Farm to Table: Building Local and Regional Food Systems

Welcome to Farm to Table: Building Local and Regional Food Systems. This topic room was created to provide information for farmers, ranchers, ag professionals, community organizers and others who are striving to reconfigure the nation's food system so more value stays in food-producing communities. Dig deeper to find educational resources on the following topics:

·         Business Issues

·         Marketing and Markets

·         Distribution and Aggregation

·         Food Safety

·         Food Processing

·         Strong Communities

·         Training Resources for Practitioners

Farmers in the Portland, Ore., area discuss the opportunities and barriers associated with selling produce to eager urban consumers. Their issues—difficulty finding land, accessing capital, competing neighboring land uses, confusing regulation and zoning laws, and coordinating with distributors and processors—are common in local and regional food systems around the country.  See this video here.

Learn More: Resources from Regional SARE Conferences

Western SARE's Strengthening Agriculture's Infrastructure conference was held in December 2012. Available resources include a conference report, session recordings and more.

North Central SARE's Scaling Up Local Food conference was held in September 2010. Conference organizers developed a list of educational resources.