Healthy, Fresh, Available  
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Local Food

Farming is at the roots of our Appalachian culture and it
makes sense to turn to this industry to help heal the land and
create income for rural people. This refocus on local,  sustainable agriculture is also an issue of global importance. Over the past century, worldwide productive land has decreased from 14 acres per person to 3.5 acres per person. With concerns about food safety, energy costs, economic and environmental sustainability on the rise, building local healthy food systems could not be more important.


Understanding value-chains as a means to accelerate and
expand local food systems was the basis for this presentation.
In simple terms, a value-chain is a string of companies or
collaborating players who work together to satisfy market
demands for specific products or services.

The advantages of value-chains are that they link small
farmers to larger, more demanding, and lucrative
markets while improving people’s access to healthy,
fresh foods. By analyzing value-chains, communities
can also identify and create other economic opportunities.
Within the context of this discussion, the production or
supply of goods is provided by small-scale farmers.
Basically, there are two types of farmers: the traditional
commodity-focused farmer who is well-experienced but
lacks an organic mindset, and the less experienced,
idealistic “new” farmer who may lack experience, but
approaches farming with more of a focus on sustainability.

 
 

Benefits

We also consider the triple-bottom line (TBL) or the economic,
environmental, and societal impacts in our work. Sustainable
agriculture produces the following benefits:
Economic Benefits:
• Builds rural wealth for individuals and communities
• Captures and restores agriculture and food dollars
into local economy
Environmental Benefits:
• Uses an environmental management system
• Protects, conserves, and restores ecosystem
• Improves land stewardship
• Reduces the carbon footprint of current supply chain
• Provides for environmental education
Social Benefits:
• Practices non-discriminatory hiring and participation practices
• Provides fair wage and benefits
• Hires and trains local residents
• Provides better community food security and access
 

 

Defining a Healthy Food System

the pieces of the food system value chain include:
• building supply
• developing and accessing markets
• processing, aggregation and distribution
• enhancing local value-chain capacity



Value-chains consist of three major components:
• Production/Supply
• Processing, Aggregation and Distribution (PAD)
• (Larger and more diverse) Markets

 


 
  

Local Food in Demand Following Egg Recall

The Fayette County Farmers Market was featured on West Virginia Public Radio this morning -- Listen to the story. The article was in response to the recent salmonella egg recall. Note that the written and recorded versions are different.  A condensed version of this story was also picked up for national distribution by the Associated Press.

 

Laying the Groundwork for Local Food in WV

In November 2009, several organizations including the Center for Economic Options, Natural Capital Investment Fund, and the Collaborative for the 21st Century, co-sponsored a convening on local food entitled “Growing Local Foods: Enhancing the Local Food System for Economic Development in West Virginia”. This event was funded by the Benedum Foundation, and was an outcome of a regional local food gathering hosted by the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) in April, 2009. CEO is a founding member of CAN, and through this network, is committed to advancing the local food value chain in the state.

The 130 participants at the November gathering identified the need for better communication and information about each other as a priority.

In response, we prepared a survey to gather this information, and to collect baseline data on the local food value chain. The survey results and contact information were distributed to survey respondents and shared with local food partners.

Since the event, we have focused on broadening the outreach beyond those who attended in November. If you are interested, we would like to have your participation in this survey. Also, if you know of anyone who would like to be part of our network, please refer them to the survey and/or forward contact information to info@economicoptions.org