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September 02, 2010
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Allamakee County takes part in local food meetings sponsored by NIFF Coalition
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| Circle of Connections ...
The Circle of Connections was one of the visual aids used to illustrate how a local food system would connect every aspect of production. The very outer ring also illustrates some of the many benefits northeast Iowa could see from developing a local food system. Meetings took place in Allamakee, Clayton, Winneshiek, Howard and Fayette counties in late February to discuss a local food system.
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| | Local food discussions continue at County Planning Team Meeting March 19 | The next meeting for the Allamakee Team of the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative will be Wednesday, March 19 from 4:15-6 p.m. at the Senior Dining Center at the Waukon Wellness Center. The agenda is available on the website at www.iowafoodandfitness.org - click on County Planning Teams.
This month, the teams will learn about the benefits of local food to the consumers, the community, the economy and the environment. Strategies to increase the access and consumption of local food will be presented. Participants will discuss the opportunities that will work best in for their town.
This monthly meeting is part of the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative. In support of this initiative, northeast Iowa received a grant of $500,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to help communities embrace active living and healthy eating. Counties included in this initiative are Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Howard, and Winneshiek.
Complete minutes of all the county meetings are posted at www.iowafoodandfitness.org. Here, area residents can access the presentations and provide additional feedback at any time. The public is invited to attend the meetings. For more information about this initiative, contact Teresa Wiemerslage at 568-6345 or Rachelle Howe at 568-2624.
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by Brianne Eilers
How much thought do you give to your food? You probably think about things like fat content, calories and cholesterol, but how about where it comes from? Have you ever considered how far your food travels from where it is raised to your table? During the last week in February, meetings sponsored by Northeast Iowa Food and Farm Coalition (NIFF Coalition) were held to discuss how to get more locally produced food into our food systems.
According to Teresa Wiemerslage, director of the Allamakee County ISU Extension Office, around 160 people attended the meetings, which were held in Allamakee, Clayton, Winneshiek, Fayette and Howard counties. A total of 18 participants came to the meeting in Waukon February 26, where they watched the presentation and held discussion on the materials presented. "Part of the focus of these meetings was to identify priorities and opportunities for local food production," explained Wiemerslage.
During the meeting, a presentation entitled "Local Food Grows Local Dollars" was shown to give information and statistics on local food production in the five northeast Iowa counties of Allamakee, Winneshiek, Clayton, Fayette, and Howard. These five counties have also been chosen by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to be one of nine sites in the nation to participate in the Food and Fitness Initiative. During the two-year planning process, one of the goals of both NIFF and the Food and Fitness Team is to try and find ways to get locally produced foods to be more available to those living in these areas.
On average, right now, produce eaten in the Midwest travels 1,500 miles. Living in Allamakee County, it's hard not to know someone who is involved in the agricultural industry, which helps give us a better understanding of how agricultural products are produced and where they come from. However, that's not the case everywhere, and because our food sometimes comes from far away, it can cause a sort of separation between consumers and their food or other agricultural products.
NORTHEAST IOWA FOOD AND FARM COALITION AND THE FOOD AND FITNESS TEAM
It was because of this disconnect with consumers that the Northeast Iowa Food and Farm Coalition formed. NIFF first came about in November of 2005, when a group of representatives from commodity groups, producers, and others involved with agriculture met to discuss the status of agriculture in northeast Iowa. The NIFF Coalition began working on solutions to build a better farm economy for our area.
The group's efforts caught the eye of the Leopold Center at Iowa State University. Through ISU, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation learned of NIFF's efforts, and in September of 2006, the five-county area group was asked to submit a grant proposal to the Kellogg Foundation. In April of 2007, the NEIA Food and Fitness Initiative received a $500,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation. The group will have two years of planning, and a major part of the focus of the Food and Fitness Initiative is locally produced food.
Northeast Iowa is also the first of four pilot communities in the state to get funding from the Region Food Systems working group. Wiemerlsage explained that the group's focus is to get a local food system set up for our area. The other three Iowa communities are located in the other three corners of the state. Part of what this group will be looking at is ways for locally produced food to be preserved, such as canning and freezing operations, as well as production of dairy products and meat plants. Another part of all the initiative is the sharing of data, and getting input from producers, lenders, and processors on how to make a local food system a viable thing here.
AGRICULTURE IN NORTHEAST IOWA
Part of the information presented at the meetings in the five-county area included statistics that were specifically directed toward these five northeast Iowa counties. While the majority of agricultural operations in the nation have been moving toward larger and fewer farms and increased specialization, the transition has been slower in northeast Iowa, partly due to our hilly terrain and topography. Information gathered during the 2002 Ag Census found that farms in northeast Iowa average in the range of about 253 acres to 309 acres, compared to the statewide average of 350 acres.
At the time of the census, there were about 6,420 farms in this part of the state. The farms found in northeast Iowa are generally small to medium-sized farms. Sales of agricultural products in the area total $685 million each year, and 63% of farm income comes from livestock production, compared to a 50% state average.
While locally produced food does not necessarily mean it is organic, northeast Iowa is a leader in organic farming operations. Some 10% of Iowa's certified organic farms are found in the five-county area. According to the 2002 Ag Census, organic sales in our area totaled $3.5 million, with Winneshiek ranking first, Allamakee second, Howard sixth, and Clayton eighth in the state. The northeast Iowa counties accounted for 26% of the state of Iowa's organic sales. The 2002 Ag Census data also showed that in northeast Iowa $915,000 worth of food was directly sold to consumers. Two-thirds of these sales came from Allamakee and Winneshiek counties. "Food production is a good fit for our area," said Wiemerslage.
LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD AND A LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM
With these encouraging numbers, it might seem strange that people in this five-county area aren't using more locally produced food. Most consumers depend on their local grocery store when purchasing food to be eaten in the home. For some who live in areas further out from a town, it's a convenience store, which can work for emergencies, but the majority of food sold in convenience stores is not considered to be very healthy.
To investigate attitudes toward locally produced food and whether or not consumers are even interested in using it, NIFF conducted a survey last year, obtaining data from 533 area residents. According to the NIFF survey results, 71% of participants had heard of locally produced food prior to participation in the survey. An average of 48% of participants said they would buy locally produced food, but they were unable to find local products. A total of 52% said they will go out of their way to buy locally produced food, and 76% of participants said they would purchase locally produced food if it were available in a grocery store.
In addition to conducting surveys on households, NIFF also surveyed 140 area institutions in 2006. Some 57% of participants said they were not using locally produced food at that time, while 67% said they had stopped buying, or were not buying, locally produced food because of several reasons, including state and federal regulation, issues with availability, or did not know who to contact. Price was also a factor in the decision not to buy locally produced food.
If barriers were removed, 85% of those surveyed said they would purchase local food. Survey information by NIFF also found that in 2007, two new restaurants, five existing restaurants and two institutions started buying and serving locally produced food. If these households, restaurants, and institutions surveyed are representative of the feelings of most residents of northeast Iowa, then there is definitely a potential for producers to sell their food products here.
Buying and using locally produced foods has many benefits. When food is produced locally, that means that it doesn't have to travel as far, and it generally takes about 24 hours for food to get from the farm to the consumer. Because the food isn't being shipped so far, growers can select varieties for attributes such as flavor, texture, or color, instead of selecting varieties that will stand up to the rigors of being packed and shipped 1,000+ miles. Also, by having fresher, tastier food available, we would be inclined to make better, healthier food choices, resulting in a healthier northeast Iowa.
Some consumers may also feel an added security when buying locally produced foods, because there is a better chance that they know and trust the farmer they are buying from. According to the NIFF consumer household survey, 51% of participants said they would strongly agree with the statement "I trust farmers/producers in my local area to grow and offer safe food." By purchasing locally produced food, consumers would also be boosting the local economy.
According to information compiled by Ken Meter, an ag economist from the Crossroads Research Center, between the years of 1999-2005 farmers in northeast Iowa sold an average of $752 million in livestock and crops during each of those years, while spending an average of $770 million each year to produce these, which pans out to a net loss of $19 million per year. The study also showed that farmers purchased $400 million in farm inputs outside of this region, while consumers purchased $174 million in food from outside the region. Purchasing locally produced food would help keep some of those dollars in the area.
Wiemerslage noted the findings of Meter's study, and added "What if people bought two percent of their food from local producers? Or ten percent? Or fifteen percent?" Fifteen percent would equal about $16 million of added income for farms. When looking at dollars spent on food in our five-county region, information gathered by the 2002 Bureau of Economy Analysis showed that residents of our area spent $193 million on food, $109 million of which was food to each home. ($84 million was spent on food eaten away from home.) Direct food sales to the area were 1% of that total, or about a million dollars.
Discussion from these meetings centered on a variety of questions, including processing and distributing products. Those in attendance at the meeting are interested in finding more information on guidelines for selling locally produced products, as well as plants to process locally grown food crops, meat and eggs. Education is also a priority, not only to let the public know about locally grown products, and help producers with selling their products, but also to get younger generations interested in farming.
Marketing is also an area that was discussed, with ideas on how to promote local food and the producers of local food. As stated earlier, many of the people surveyed said they would be willing to purchase locally produced food if it was available in the grocery stores, so the group will be looking at ways to do that as well. Participants of the meeting noted that they would be talking to producers, grocery stores, institutions and others to discuss local food, as well as trying to learn more about local food systems.
Another part of the presentation also dealt with where people can buy locally produced food. In northeast Iowa, there are more than 29 farmers who direct market meat or eggs in the area, over 45 farms that produce fruits or vegetables, and three CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture), which would be like GROWN Locally (Postville), Patchwork Green Farm (Decorah) and Rock Spring Farm (Highlandville). Farm stands, like Pop's Produce in Waukon, and you-pick operations, like Peake's Apple Orchard, are ways that the public can buy direct from producers, and they also are a venue for agri-tourism.
Some grocery stores also sell locally produced food, but there appears to be an opportunity there for more sales. With spring right around the corner, and before we know it, the farmer's markets will be in full swing again. The NIFF Coalition is also a member of the Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign, which has put out a flyer in past years highlighting locally produced food in our area. Wiemerslage noted that a local directory will be published again this year, and that details on the farmer's markets and local food directory will be coming in the near future.
For more information on the NIFF Coalition, or to see the presentation "Local Food Grows Local Dollars", visit their website at www.niffcoalition.org. To find out more about the Food and Fitness Initiative, visit www.iowafoodandfitness.org, or contact the Allamakee County Extension office at 563-568-6345.
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