Introduction to local food systems

Original authors: Mary Hendrickson, Sarah Hultine Massengale and Crystal Weberstats092022upload"This guide explores the concept of local food systems and provides resources to help farmers, consumers and communities develop food systems that provide for profitable, thriving farms and businesses; steward our natural resources; and strengthen community relationships in rural and urban Missouri."--Page 1.Mary Hendrickson (Associate Professor, Rural Sociology), Sarah Hultine Massengale (Extension State Specialist in Community Development and Assistant Extension Professor, University of Missouri-St. Louis)Includes bibliographical reference

“Sometimes it’s more valuable than money:” using stories and local knowledge to document impacts of wild harvesting

Self-procurement strategies such as gardening, hunting, and wild harvesting are often overlooked in the development of local and regional food systems because the informal exchanges of these foods do not contribute to traditional financial impacts (McEntee 2011). Research conducted between 2017-2018 in the Missouri Ozarks partnered with wild harvesters and used narrative inquiry and critical reflection to explore the practice of wild harvesting, motivations for food access strategies, and the comprehensive wealth impacts of wild harvesting in the region. Comprehensive wealth, a USDA –Economic Research Service framework, provides a tool for economic development that considers multiple forms of capital and allows for evaluating a wider range of social, cultural, and other non-financial costs and benefits of local food systems investments within a local place. While the research was conducted in a rural area of Missouri, the results support a growing body of research that recognizes the need for strategies that strengthen both market and informal opportunities to participate in a local food system, whether urban or rural. This presentation will share results and comprehensive wealth indicators developed that could be used to evaluate impacts of wild harvesting activities in urban and rural communities. This project will also highlight the methodology of narrative inquiry to value local knowledge and participation in local food systems research

Introduction to Local Food Systems

The local production and marketing of food has reached a critical mass in the past few years. Increasingly, people are searching out food that not only is flavorful, healthy and safe but that also supports their local community. Farmers are working hard to meet that demand and are taking advantage of the economic opportunities community-based, or local, food systems provide. Many farmers, particularly mid-sized (often called ?farmers of the middle?) and small-scale producers, find that producing for and selling into a community-based food system is one of the only options left for them, as they lack the scale or financial resources to compete in a larger market. In recognition of the importance of local food systems, the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative aimed at strengthening the relationships between farmers and consumers throughout the United States. This guide explores the concept of local food systems and provides resources to help farmers, consumers and communities develop food systems that provide for profitable, thriving farms and businesses; steward our natural resources; and strengthen community relationships in rural and urban Missouri.New 4/15/Web.Includes bibliographical reference

Designing Local Food Systems: Results from a Three-Year Pilot

A Redesigned Course Employing Blended Delivery, a Flipped Format, and Modified Mastery Learning with a Buffet Approach to Assign Final Grades Was Used to Teach Engineering Design to Approximately 25 Dual-Level (Juniors, Seniors, and First Year Graduate) Students Pursuing Baccalaureate Degrees in Environmental, Civil, or Architectural Engineering or a Graduate Degree in Environmental Engineering. the Course Replaced a Traditional Pedagogical Format that Used Lecture-Discussion Augment with Extended Homework Assignments and a Semester-Long Design Project, Which Focused on the Content of Designing a Wastewater Treatment Plants. the Redesigned Course Uses the Engineering Design Process to Improve the Local Food System, Which Includes Aspects of Sustainability and Life Cycle Principles of Water, Carbon, and Nutrients. Spanning the Full Impact of COVID-19 (Spring Semester 2020 Initial Disruption and Movement to Remote Learning; Spring 2021 Online Instruction; and Spring 2022 a Return to Face-To-Face Instruction), This Paper Describes: A) Details of Course Pedagogy; B) Details of Course Content; and 3) Outcomes from Three Course Offerings over a Period of Three Years to 84 Students. Attributes of This Course Described in This Article, Include: 1) Students Completed Lecture Content Mapped Closely to the Environmental Engineering Body of Knowledge (EnvEng BoK) and the Design Criteria Described by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET Inc.; 2) Students Prepared Podcasts to Teach Design Principles to Specific Audiences (I.e., High School Students, Peers, and Public Officials); and 3) Students Worked Independently and in Small Groups to Perform Term-Length Design Exercises. a Unique Aspect of This Course Included Interdisciplinary Involvement of Faculty from Environmental Engineering, University Extension, and Nursing to Provide Both Breadth in How to Engage with Communities for Design (I.e., from a Nursing Perspective) as Well as Depth in How to Understand and Consider Local Food Systems (I.e., from a University Extension Perspective)

