Food Systems and Agricultural Policy Resources

Consumer Resources


Farm to Table Food Safety
CSU web site with information on Good Agricultural Practices, Good Handling Practices, food safety, and food preservation.

Gunnison County Local Ag Products Guide
Gunnison County Extension’s web site with information on buying and selling meat, eggs, and dairy products locally. It also supports a list of producers in Gunnison County that sell vegetables, beef, poultry, eggs, dairy products, pork, lamb, goat, honey, hay, and compost locally.

Mesa Verde Guide to Local Sustainable Food and Fiber
Web-based, interactive tool for producers, buyers and consumers to source local food in Southwest Colorado. Features include a listing of buyers (restaurant and retail) and the local foods they use; a list (one can search by category) of over 60 local farmers, ranchers and processors and the products they sell; a combined product availability list feature that allows producers to input the products at the prices they set in a real-time format and for buyers to view a current price list of local food at the touch of a button.

Colorado MarketMaker
A Web-based, interactive mapping system that assists in locating businesses and marketplaces for agricultural products in Colorado, providing an important link between producers and consumers.

Colorado Agritourism
Resources for consumers and tourists who want to find farm- and ranch-based recreational and educational activities in Colorado.

Be Local Northern Colorado
Organization that supports and promotes independent community- and land-based businesses, and spearheads public and private partnerships to support local economic initiatives.

LocalHarvest
Web site with information on local agriculture, community-supported agriculture enterprises (CSAs) and local events, searchable by zip code and/or city.

Producer Resources


Farm to Table Food Safety
CSU web site with information on Good Agricultural Practices, Good Handling Practices, food safety, and food preservation.

Gunnison County Local Ag Products Guide
Gunnison County Extension’s web site with information on buying and selling meat, eggs, and dairy products locally. It also supports a list of producers in Gunnison County that sell vegetables, beef, poultry, eggs, dairy products, pork, lamb, goat, honey, hay, and compost locally.

Mesa Verde Guide to Local Sustainable Food and Fiber
Web-based, interactive tool for producers, buyers and consumers to source local food in Southwest Colorado. Features include a listing of buyers (restaurant and retail) and the local foods they use; a list (one can search by category) of over 60 local farmers, ranchers and processors and the products they sell; a combined product availability list feature that allows producers to input the products at the prices they set in a real-time format and for buyers to view a current price list of local food at the touch of a button.

Colorado MarketMaker
A Web-based interactive mapping system that producers can use to locate markets or find local trade leads for agricultural products in Colorado, enhancing the marketing infrastructure and information available for agricultural enterprises.

Colorado Agritourism
Resources for producers who are interested in starting or expanding a farm- and ranch-based recreational and educational activities. Provides technical assistance resources, resource leads and applied research on agritourists.

Colorado Proud
A free branding, marketing and networking program designed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture to help consumers, restaurants and retailers identify and purchase Colorado food and agricultural products.

Boulder County Building Farmers Program-Market Farm Track
Information on 2010 Building Farmers program, led by CSU Extension personnel in cooperation with key producers in several regions, for new and transitioning agricultural producers.

Southwest Colorado Beginning Farmer Resources
Programs and resources targeted to the Southwest region.

Northern Colorado Food Incubator
Organization to support, guide and assist food-related businesses and entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado with business planning technical assistance and market access.

Certification and Labeling Considerations for Agricultural Producers (2005)
Discusses branding, certification, consumer values for various food attributes, and the types of certification available.

Tipsheets from CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture):


Labeling for Sustainable Production (2000)
Overview of U.S. food labeling laws and regulations; economics of food labeling; comparison of the labeling issues for genetically engineered foods and organic foods.

Working with Retail Buyers (2004)
Information for farmers who are considering selling their products through retail stores. It may also help farmers already working with retail buyers improve their business opportunities through better practices. Brokers or representatives of farmers’ marketing cooperatives will find this report helps build strong relationships with retail buyers.

Linking Producers to Restaurants, Workplaces and Other Institutions


Guide to Serving Local Food on Your Menu
Primer to help foodservice managers and directors, caterers, chefs, restaurateurs and others consider creative ways to incorporate fresh, local products into almost any foodservice setting.

Guide to Serving Local Food at Your Next Event
Pamphlet designed to help planners of conferences, seminars, retreats, conventions and other public events use locally produced foods.

A Sense of Place: Serving Local Food at Your Meeting
Guidelines developed for conference organizers, meeting planners, or event coordinators who are interested in supporting local farmers or who seek to highlight local or regional flavors.

Emerging Corporate Strategies for Working with Small-Scale Producers and Making Their Products Available Regionally (2005)
Presents SYSCO’s recent initiatives in supporting sustainable agriculture and working with small-scale producers to meet regional and national demands for local food products.

