The educational materials listed on this page are about Local and Regional Food Systems.
Local and regional food systems are ones that produce and distribute foods on a local scale rather than a national or international one. Food goes from farmer to table in fewer steps, by means of CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture), local farmers’ markets, cooperatives, local food hubs or through commercial or institutional buyers, including schools, hospitals, grocery stores and restaurants. The goals of local food systems are improving the economic wellness of communities, increasing avenues to fresh local foods and creating viable markets for farmers and ranchers through value based supply chains and rural/urban integration. Local food systems also help sustainable communities prosper by strengthening the economic resilience of farmers and ranchers, via partnerships and social networks. Local farmers’ cooperatives provide farmers with the resources and scale of production needed to help each other tap lucrative value added food processing opportunities. Community supported agriculture, and farmers co-ops also help beginning farmers have a place to start through the support of the community.
More information on local food systems, including tips for land access, a topic of particular interest to beginning farmers, can be found in the topic brief Building Local and Regional Food Systems. This topic brief is an online collection of practical resources on business and marketing planning, distribution and aggregation, meat processing and food processing, and more. For example, find resources for people who want to build poultry processing facilities or explore small-scale meat packing. The guide Building a Sustainable Business can be of service to beginning farmers, with its approaches to starting a successful farming business in a local food system and writing business plans and marketing plans.
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2023–2024 Report from the Field
Letter from the Director Ihave always appreciated the value of long-term research as wellas the long-term impact of both applied and basic research.The core aspects of the SARE program were developed to havepositive, enduring impacts on the environment, farm and ranchprofitability, and the quality of life of our communities. I see theseimpacts in the stories […]
New Podcast Episode: "Edible Landscaping"
In this episode of ATTRA’s Voices from the Field podcast, NCAT Horticulture Specialist Guy Ames talks with Matthew Lebon about edible landscaping, or the practice of integrating edible plants into ornamental landscaping. Lebon is the visionary behind Custom Foodscaping in St. Louis, Mo. The two delve into the intricacies of shaping the land with food […]
New Podcast Episode: "Building Local Food Systems in Montana"
In this episode of ATTRA's Voices from the Field podcast, NCAT Local Food Systems Specialist Maura Henn speaks with Michal DeChellis of the Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) in Montana. Their conversation focuses on building resilient community food webs and connecting communities to local food solutions. DeChellis is AERO’s program manager for the Montana Food […]
SARE Seeking National Program Manager in Support of Food Loss and Food Waste Initiative in 2024
Distributed by SARE Outreach on behalf of Southern SARE. To apply, log in to or create an account in the SARE Grant Management System using the link below. For more information, contact Southern SARE Program Director Jeff Jordan at jjordan@uga.edu. GRIFFIN, Georgia -- In 2024, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program will initiate a $10 […]
Farmer and SARE Grantee Featured by United Nations for Her Millet Production
Minnesota farmer Naima Dhore is starting to grow millet–a resilient cereal grain grown widely in semi-arid regions of the world–because she has an eager market in the large East African communities of the Minneapolis area. It’s part of a broader pattern for Dhore, who migrated to the United States from Somalia as a child and […]
America's Heartland "Leaders in Sustainable Agriculture" Now Available on YouTube
SARE recently partnered with PBS KVIE to produce an episode of RFD-TV's America's Heartland featuring four farmers describing their commitment to sustainability, how they plan to overcome modern farming challenges, and how SARE has impacted their farming and ranching practices. The full 24-minute episode titled Leaders in Sustainable Agriculture is now available at https://www.sare.org/resources/leaders-in-sustainable-agriculture/. Watch: Videos featuring each […]
Scaling Up Your Vegetable Farm for Wholesale Markets
SARE’s newest bulletin, Scaling Up Your Vegetable Farm for Wholesale Markets, provides a variety of strategies and tools to help owners of small- to mid-scale operations branch out into wholesale markets.
Scaling Up Your Vegetable Farm for Wholesale Markets
For direct market farmers, expanding your operation to capture local and regional wholesale markets can represent an opportunity. But such a shift brings with it many changes to how you run your farm because the expectations that wholesale buyers have is much different than your direct market customers. Scaling Up Your Vegetable Farm for Wholesale […]
Farmer-Focused Innovations Funded by SARE
“Institutionalized food is the forgotten part of the food revolution,” says Ann Swanson, talking about the lack of fresh produce available from local institutions in her community of Champaign–Urbana, IL. Inspired, Swanson used a SARE Farmer/Rancher grant to create new opportunities for local farmers, launch a series of educational classes and expand institutional capacity to […]
2021–2022 Report from the Field
Report from the Field features 12 stories from around the country of recent SARE grantees who are finding new ways to improve the sustainability of U.S. agriculture. The report also summarizes our total investment in research and education projects since 1988.