Missouri EATs: Cultivating community food systems through community engagement

The University of Missouri Extension Missouri EATs program connects local stakeholders to build and strengthen their community’s food system. Missouri EATs (which stands for Engage, Act, and Transform) is a community development program designed to engage people to identify local assets and needs; help them develop a plan to act on their top priorities; and make lasting changes to transform their local food system. The broad goal of Missouri EATs is to create healthy, resilient, and equitable community-based food systems. The starting point is a community-wide in-person or on-line forum for participants to engage in an informed and facilitated discussion about the food system. This event is the first step of a larger community organizing process that engages communities to make positive changes over time. The format allows for broad discussions related to local agriculture, hunger, health, and related topics. It relies heavily on local input from community members in general and those representing of local business and agencies. The forum results in a Food System Action Plan, which is a tool used to keep communities engaged after the event and guide their ongoing effort. Communities may choose to hold a combination of small working group meetings, community meals, or quarterly meetings to keep things moving in a positive direction. Annual meetings are encouraged to provide updates and reengage community members. The forum and subsequent activities may all be adapted for an on-line environment

Decision-making techniques for community groups

"Community groups often have a problem coming to a decision about projects to undertake. Quite often, resources, both human and financial, are limited; the number of problems seem overwhelming; or there are forceful advocates of a 'pet' project. How can a group overcome these difficulties? The four decision-making techniques shown in this guide will make the task easier. The first two techniques generate ideas about community goals or projects, while the last two prioritize the alternatives you have identified."--Page 1.Reviewed by Sarah Hultine Massengale (Community Economic Development). Johanna Reed Adams, Charles M. St. Clair and William E. Robertson (Department of Community Development)Reviewed 03/202

University of Missouri Extension Metropolitan Foods System Team

University of Missouri Extension established a Metropolitan Food Systems Team in September 2011 with the goal of creating a framework for the identification, development and implementation of Extension food system programming in and near Missouri’s urban areas. The membership and activities of the team have shifted over the years with various personnel changes and different topics of interest in the state, but overall, the goal of the team has remained the same. The work of this team can provide ideas for other states of the role that Extension can play in helping to strengthen urban and peri-urban food systems. We outline specific elements that have contributed to our team’s successes and recommendations to other University Extension systems who may be interested in developing a similar initiative. Since its formation, the team has developed several Extension curricula, including Stock Healthy, Shop Healthy (which has been implemented nationally) and Selling Local Foods; and had the opportunity to visit two other state Extension programs to learn about their urban food systems work. The team held a conference for producers, buyers and food system stakeholders in all of Missouri’s metropolitan areas. The team has also established a food systems website (https://extension2.missouri.edu/programs/food-systems) which serves as valuable clearinghouse of information of the various resources that MU Extension has available in each of the different sectors of the food system. Rather than categorizing information by only the academic discipline that developed those resources, the website groups the information by sectors including 1) grow/produce/harvest, 2) deliver/process, 3) market/distribute, 4) display/purchase, 5) prepare/consume, 6) surplus/waste. This is a useful resource for internal Extension personnel, but also for external groups looking for resources. In 2019, the team engaged in a strategic planning process to determine our best approach for future work in light of new Extension and state initiatives around regional food systems. One of the main benefits of this team is that it brings together Extension personnel working in various disciplines from different parts of the state, which has enabled the team members to learn about ongoing and future initiatives occurring in other disciplines and areas of the state that are of interest to others. This multi-disciplinary approach has fostered extensive collaboration between different disciplines in projects that team members may have otherwise worked on independently or only within a single discipline. This presentation will help provide recommendations on implementing similar teams, based on our experiences

Into the Forests (and Fields and Yards): Re-Thinking Rural Development and Local Food Systems with Wild Harvesters in the Ozark Highlands

Local food systems are regularly advocated as a strategy for community economic development focused on market-based practices. Two particular critiques of this strategy have emerged that underlie this study. The first is that research on local food systems for economic development has often focused on strategies for urban areas, but rural areas have unique needs not addressed by urban approaches. Secondly, local food systems research and practice has often overlooked the contributions that informal activity, self-procurement, and non-traditional market exchanges contribute to community food systems. This narrative inquiry project explored the local food system practice of wild harvesting in the Ozark Highlands. By listening to the stories of wild harvesters in the Ozark Highlands I sought to answer the question: What can be learned from the wild harvesting experience that might help strengthen local food systems as a rural development strategy? This study applied the comprehensive rural wealth framework and developed a set of comprehensive wealth impacts and indicators for a rural, non-market based food access practice that evaluated the opportunities, outcomes and challenges for using local food systems as a rural development strategy. By using narrative methods and valuing local knowledge, this research also addressed the lack of wild harvester participation and voice in research and policy that has been identified in the literature