Community Supported Agriculture for the Workplace (2008)
Guide for developing workplace community supported agriculture distributions.

Guide to Developing a Sustainable Food Purchasing Policy (2006)
This guide is intended to help universities, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions create, promote and implement practical sustainable food purchasing policies.

Linking Producers to Schools-Networks, Directories and Guides


Overview of School Food Procurement (2011)
A reference for advocacy organizations, funders, policy makers, school districts, and school member organizations that shows how school food is managed in Colorado, what it costs, and offers examples of how school districts can get more fresh food into their meal programs.

Colorado Farm to School
Contains resources for schools and producers, as well as information on school district partnerships.

National Farm to School
National Farm to School network online.

Farm to School Legislation: A State by State Listing (updated 2008)
Summary and links to legislations.

State Farm to School Policies (updated 2008)
Information on statewide action on farm-to-school programs, which combine two popular ideas: Providing students with fresh, healthy food while increasing their knowledge of nutrition and agriculture; and bolstering local agricultural economies with new markets.

Mapping School Food: A Policy Guide (2007)
Policy guide that examines key issues and situations faced by key decision-makers who draft and/or enforce school food policy.

Farm to School 101: Farm Aid Toolkit (2007)
Guidebook to introduce communities to farm to school distribution programs, including essential steps, resources, and case studies.

Results from 2006 Farm to School Survey of Colorado Food Service Operations
Summary of responses and findings, including recommendations for promoting farm to school programs.

Going Local: Paths to Success for Farm to School Programs (2006)
Case studies of innovative farm to school programs from around the country.

Community Assessments and Toolkits

Community Garden Legal Toolkit
Toolkit designed to help overcome the legal and practical barriers to establishing community gardens on land that is not municipally owned. It provides several model agreements and other documents that can easily be tailored, simplifying the process of building an agreement that benefits both landowners and the community.

Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
USDA ERS standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security.

Community economic impact assessment for a multi-county local food system in northeast Iowa (2009)
Documents the economic impacts of several individual local food and farm businesses in the Black Hawk County region of north Iowa.

LiveWell Colorado: Strategic Plan (2009)
Outlines strategic plan of partnership among foundations, health care organizations, non-profit organizations and state and local public health agencies. Partnership seeks to advance policies, programs and environmental changes that encourage healthy eating and active living throughout the state.

Healthy Kids Healthy Farmers: Results from the 2008 Producer Survey
Summary of farmers’ concerns and attitudes about local production and sales outlets.

La Plata County Colorado Food Assessment (2007)
This assessment covers food production, school food programs, food security and community food projects.

Local Food, Local Policy: A Case Study on Engaging Policy Makers in the Development of their Foodshed (2007)
Assessment of knowledge, understanding, and capacity of Johnson County policy makers to develop their foodshed through policy-making, project support and collaboration, strategic planning and goal-setting, and leadership.

A New Way to Look at Food and Agriculture: Community Food Systems (2004)
Provides definitions of community food system elements.

Growing a Community Food System
Discusses the key processes involved in developing community food systems projects.

Action Strategies Toolkit: A Guide for Local and State Leaders Working to Create Healthy Communities and Prevent Childhood Obesity
Policy options and resources that have been identified, evaluated and selected by “Leadership for Healthy Communities” and the 11 policy-maker organizations participating in the program (briefs, papers). Covers the following subjects:
Wheat Ridge City Code Changes to Permit Urban Ag
Wheat Ridge, CO city code changes to support and encourage urban agriculture with urban gardens, farmers’ markets, and produce stands.

Access to Healthy Foods and the City of Wheat Ridge (2011)
Study conducted by LiveWell Wheat Ridge in the fall of 2010 on residents’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables and locally grown foods.

Calculators and Databases


Food Desert Locator
Mapping tool that pinpoints the location of food deserts across the U.S, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

AMS farmers' market price data
USDA price data collected for several farmers’ markets in the U.S. Scroll down near the bottom of the page under Farmers Market and Auction Reports.

Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Planner
Example of a tool created for producers, marketers, food buyers and others interested in the potential impacts of various changes within a specified target market or region. Results can be used to develop joint purchasing initiatives, coordinate food fund raisers, or for educational applications.

Physical Inactivity Cost Calculator
Provide an estimate of the financial cost of physically inactive people to a particular community, city, state or business.

Healthy Counties Database
Search for model policies, programs and initiatives that counties nationwide have enacted to promote wellness and help prevent childhood obesity.

Calculating Food Miles for a Multiple Ingredient Food Product (2005)
Calculates the weighted total source distance (WTSD) for the primary ingredients that make strawberry yogurt as an example of how such analyses should be conducted.

A Geography of Taste: Iowa's Potential for Developing Place-Based Traditional Foods (2004)
Overview of how place-based and traditional food products function in the marketplace and how those products provide premiums to farmers. Also explores Iowa's historical, ecological, cultural, and economic potential for developing place-based and traditional food products; and makes recommendations for action to research and further explore this opportunity.

