Writing new chapters in the local food story

By Rich Pirog
Education coordinator

When we featured an article about local food systems in the Leopold Letter six years ago, there wasn't a lot to report. Iowa only had two community supported agriculture (CSA) enterprises, a system by which subscription payments to a farmer buy a box of produce every week during the growing season. "All-Iowa" meals were almost unheard of, and there were no organized efforts to provide Iowa-grown and processed products to restaurants, schools and other institutions that served meals.

• More than 50 CSAs will operate during the 2001 growing season in Iowa.
• The number of institutional buying projects—where Iowa farmers and processors sell food to area restaurants, hotels, schools and hospitals—has increased from one effort in 1997 to more than a dozen this year.
• The number of producers participating in direct-marketing enterprises or in supply networks also has increased to include organic operations or transitional systems with less reliance on external inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers, sub-therapeutic antibiotics or growth additives.
• Starting with a local food brokering project, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has established a successful producer supply network for restaurants and other institutional markets. In addition, a small farm cluster project led by PFI and Iowa State University is working with eight groups of farmers to develop local production, processing and marketing enterprises.
• The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation cafeteria began serving Iowa-grown foods in 1999 at its West Des Moines headquarters. The cafeteria is operated under contract by Sodexho Marriott food services, one of the largest food service contractors in North America. Sodexho Marriott works with distributors such as Loffredo Fresh Produce who buy their products from Iowa producers. Sodexho Marriott may expand this effort to other clients in central Iowa and possibly the entire state.

What is the net effect of these and other local food system projects? All increase the demand for locally-grown products, creating more opportunities for small and midsize producers to diversify and add value to their operations. For these efforts to grow, however, several challenges must be met. One of these challenges is to develop a locally-owned infrastructure that does the following things:

• Provides sufficient profit margins for growers,
• Ensures consistent supply and quality of product at competitive prices,
• Establishes a reliable statewide grower network,
• Allows for ease of ordering and communication for the buyer, and
• Provides access to washing, packing, and processing facilities and, in the case of processed products, access to commercially licensed test kitchens to develop new products and to maintain quality and safety standards.

Existing distribution systems for conventional products are in place, and could be used to supply Iowa grown products. A key to sustainability in supplying local foods to these systems is whether growers in the supply networks have enough profit margin to make a good living. Growers who want to distribute, process or market their own products also need access to capital for washing, processing and packing facilities.

How do you describe a local food system? The first words that come to mind are fresh, crunchy, green and natural. However, the best definition of a local food system goes beyond niche markets, specialty products, value-added enterprises, and food pathways. It involves building networks and relationships between producers, processors, retailers and consumers in their own communities. Consumers purchase food that comes with a story they are willing to support.

The photographs that accompany this article show some of the stories of successful local food system efforts in Iowa over the past several years. They were highlighted in a presentation prepared by Rich Pirog for the Iowa Community Agricultural Food Enterprises (CAFÉ) workshops led by Practical Farmers of Iowa.

The workshops, offered in five locations throughout Iowa during May and June, were designed for educators and other professionals who work with Iowa farmers.