(Re)Creating

regional food
systems
Bryan Law, Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission
Michelle Miller, UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

June 13, 2013
Creating Healthy Communities, Sheboygan, WI
Research Partners
UW-Madison Community & Regional Food Systems Project
A 5-year USDA-funded research project working to identify the characteristics
and functions of a healthy community and regional food system and how they
contribute to increased community food security

Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS)
Conducts applied participatory research how integrated agri-food systems can
contribute to environmental, economic, social, and intergenerational sustainability.

Center for Freight Infrastructure Research & Education (CFIRE)
Conducts research, education, and outreach to advance technology and expertise in
the planning, design, construction & operation of sustainable freight transport
systems.




Regional food systems =
resilient communities

Sustainability
Economic development
Improved access to healthy food
Planning for the food
supply
1900 City Beautiful

1909 to the First World War
Efficiencies to alleviate social
injustice

1923 to World War Two
Regionalization

World War Two early 1980s
Nationalization of the food supply

1980s-2003 Globalization of food

Local food movement now driving
urban agriculture planning and a
return to regionalization

Orienting in
food systems work
Number of farms with direct sales
per 10K population in 2007
A brittle food system


Source: USDA-AMS, Study of Rural Transportation Issues www.ams.usda.gov/RuralTransportationStudy


A brittle food system
What does a resilient
food system look like?
Redundant
Complex
Diverse
Spontaneous and autonomous innovation
Self-organized
Emerging edge

Networking Across the Supply Chain
February 20-21, 2013

La Crosse, Wisconsin

Transportation Services Division
Agricultural Marketing Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture






This Project is supported by Cooperative Agreement No. 12-25-
A-5639 between the Agricultural Marketing Service/USDA and
the Center for Integrated Agriculture at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.




Meeting hosts

USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Transportation
Service Division & Know Your Farmer program
MRRPC - Mississippi River Regional Planning
Commission
FRAN Food Resource and Agribusiness Network
CIAS Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
Characteristics what
members share

Composition who are
members

Advantages and
Opportunities how
members benefit
Industry Clusters
Cooperation and Collaboration
Cooperation and Collaboration
Cooperation and Collaboration
I f you have a good picture of contoured farming on
hills in the Driftless Area, that would be great.
FOOD RESOURCE AGRIBUSINESS NETWORK
How it formed
Who is in it
How it is organized
How it plans to go
forward
What FRAN has done
Transportation survey
Joint recycling effort
Training programs
Tours of member facilities
Networking events
Strategic planning
FOOD RESOURCE AGRIBUSINESS NETWORK
Needs identified
Reduce duplicate routes
and empty back-hauls

Results of survey
Identified raw materials
and delivery destinations
in common

Challenges to implementation
Lack of responses, precise answers and openness
FRAN Transportation Survey
Grants available, obtained by Western Technical College
Credited existence of industry cluster group in helping get the grants

Members send employees to training

Results
Several training programs, including computer skills, workplace safety,
leadership, lean manufacturing, etc.
These have been FRANs greatest success at bringing a benefit to its
members
FRAN Training Programs
Seeing the inside of various plants

Getting knowledge on how other FRAN companies have
overcome common challenges

Social event, September 2011

Networking
Company Tours and
Presentations
Networking Across the
Supply Chain
Participants & presenters
Private and public practitioners & policy makers
Farmers
Distributors
Processors
Marketers
Retailers
Food bank staff and volunteers
Planners
Food systems consultants
Government agencies
University researchers, Extension, students
Standard civic
engagement approach
Panel discussions on:
Retailers, wholesalers and marketers
Regional Learning Lab
Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality

Distributors
Organic Valley
Grass Run Farms
Lorrentz Meats
Goodness Greenness

Farmers
Driftless Organics


Networking Across the Supply Chain
Big successes:
Networking opportunities appreciated
Networking time built into program, as well as hosted dinners

Where to improve:
facilitated table discussions
more time for relaxed program
never have keynote address after the cocktail hour
Networking Across the Supply Chain
Findings from LaCrosse
What is local?
Consumers and their wholesale buyers are looking for
authenticity, sustainability, and story.
Supply chain logistics drives infrastructure development
now is the time to anticipate direction and rate of
logistics change for mid-range planning work.
Relationships drive supply chain logistics there is a
need for opportunities to develop regional relationships in
food supply chains.


Findings from LaCrosse
Competing goals reduce transactional costs AND
increase transaction quality and quantity.
Food pantry leadership reassessing their approach to
address the fundamental obstacles to food access
distribution key.
Diversity of wholesale buyers each with their own needs
and contributions white tablecloth restaurants to
institutional buyers.
Regional food distribution requires more attention to
First/Last Mile transportation needs.