Rebuilding a Healthy Local Food System in Southwest Colorado

Jim Dyer – 7 July 2008

Purpose: Increase the health of the people, agricultural community, economy, and environment of Southwest Colorado and its surroundings by building a more resilient healthy local food system.

Goal 1. FOOD: To increase the contribution that locally produced foods make to healthy diets of all people in our area.

1. Increase the amount of healthy local food choices made available in the marketplace to people in our area. (see Goal 2)
2. Increase the amount of food grown by people in our area for their own use and that of their neighbors.
3. Increase the access for all people in our region to safe, nutritious, affordable, culturally appropriate foods obtained as much as possible from local sustainable farms and ranches.
4. Improve the healthy food choices made by those in our region by increasing awareness of foods produced locally, their nutritional qualities, and the benefits of sustainable and local production and marketing.

Goal 2. AGRICULTURE: To increase the productivity and viability of farms and ranches in our area by connecting them with the needs of our local communities for food and other agricultural products and services.

1. Increase sustainable production of foods for local consumption by existing producers.
2. Recruit new producers to meet local food needs.
3. Increase purchases of foods that are as healthy as possible, as local as possible, and as sustainably produced as possible.
4. Build on the consumer desire for local foods to increase sales of other local sustainable agricultural products and services in our area. e. Increase policies that encourage increased sustainable production and marketing of local food as well as other agricultural products and services.

Goal 3. ECONOMY: To increase the contribution that the production, processing, marketing, and consumption of local agricultural products make to the economy of our area.

1. Increase the awareness of consumers of the multiple benefits of buying local food.
2. Increase the consideration of community-based agricultural production, processing, and marketing in economic development planning, tourism promotion, and business financing.
3. Improve the business management and resource efficiency of agricultural production, processing, and marketing to make those operations more profitable and the products more affordable to the consumer.
4. Increase the understanding of the public and decision-makers of the importance to a healthy local food system of livable wages for producers and consumers alike.

Goal 4. ENVIRONMENT: To increase the role of the entire local food system in protecting and enhancing the natural resources and environment of our area and beyond.

1. Increase the incentives in local policies and promotion in the marketplace for the most environmentally sustainable local production and marketing (reduced shipping, processing, and packaging) as possible.
2. Engage all sectors of the community in efforts to increase the climate-friendliness of our local food system.
3. Increase the understanding of how wise agricultural production practices can help restore natural resources and the environment.

Goal 5: PARTICIPATION: To increase the involvement of diverse community interests in the development of the local food system.

1. Increase community awareness of agricultural traditions, social and cultural perspectives, and diverse community interests affecting, and affected by, the local food system.
2. Increase the involvement of the diversity of community interests and members in local food system planning, leadership, development, and assessment.
3. Increase the extent to which the food system development process fairly and openly considers the diverse priorities of community members, and uses a systems approach to integrating these diverse priorities.