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Upcoming Events
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As part of the Local Food Economies initiative, we'll be joining some of our state's leading governmental associations over the next several months to bring LFE resources to communities across the state - and to learn more about how we can continue to support the local foods-local government connection.
Look for us at the events below - we'd love to talk more with you!
September 14-16:
September 20:
September 26-27:
October 11:
October 21:
November 15:
And check out our recorded events with APA-
NC and NC Councils of Government online!
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| Contact Us |
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For information about the LFE initiative, or any of the above events, please contact Emily Edmonds, NCGT Extension & Outreach Program Manager:
emily_edmonds@ncsu.edu or 828-399-0297.
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| About NCGT |
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GOAL | Bring more locally-grown foods - produce, meat, dairy, and seafood - into mainstream retail and food service supply chains, thus enhancing food security by increasing access to local foods and by strengthening the economics of small to mid-sized farm and fishing operations.
STRATEGY |
Identify the most promising solutions by which local production and associated value-added activities can enter local retail and food service markets, pilot these solutions in North Carolina, and evaluate and report the results for the benefit of other states and regions.
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Greetings all,
Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think.
Sincerely,
The NCGT Management Team
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NCGT Launches Local Food Economies Initiative
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NC Growing Together has launched a new effort to engage local governments in the work of building local food systems. The goal of the Local Food Economies (LFE) initiative is to support the work of local government and economic development agencies as they seek to expand the capacity and potential of businesses within the local food value chain.
"NCGT has three main focus areas," says NCGT's Project Manager Rebecca Dunning. "
Building capacity
for businesses to participate in the local food supply chain,
networking
business entities across the chain, and
creating enabling environments
that support food value chain creation and growth. LFE is part of the work to create those environments."
Local Food Economies has produced a set of resources to assist planners, economic and business developers, entrepreneurs, and others in building local food economies across the state. Continue reading below for more details about these resources.
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| Statewide Success Stories Illustrate "What's Working" in Local Food Economic Development |
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From the Appalachian Farm School in Western North Carolina to non-profit Working Landscapes in Warren County, cities, towns, and rural areas are finding innovative ways to support economic and business development through local foods. A series of case studies compiled by NC Growing Together highlights the range of unique, place- and asset-based solutions emerging across the state to meet the need for jobs and investment in rural and urban communities alike.
One of the examples is Matthews NC, a town of 30,000 in the Greater Charlotte area. In Matthews, the local government and its planning department are being strategic in how the town responds to increased development pressures and community needs. One aspect of that strategy is an innovative approach to land use flexibility coded within the town's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).
Critical to any town's approach to growth and development, the UDO determines zoning and subdivision regulations alongside design guidelines, stormwater management standards, and other development directives. As such, the UDO translates the community's values into what type of development is allowed.
In response to
growing interest in urban farming and home gardening, the Matthews planning department added new language to the UDO to explicitly define "Urban Farm" and allow for its use in nearly every zoning district. The revised regulations also feature relaxed restrictions for fencing, minimum yards, and accessory uses.
Planning Director Kathi Ingrish remarks, "The intent was to allow significant flexibility in how a small farming effort may operate within a neighborhood. We have a private school that has delved into aquaponics, and a local business and property owner who offers classes and boxes of freshly harvested items for sale to the public." Town leadership appreciates the economic benefits these endeavors offer to the Town of Matthews and are committed to the positive social outcomes of local food and community gardens.
Please visit the CEFS website to read the rest of the Local Food Economies
case studies
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| Local Government Guide to Local Food Economies |
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NCGT's Local Food Economies initiative has released a new
Local Government Guide to Local Food Economies. The guide's online format makes it easy for planners, economic developers, and local government administrators to quickly and easily access information they need, for example regulations that impact agriculture at the local level.
The guide is a resource for information about planning and economic development issues that impact the success of farms and food businesses. It includes updated regulations and examples of policies that support farmland protection planning, farm-friendly land use and zoning ordinances, ways to expand local food supply chain infrastructure, and innovative new strategies including conservation development and "agrihoods" (communities situated around a farm).
It also includes updated information for small business and entrepreneurship development, such as financing tools, business planning for non-traditional farm and food businesses, and the role of new partners in supporting these businesses. Collaboration among diverse stakeholders is also a featured topic, with resources for food policy councils and other groups.
"This guide is important because it gives local government staff and administrators quick and easy access to information about common issues between local governments and food systems," said Emily Edmonds, NCGT's Extension & Outreach Program Manager. "Making sure they can access up-to-date information about this field quickly and easily helps them to make decisions that support local agriculture and food access."
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| New Agricultural Infographics Provide Powerful Tool for Counties and Communities to Examine Their Own Local Food Economies |
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The USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program funds valuable projects across the U.S. One of the outputs of a recent CEFS-led SARE grant is a set o
f
NC Agricultural Infographics
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e infographics - one per county plus one for each of the state's 16 Councils of Government - provide a visual interpretation of the 2007 and 2012 Census of Agriculture data, and illustrate growth or decline in each measure between these two census years.
Jesse Day, Regional Planner at Piedmont Triad Regional Council, says "the infographics package existing agricultural data in a way that is easily communicated to a broad audience, creating new opportunities for education and understanding of how agriculture is changing in the Piedmont Triad region, while also quantifying the positive contributions it has to our regional economy."
Laura Lauffer, NCGT Food and Farms Coordinator at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and NCGT Summer Local Food Supply Chain Apprentice Enoch Sarku, completed the infographics project initially spearheaded by Dr. Noah Ranells, owner of Fickle Creek Farm and formerly with N.C. A&T.
"The infographics serve as a starting point for place-based conversations about local agriculture," says Laura, "and can help local and regional governments and community groups identify particular areas to focus upon." In the coming months, Laura and others at NCGT will be creating brief case studies of local agricultural development in NC, linking these to the online interactive map and to the census-based measures.
In particular she will be looking for instances where NC Cooperative Extension
has worked with other partners to support local food economic development. If you have an idea for a case study, contact Laura:
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Project Contact Information
Nancy Creamer,
Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together,
nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu
, 919-515-9447
John Day,
NCGT Seafood and Dairy Supply Chain Development Lead,
john_day@ncsu.edu
, 704-785-6670
Emily Edmonds, NCGT Extension and Outreach Program Manager, emelders@ncsu.edu, 828-399-0297
Laura Lauffer
, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Cooperative Extension Program,
ldlauffe@ncat.edu
, 336-285-4690
This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2013-68004-20363 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
© 2013-2016 NC Growing Together
www.ncgrowingtogether.org
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