2009 Marketing and Food Systems Initiative Renewed Competitive Grants

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Renewing Competitive Grants

[See grant descriptions below]

teresa opheimAdding a New Generation to Iowa’s Sustainable Farms, $25,000 for year 2 of 2 ($50,000 total) Teresa Opheim and Cedar Johnson, Practical Farmers of Iowa [M2008-15] STATEWIDE

This program aims to help at least 15 farm families or make farmer/apprentice matches that transition to the next generation. They expect to reach at least 200 farm families with information about "next generation" farming by creating a learning community, special field days and breakout sessions at annual conferences and meetings. Case studies will be developed with at least six families or farmer/apprentice matches.

Teresa Opheim is executive director for Practical Farmers of Iowa. She is a fourth generation Iowan, raised in Mason City, and has a variety of experience in sustainable agriculture. For three years she was executive director for the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and Sustainable Agriculture Coalition that worked with 40 member groups. She also was communications director at the Iowa Environmental Council and editor for the National Wetlands Newsletter, The Environmental Forum, the EPA Journal, and the Environmental Information Service. She has a law degree from the University of Iowa and was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1985.

ron prescottmark edelmanEstablishing an Iowa Microenterprise Foundation, $10,000 for year 2 of 2 ($20,000 total), Mark A Edelman, ISU Community Vitality Center; and Ron Prescott, Iowa Microloan Program [M2008-28] STATEWIDE

The Iowa Microenterprise Foundation will be a statewide nonprofit group that can provide small loans and coordinate technical assistance for rural entrepreneurs. The ISU Extension community Vitality Center is working with the Iowa Bankers Association and others to access tax credits in the state's microloan guarantee fund.

Mark A. Edelman is professor of economics, ISU Extension economist and founding director for the Community Vitality Center (CVC) with initiatives in Community Entrepreneurship, Community Philanthropy, and Rural-Urban Policy Studies. Edelman served on the Land O’Lakes, Inc., board of directors from 1985-89, and was elected to the Boone City Council in 1993. During the 1990s, he was campus coordinator and chair of the Research Coordinating Council for the Rural Policy Research Institute. 

Ron Prescott is a program coordinator for the ISU Community Vitality Center and specializes in  microlending and system design. Before joining the CVC team he co-directed the ISU Center for International Agricultural Finance (CIAF), where he conducted 29 Schools of Agricultural Banking Credit and Finance for microlending organizations. In 2003, he was asked to design an agribusiness finance network in Romania that would encourage Romanian banks to loan money to rural agribusinesses, resulting in 212 loans totaling $49 million.

penny brown hubersherry shaferExpanding Business Skills for Specialty Growers in Iowa, $11,370 for year 2 of 2 ($27,580 total), Sherry Shafer, Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Center, and Penny Brown Huber, Grow Your Small Market Farm Business Planning Program [M2008-09] STATEWIDE

This grant will build on the successful Grow Your Small Market Farm™ program offered by the Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Council. Investigators plan to develop a grower network among the more than 100 small specialty farm businesses that have completed the program since 2001.

Sherry Shafer is director of the Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Council, where she has worked the past 19 years. She has a background in managing professional businesses, departments and budgets, and extensive experience in writing business plans, marketing and market research, finance, existing, start ups, expansions, cash flows and grants and experience in rural research. She owned a market research firm and received her degree from Drake University.

Penny Brown Huber is executive director of the Grow Your Small Market Farm (GYSMF) program. Created in 2000, the program has graduated 118 businesses. Brown Huber has owned and operated several small businesses, including operating a small farm direct-marketing business with her husband. Currently she is a member of the Women Food and Agriculture Network and board for Wheatsfield Cooperative in Ames.

jan floraLatino Farmers and Local Multicultural Food and Marketing Systems, $20,883 for year 2 of 2 ($61,763 total), Jan L. Flora, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development [M2008-27] Marshall and Crawford Counties

The purpose of this project is to develop an immigrant farmer training and business incubation program alongside a multicultural local/regional food system. This project will build on the entrepreneurial spirit and diverse foods sought by new immigrants as a way to create entry points for Latino farmers in local food systems. Investigators will work in two Iowa communities and prepare a guide that documents crucial aspects of the process so that it could be used in other communities.

