Local and Regional Food

CIAS is a partner in the Community and Regional Food Systems Project. The mission of this project is to integrate research, outreach, education and advocacy in order to better understand, develop and sustain community and regional food systems as a means of addressing food security and related goals in American cities. The project partners include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Growing Power, the University of Wisconsin-Extension, Michigan State University, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and Iowa State University, in addition to community-based organizations in cities: Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Cedar Rapids, IA and Madison, WI. For more information, contact Erin Silva, Lindsey Day-Farnsworth or Anne Pfeiffer.
Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Shepherd’s Grain

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Shepherd’s Grain

In the mid 1980s, a pair of wheat producers, Karl Kupers and Fred Fleming, became convinced that the conventional dryland wheat farming they were practicing was not sustainable in the Palouse region of eastern Washington. [...more]

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Organic Valley

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Organic Valley

In 1988, a small group of organic vegetable growers in Wisconsin formed a cooperative to provide stable and fair prices to its members. It evolved into Organic Valley, the largest organic, farmer-owned cooperative in North America. [...more]

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Co-op Partners Warehouse

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Co-op Partners Warehouse

Co-op Partners Warehouse was established in 1999 by the Wedge Natural Foods Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This certified organic wholesale distribution warehouse serves retail stores, food service businesses and buying clubs throughout the Upper Midwest. [...more]

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Idaho’s Bounty

Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Study: Idaho’s Bounty

Idaho’s Bounty was founded in 2007 as a cooperative with both customer and producer members. It provides logistical support for a direct-to-consumer, Internet-based food buying club. [...more]

Growing Wisconsin’s Grazing Future: Results of the Blue Sky Greener Pastures Consultation Process

Growing Wisconsin’s Grazing Future: Results of the Blue Sky Greener Pastures Consultation Process

For a wide variety of economic, environmental and social reasons, it makes good sense to regard the practice of managed grazing as an effective system for strengthening dairy and livestock farming in Wisconsin. The UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) partnered with GrassWorks, Inc. to develop a statewide, participatory discussion about managed grazing that they called “Blue Sky Greener Pastures” (BSGP). [...more]

Price Tags/Cost Tags

Price Tags/Cost Tags

The Price Tags/Cost tags are a great way for consumers to learn about the environmental, social and health costs behind many commonly eaten foods. Recently updated tags on hamburger, potatoes, sweet corn and tomatoes describe some of the hidden costs for these popular foods. [...more]

Value Chain Teaching Materials

Value Chain Teaching Materials

The national Agriculture of the Middle initiative has produced three sets of curricular resources on value-based food supply chains for university-level business and economics courses. [...more]

The Driftless Region Food and Farm Project

The Driftless Region Food and Farm Project

The Driftless Region Food and Farm Project is a coalition of farmers, consumers, institutions, agencies and organizations. Together, they aspire to meet the growing demand for local food by scaling up the production, aggregation, processing, distribution and marketing of food in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. [...more]

Tiers of the Food System: A New Way of Thinking About Local and Regional Food

Tiers of the Food System: A New Way of Thinking About Local and Regional Food

From farmers’ markets to supermarkets, there is a spectrum of relationships between consumers and the businesses that grow, process, distribute and market their food. Small-scale, local food production is often contrasted with the anonymity of global, industrial food production, resulting in a black and white portrayal of local and global food systems. In reality, the food system is far more complex than local versus global and artisanal versus industrial. [...more]

Mid-scale food value chains case study: Red Tomato (Research Brief #82)

Mid-scale food value chains case study: Red Tomato (Research Brief #82)

Michael Rozyne, one of the creators of the international fair trade company Equal Exchange, founded an organization called Red Tomato in 1996. The goals for Red Tomato were to develop a dual purpose non-profit to market sustainably grown fruits and vegetables in the Northeast, and to provide consulting services for regional food system development nationwide. This research brief focuses on the first goal. [...more]

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CIAS in the community

Farm to School Featured in “Grow”

CIAS farm to school programs—and staff member Sara Tedeschi—are featured in the Spring 2013 issue of CALS Grow magazine. CIAS has been working on farm to school since 2001, and our work has influenced farm to school programs nationwide. Read the article here, or listen to a PodCALS interview with Sara.

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