Task force plan supports fresh local food and its producers

Longtime vegetable farmers like Fred Johnson will be seen in a new light under a plan to increase the availability of local foods in Linn and Johnson counties.

After more than two years of work, the Linn/Johnson Local Food Task Force has issued its strategic food system plan for the Corridor.

Among the proposals, residents could someday see curbside composting, similar to curbside recycling programs; new community gardens; and financial incentives to encourage local food production.

Besides farmers like Johnson, 71, of rural Shellsburg, who sells spinach, corn, berries and more at farmers markets, local food systems include consumers, butchers, truck drivers, local grocers and others, said Jason Grimm of the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development.

Those people connect food production, consumption and waste management. In that sense, everyone who buys food from Linn to Johnson counties will be affected by the plan.

“Food provides a place where relationships and interaction can happen,” said Grimm, who has been coordinating efforts of the task force. “(The plan) will help create a healthier community.”

Issues that brought together the group included obesity, rising fuel prices - as local foods don't have to be shipped as far - and food security, both in having an available supply and guarding against potential attacks on the food system.

County leaders, growers and representatives of organizations involved in the task force wrote more than 80 strategies to achieve the plan's goals.

The group set out six goals:

l Ensure the viability of existing and beginning farmers and local food entrepreneurs.

l Increase the availability of healthy, seasonal locally grown food in Linn and Johnson counties.

l Increase infrastructure that forms the foundation of the Linn and Johnson local food system.

l Strengthen the local food marketing campaign and ensure access to healthy, seasonal and affordable food for Linn and Johnson county residents.

l Increase the knowledge and understanding of food purchasing, preparation and preservation among consumers and ensure the recycling, reuse and reduction of waste as nutrients in the Linn and Johnson food systems.

Problems identified by the task force included not having enough local food producers; limited availability of small-scale food processors, such as meat lockers; environmental concerns, like urban sprawl; and Iowa's emphasis on biofuel production that affects local food producers.

To Les Beck, Linn County's planning and development director, the strategic food plan will be useful in developing policies that take into account niche producers, market farmers and others who have been secondary to livestock and row crop farms in the past.

The plan can be used as Linn County updates its land-use plan, he said, “to reflect this type of agriculture.”

Grimm, of the Amana-based Resource Conservation and Development, will present the plan to county supervisors, county and city departments and other organizations or businesses that want to be included in the discussion.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sally Stutsman sees food distribution as one of the key issues for the Corridor. Stutsman said the board will discuss how it can incorporate components of the food plan as the county updates its own strategic plan.

“I think it's a real positive step for this area,” she said.