Local food in every pot: Growing farmers in northeastern Iowa through public and private partnerships

A group of north Iowa urban women who faced numerous life challenges learned about self-sufficiency through their joint efforts of planning, planting, growing and harvesting produce from a community garden

Increasing access to healthy, fresh and local food to students in three rural public schools in northeast Iowa

How can we increase capacity of food service directors to improve school lunches with local fruits and vegetables? Through regular meeting and sharing of insights among food service directors, small mini-grants, and offering technical assistance in developing supply chains that meet schools’ needs

Documenting the costs and benefits of whole animal local meat purchases by three northeast Iowa institutions

Results from this project are aimed at facilitating the purchase of locally grown livestock by institutional buyers

Community economic impact assessment for a multi-county local food system in northeast Iowa

The positive results of a decade\u27s worth of investment in local food systems in the Black Hawk County area were documented

Community and economic regeneration through strengthening the local food economy

The goal of this project was to work with institutional food buyers to explore and implement ways that would help them purchase a greater portion of their food supply from local/regional farmers and processors

An internship program to help institutional food buyers develop links to local farms in northeast Iowa

Iowa college interns worked with the UNI Local Food Project, food buyers, and farmers to improve local food purchasing processes

Iowa Farm Energy Working Group

The Farm Energy Working Group’s demonstration grants, field days and presentations by Iowa farmers helped show what can be done on the farm to increase energy efficiency and rely on renewable energy

Sustaining agricultural producers through direct marketing of processed foods

Farmers who want to grow specialty crops need to cultivate different marketing skills. They also need information about the profitability of producing raw foods and processed products

Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions

Most consumers do not understand today’s highly complex global food system. Much of the food production and processing occurs far away from where they live and buy groceries. External environmental and community costs related to the production, processing, storage, and transportation of the food are seldom accounted for in the food’s price, nor are consumers made aware of these external costs. Examples of external environmental costs are the increased amount of fossil fuel used to transport food long distances, and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of these fuels