Jan L. Flora is Professor of Sociology and ISU Extension community sociologist.  He is co-author, with Cornelia Flora, of Rural Communities: Legacy and Change (2008). He directs a SARE-funded program that assists Extension, USDA and other professionals in working with Latino farmers. Lewis, who will coordinate the Leopold grant, has studied immigrants’ interest in and skills for farming in Marshalltown and Denison, and did in-depth interviews with Mexican farmers in Iowa for her Master's thesis in sociology and sustainable agriculture (2007). Lewis is on the advisory board for the Entrepreneurial and Diversified Agriculture program at Marshalltown Community College.

kamyar enshayanNew Champions Expanded Scope: Developing an Action Plan for Building an Expanded Regional Food Economy in Black Hawk and Surrounding Counties, $15,000 for year 3 of 3 ($59,500 total), Kamyar Enshayan, Center forEnergy and Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls [M2007-07] BLACKHAWK AND SURROUNDING COUNTIES

This grant will focus on building capacity for a stronger regional food economy in the eight-county region around Black Hawk County. Project funds will be used to build on work already done by UNI’s Local Food Project and develop a strategic plan for the region.

Kamyar Enshayan manages UNI's Center for Energy and Environmental Education and directs several community-wide projects including Buy Fresh Buy Local and the Yard for Kids community health education program. He also works with UNI's Energywi$e, a program to reduce energy waste on campus. He is an agricultural engineer and teaches environmental studies as an adjunct faculty at UNI.

melvyn housershirley frederiksenPottawattamie County Farm to Fork, $6,000 for year 2 of 2 ($12,000 total), Shirley Frederiksen and Melvyn Houser, Golden Hills RC&D [M2008-08] Pottawattamie County

This project includes development of a mentor program and strategic plan that will increase the production of locally raised food in southwest Iowa. Organizers hope to increase the number of beginning producers in the region, increase the number and diversification of local grower as well as farmer-led businesses, and build stronger relationships between consumers and producers in the region.

Shirley Frederiksen began working for the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service in March 1988. She has been a soil conservation technician, soil conservationist and district conservationist before accepting her current position as coordinator for Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development. She directs a six-member staff and has provided leadership in formation of the Loess Hills Alliance, Western Iowa Grape Growers Association and Loess Hills National Scenic Byway Council. Because of her wide range of interests (she has degrees in art and agriculture) and a progressive RC&D board, projects include a Loess Hills coloring book, the Lewis & Clark Passport Education Program, and work to re-establish grapes as an alternative crop to provide the diversification needed to sustain small family farms with low to moderate incomes and economic development assistance to small businesses. Resource-related projects include construction of the RC&D office building using sustainable design principles and the Loess Hills Stewardship Initiative to restore native biological communities in the Loess Hills.

Melvyn Houser is finishing his second term as Pottawattamie County supervisor. He farms with his brothers and helps manage a 100-head cow-calf operation. He serves on various boards and committees for the Iowa State Association of Counties and currently is vice-president of the group's supervisor affiliate. Houser always has supported a local economy (particularly a local food system), and believes that local government is key in bringing people together to create policy and structure to enable a local food system.

roger ginderProducer Machinery and Labor Sharing Arrangements Workshops, $15,750 for year 2 of 2 ($30,954 total), Roger Ginder, ISU Economics  [M2008-02] STATEWIDE

This project builds on previous work to help farmers use cooperative strategies to buy farm machinery, share labor and capitalize on participating members' expertise. Investigators will develop two case studies (in addition to 10 case studies that already have been done) that highlight the benefits of pitfalls of machinery and labor sharing arrangements. Information will be presented at three workshops. Partners include Grundy National Bank, Iowa Farm Bureau Federal, ISU Extension and the ISU Beginning Farmer Center.

Roger Ginder is a professor in agricultural economics at Iowa State University with a PhD from the University of Kentucky. His research interests include agribusiness finance, agribusiness management, cooperatives and agricultural marketing.