable food supply by growing, storing, and marketing more Alaska-grown food to Alaskans. Commissioned by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

South Carolina: Making Small Farms Big Business (2013)

Early in 2013, the State of South Carolina commissioned Crossroads Resource Center to produce an investment plan for local foods. Five short months later, after interviewing more than 150 food system leaders, Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg put forward a $9.5 million plan. It calls for a statewide marketing campaign — “Eat Five, Buy Five” — asking consumers to eat five fruits and vegetables each day for health, and to buy $5 of foods direct from farmers each week. If every consumer in the state bought $5 per week, South Carolina farmers would earn $1.2 billion of new revenue, rivaling sales in the state;s produce industry. The plan also calls for the creation of a competitive grants program to support clusters of farms that supply local markets: “Food Production Nodes” that help build a web of support around food hubs. It also calls for ongoing farmer training, with greater statewide coordination. Read more.

“One of the best documents that has been produced in the state to promote rural prosperity in decades.”
— Dana Beach, head of the Charleston-based Coastal Conservation League, and founder of GrowFood Carolina

“This is the most massive project ever undertaken to develop a local food supply in South Carolina. Implementation of the results of the study can increase significantly the income of rural counties in our state.”
— Jack Shuler, president of the Palmetto Agribusiness Council

Commissioned by the State of South Carolina (Departments of Agriculture and Commerce), South Carolina Farm Bureau, Palmetto Agribusiness Council, Bank of South Carolina, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Coastal Conservation League, and Clemson University Extension.

Hoosier Farmer? Emerging Food Systems in Indiana (2012)

Food business clusters have been emerging in Indiana since the mid-1970s. They are now taking root in farm commodity producing regions. Young members of the Indiana Farm Bureau are positioning themselves for a future of farming that may be very different than the past, knowing that if each Hoosier spent less than $5 per week buying food directly from Indiana farms, this would generate $1.5 billion of new farm income for state farmers—a 20% increase in farm revenue.

Ohio’s Food Systems — Farms at the Heart of It All (2011)

Clusters of local foods businesses are forming across Ohio, as residents innovate ways to provide healthier food options, and bring farmers into more direct contact with consumers. These business clusters focus their attention on building strong relationships of trust, overcoming a long history of export agriculture. Written by Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center for the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center, with funds from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Mapping the Minnesota Food Industry (2009)

A study of Minnesota’s food economy shows relationships are the key to creating the food industry of the future. Read close interviews with food business leaders, and learn a wealth of facts and figures.

Food With the Farmer’s Face On It: Emerging Community-Based Food Systems (2003)

Emerging in thousands of communities all over the U.S., the community-based foods movement seeks to find “Food With the Farmer’s Face On It.” The W. K. Kellogg Foundation asked Ken Meter to produce a media guide introducing readers to this vital movement.

Generic Scope of Work for Local Economic Analysis

Local foods leaders of 95 regions in 32 states and one Canadian province have asked Ken Meter to study their local farm and food economy. His analysis has played a critical role in animating local foods activity across the continent.

Finding Food in Farm Country (2001)

Launching all of this activity was Ken Meter’s original “Finding Food in Farm Country” study of Southeast Minnesota, commissioned by Community Design Center and the Experiment in Rural Cooperation. This has been used as a reference in at least 12 university programs.

Fifty-Year Vision & Indicators for a Sustainable Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis won national recognition for its sustainability initiative. Central to that effort was a fifty-year vision for the city’s future, and specific measures of sustainability, devised by city residents. The public process for defining these indicators was coordinated by Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center. This is a fundamental document to read if you want to measure sustainability.

Neighborhood Commercial Development for the Long Term

Our position paper shows that building strong neighborhood commercial districts involves building wealth for local residents.