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What is a Food System?

A regional food system supports long-term connections between farmers and consumers while meeting the economic, social, health, and environmental needs of the communities within the region.  Producers and markets are linked via infrastructures that are efficient, promote environmental health, provide competitive advantage to producers, processors, and retailers, encourage identification with the region’s culture, history, and ecology, and equitably share risks and rewards among all partners in the system.

What is a region?  The initial definition of a Southwest Iowa region is based on a community landscape, history, and culture, and includes these counties: Adams, Adair, Cass, Guthrie, Audubon, Shelby, Pottawattamie, and Montgomery.  However, a regional food system is complex and dynamic.  It will change and/or grow determined by community leaders, infrastructure, food policy, and all partners in the food system.

Value of a Regional Food System

• Local food purchases by institutional food buyers in Black Hawk and surrounding counties increased from $110,773 by three institutions in 1998 to $465,361 by 23 institutions in 2004. (Kamyar Enshayan, Director, University of Northern Iowa Local Foods Project.)
•  If Iowans ate five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and bought that produce (apples, carrots, spinach, squash and tomatoes) for just three months of the year from local growers the economic impact would net $302 million in total economic output, $112 million in total labor income, and 4,094 jobs in Iowa.  Production would require 31,800 acres of cropland or an average of 321 acres per county. (The Economic Impacts of Increased Fruit and Vegetable Production and Consumption in Iowa: Phase II.  Swenson, David, et. al.  Report to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University. 2006.)
• A diet rich in fruits and vegetables would maximize good health and substantially decrease the rate of diet-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes and could prevent at least 20 percent of all cancer incidence. (Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective.  American Institute for Cancer Research, 1997.)
• A local food purchasing policy and county tax incentives for organic production resulted in several new businesses interested in locating in Woodbury County, Iowa. (Rob Marqusee, Woodbury County Economic Development Director.)