Local food efforts growing, but work remains according to forum hosted by the Linn County Food Systems Council

CEDAR RAPIDS - When it comes to growing local food in an urban area, Cedar Rapids has come a long way but still has a ways to go.

That was the message from multiple speakers at a Monday food policy forum hosted by the Linn County Food Systems Council.

A small group met at the Cedar Rapids Public Library to hear from policy experts and local officials on what Linn County is doing to advance locally grown food and what is needed to move forward.

In the last seven years, Cedar Rapids has updated local ordinances to allow urban farms and backyard chickens in the city, and the city has 300 public lots for community gardens, city planner Anne Russett said.

In the Cedar Rapids school district, 17 schools report having or having had a school garden in the past 10 years, and eight elementaries schools participated in the Pick a Better Snack program this year, which encourages kids to choose fruits and vegetables for snacks.

However, a speaker said, that means 13 elementary schools did not have the Pick a Better Snack program, and 15 schools have not had a school garden.

That's important, school district health and wellness supervisor Stefanie Neff said, because the majority of Iowa children aren't eating the daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables, which is three servings a day.

In the 2016 Iowa Youth Survey, 24 percent of students met that goal, while 14 percent ate a fruit or vegetable less than once a day, and 9 percent ate none at all.

Programs like school gardens and Pick a Better Snack, which brings volunteer nutritionists into the classroom to introduce kids to fresh produce, can help counter those numbers, Neff said.

'It always amazes me how many kids say, ‘I've never tried a red pepper,' ” she said. 'How can we expect kids to be engaged if they've never tried something?”

The issues surrounding growing food within city limits are at once new and very old, said Gary Taylor, an associate professor of community and regional planning at Iowa State University who has co-written a guidebook for cities looking to update their local food ordinances.

'One hundred years ago, food was part of the urban environment. We grew food in open areas without regard to nuisance concerns, without regard for where it was grown, without concern for market forces,” he said.

But as cities grew and industrialized, cities developed zoning regulations to push food production out. It is only in the last five to ten years that the trend has started to slowly move in the other direction. That shift comes as cities respond to citizens concerned about where their food comes from and how it is grown, among other issues like food deserts and sustainable environmental policies.

The next local food production ordinance the city of Cedar Rapids is studying is urban bee keeping. The city's 1,000 Acre Pollinator Initiative seeks to turn 1,000 acres of public land into habitat for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, something urban beekeeping would pair well with.

Russett said the commission welcomes public feedback on beekeeping and other issues related to local food production. A public survey at CityofCR.org/rezone includes beekeeping questions.

'We want the community to get involved,” she said. 'We don't want to get in the way of creative ideas.”

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