Local Foods as Community Development, Some Questions and Answers

<p>Earlier in this Fall I reported on a webinar co-sponsored by the UNC School of Government and the Center for Environmental Farming System (CEFS) on local food and local government. The purpose of the webinar was to educate local government officials about how the local food movement can be an important part of a community and regional community development strategy. Sustainable local food systems contribute significantly to a community’s economic, environmental,  social, and public health. A lot of information was covered in the webinar and a lot of questions were posed by viewers, and there was not enough time to address all the questions. In this post I’d like to take up a few of the questions, and with the help of my colleagues from CEFS, provide some answers.</p> <p></p> <p>One question had to do with the case study of Cabarrus County’s investments in local foods. John Day was the county manager at the time. He is now with CEFS and was part of the webinar, discussing some of the innovative things Cabarrus County has done with regard to local food. One of the first steps the county took was having a local foods assessment done, which lead to a question about how much an assessment like that costs, and who conducts such assessments? There are many organizations in the state that conduct such assessments, including CEFS, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and ASAP. John reports (in the case of Cabarrus County) that their assessment cost was $27,000, which came from proceeds from a NC Agricultural Development [...]</p>