Food Miles: A Simple Metaphor to Contrast Local and Global Food Systems (2004)
Food miles information provided within the context of the time involved in transport and storage from farm to point-of-sale can be used to develop a construct parallel to “freshness dates” often found in perishable items such as milk, orange juice and yogurt. Such estimates can be used to help consumers make local purchasing decisions.

Comparing Food Miles for Local versus Conventional Produce Sales to Iowa Institutions (2003)
Calculates the weighted average source distance WASD or food miles for various types of fresh produce delivered to Iowa institutions from local sources.

Estimating the Economic Impact of Public Markets
Methodology and tool created by marketumbrella.org.

U.S. Food Market Estimator
Designed to help users determine the potential demand ( by county for the entire United States), for more than 200 different food items. The tool provides information for 204 food products, including various dairy and meat products, fruit, vegetables and grains. Users select how they want results to be shown: by number of servings, pounds produced, truckloads transported, even cubic feet of warehouse space needed to store a particular product. Products can be shown individually, or as groups of products at key stages of the food supply chain. Results can be adjusted to reflect a particular market share, or the unit of measure changed from pounds to other units in order to suit a variety of needs such as number of servings, truckloads per day or cubic feet of warehousing needed each week.

National Good Food Network Database
The National Good Food Network Database is a searchable resource of knowledge, people/organizations and funders focused on the work of scaling up good food. It is designed to provide an unprecedented level of access to cutting edge value chain research, business plans, innovative models of aggregation and distribution of local foods, and connection to the people—producers, brokers, retailers, NGOs, small businesses and distributors, among others—with experience and expertise to share, and the funders—public, private and philanthropic—poised to support this work.

Policy Articles, Resources and Case Studies


Food Safety Modernization Act (2011)
New legislation that aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it.

Northern Colorado Regional Food System Assessment (2011)
Conducted in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, this study’s goals were to understand the local food system as it relates to public health, economic development and the quality of life; identify economic development opportunities resulting from current gaps in the food system; and document needs and possible projects to strengthen the local food system.

Ready to Grow: A Plan for Increasing Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Production (2010)
Provides an action plan aimed at reducing the barriers to increasing the supply of Illinois-grown fruits and vegetables into the Illinois wholesale marketplace and a feasibility study for a fresh produce aggregation and distribution facility.

Scaling Up: Meeting the Demand for Local Food (2009)
UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) and UW-Extension Agricultural Innovation Center studied and documented eleven models of regional food aggregation and distribution.

North American Food Policy Councils
Community Food Security Coalition's lists and resources.

How Food Policy Councils Operate and Are Organized
Southern SAWG has developed a handbook called "Food Security Begins at Home” which ushers readers through various community food related subjects including Chapter 4: How Food Policy Councils Are Organized & Operate. Chapter 4, profiles of five successful food policy councils in the U.S. illustrate the many vital roles that such entities play in community food systems. The chapter compares the similarities and differences between community food coalitions and food policy councils, and provides lists of related publications and contact information for food policy councils in the U.S.

Counties and Local Food Systems: Ensuring Healthy Foods, Nurturing Healthy Children (2007)
Contains four methods and case studies for how county governments can support their local food systems. It was written with a focus on obesity prevention, but read¬ers interested in the links between agriculture and economic development, environmental protection, and food security will also find the content useful.

Community Supported Agriculture in the Midwest U.S.: A Regional Characterization (2005)
Descriptive information on operations and farmers, as well as data on finances and labor from CSA farms located in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

An Analysis of Food-Chain Demand for Differentiated Farm Commodities: Implications for the Farm Sector
Examines consumer and institutional demand for locally produced, natural, organic and other differentiated food products.

Food, Fuel and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far Food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (2001)
Paper discusses transportation from farm to point of sale within local, regional, and conventional food systems and implications for the climate.

Getting Food on the Table: An Action Guide to Local Food Policy (1999)
Includes an inventory of local programs, policies and functions that provide opportunities for supporting community food security. The guide also includes case studies, advice from experienced food policy advocates, a resource guide and federal funding sources.

Research and Other Resources


Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity
Yale University publications on:
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
University of Wisconsin publications on:
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Iowa State University publications on:
Agriculture of the Middle
In particular, studies of “mid-scale food value chains”-- business structures that focus on strategic alliances that effectively operate at regional levels with significant volumes of high-quality, differentiated food products, and distribute profits equitably among the strategic partners.

Wallace Center: National Good Food Network
The National Good Food Network is bringing together people from all parts of the rapidly emerging good food system – producers, buyers, distributors, advocates, investors and funders – to create a community dedicated to scaling up good food sourcing and access. Research outputs include:

Updated Monday, August 29, 2011