About Amy Stratton
 Amy Stratton is the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Rural Communities Organizer. She works to find viable solutions to economic and environmental challenges rural communities face. "In the Field" is Amy's blog from her travels throughout the Midwest.
For more, visit IATP Rural Communities.
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I was talking with a friend from my rural hometown the other day. We conversed about who was still there and what they were doing in our small town. Most of our friends have moved away, including the both of us. Why is there still a stigma that says to be successful you must leave your small rural town in search of a better life?
The town of Brookfield, Missouri decided that telling youth to move away and be successful did nothing to support their town. They chose instead to connect with the high school students to find out what they wanted from their community. And at their graduation they each received a gift: a mailbox with their name on it and a letter reminding them that Brookfield will always be their home. Read more.
Rural youth in attendance at the Rural Youth Summit and 2007 National Summit on Agriculture and Rural Life talk about their desires to live and work in rural communities in a Brownfield Network audio piece. Many are looking for a way to return to, or move to, rural areas to begin farming, but face a lack of access to capitol and high land prices.
At the Summit, youth discussed these and other challenges, and they worked together to identify sustainable solutions for youth to create a life and a living in rural communities.
Last Friday, Kate Clancy, Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota, met with some folks from the Willmar community to discuss food systems assesssments. Ms. Clancy has worked in nutrition and food systems for a number of years and her expertise is beyond measure. We enjoyed hearing her talk about past work and current developments on food systems.
Over a hot cup of coffee in the upstairs room of an old house turned coffee shop in downtown, Ms. Clancy shared some key elements in conducting a food system assessment.
- Food must be part of community planning: Planners and Economic Development folks should include food in the work they do.
- Decide as a steering commitee what questions you want answered before designing your food system evaluation. There are many topics such as energency preparedness, access to food, hunger, agricultural opportunities, nutrition, and so many more. You may need to choose a section to do first, then come back and do the rest later.
- Examine who is at the planning table and who needs to be invited. Be sure you have your target audience represented and have brought in your local community leaders.
- Anticipate the questions you will receive from folks. What will they ask and how can you have the answers ready?
- Know your community laws and regulations, organizations working in food systems areas and history of what's been done in the past.
- Food systems are not new. For years, many other countries and local communities have been exploring food systems and conducting food system assessments. Do some research.
If you are interested in what other countries and communities are doing, here are some sites to get you started.
Counties and Local Food Systems - a report from National Association of Counties
Community Food Security Coalition
Discovering the Food System A Primer on Community Food Systems:Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
Community Food Systems Bibliography
We've talked with many young folks who desire to become farmers, and they often share this same concern. It also comes up when rural communities examine challenges to their local food system. And, from New Americans who want to own their own farm, rather than continue renting. The concern: the high price of farm land.
This challenge is compounded by land purchases for tax purposes whereby people from outside the community, and often outside the state, purchase land at prices often times higher than young beginning and new farmers can afford, driving the land prices higher. People also purchase land for hunting and recreation, in turn often causing land prices to escalate higher. Other factors too, keep land prices high. How do we find workable solutions and opportunities for these young beginning farmers to purchase farmland? Join us for that discussion with our young beginning farmers at the Rural Youth Summit in Ames, Iowa October 26-27.
For further reading:
Farmland value up in North Dakota
Young farmers shares new vision for Hmong farming
Design that Solves Problems for the Worlds Poor, a recent New York Times article, highlights some unique solutions for poor water quality, diffcult water transportation and lack of electricity for lighting in developing nations. The "Lifestraw" portable water filter provides a safe way to get drinking water from any river or lake. Subsistance farmers can pump water for their crops without electricity by using human power, thereby increasing production, and income. Design solutions like these create new economic development opportunities for rural communities and farmers in developing nations.
Not long ago, a New York Times article caught my attention. It was about Kiva, an organization that connects lenders with entrepreneurs in the developing world. From their web site, it appears many entreprenuers work in agriculture or agriculture related businesses.
Basically, you visit Kiva's web site and view the profiles of people in developing countries who are seeking financing for their business. Then, you can become a lender yourself by providing funds to a specific entrepreneur. Once the loan is paid back, you decide if you wish to help another person, or withdraw. Oh, and did I mention that you get project updates from the entrepreneur posted at Kiva's web site too?
While not specifically targeted to rural communities, it's a unique economic tool for all people in developing countries to reach economic Independence.
I forewarned you that I would have more to say about Willmar. The citizens of Willmar have spent a great deal of time and resources planning for their future, and then setting their plan to action. Willmar Area Multicultural Marketplace (WAMM) is one of those plans for success.
Kathy Schwantes, Assistant Director of the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, excitedly explained the WAMM project to me at her office downtown. A WAMM Committee formed in 2003 to develop this concept into a reality. The Mid-Minnesota Development Commission conducted a survey of residents for WAMM and found the following.
- 90% of respondents would frequent a multicultural marketplace
- 43.5% of respondents would like to open a business in Willmar
- 51.3% of respondents would like to start a business in a multicultural marketplace
Based on these survey results, the success of the Farmer's Market, which is entering its third year of operation in 2007, and support from the community the WAMM Committee moved forward with the project. Several volunteers, Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development, Willmar Design Center, West Central Integration Collaborative and other organizations are now working to secure a building and financing.
WAMM, when fully implemented, will include about 25 businesses housed in a downtown building that is owned and governed by a board of WAMM business owners. The project keeps dollars local, attracts customers and tourists, creates employment opportunities, diversifies the local economy, provides an outlet for locally produced ethnic products and connects the diverse populations in Willmar. Kathy even thought this could be a place for high school Spanish classes to come and visit on a field trip.
WAMM will be the first of its kind in a rural area. I can't wait to start shopping there!
More about the Willmar Area Multicultural Marketplace:
Market project enlists minority support
Multicultural market: Study finds if could be successful in Willmar
If the first cup of fair trade coffee didn't open your eyes, the economic analysis by Ken Meter at the Crossroads Resource Center sure did. Farmers in 12 West Central Minnesota Counties lose $153 million in production costs annually, while West Central consumers are purchasing over $250 million of food from outside the region, according to Meter. He was the first of many excellent presenters at Congressman Collin Peterson's "The Home Grown Economy" conference at Morris, Minnesota.
Woodbury County, Iowa, like the West Central Minnesota region, also sends money out of the region for food purchases, while their farmers take annual losses. The county Economic Development Director Rob Marquesse, is working with the community to keep the dollars local. During his presentation he explained their policies that contribute to building the local economy. They include a local food purchase policy that makes it mandatory for the local government to purchase food from local farmers and a tax rebate policy for land that is converted to organic production.
Dr. Robert King, of the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics, shared a study that he, and many partnering universities, are conducting to learn about consumer's attitude toward local foods. Early results show the following.
- Quality and Freshness is the top reason people buy local
- Local is defined differently by people ranging from narrow to broad
- Web sites are a great source of information for young people
- Signs at the market are also a great way to provide information about local food
Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, closed the day with his presentation on market opportunities. Consumers want to make food purchases that connect with their values. Farmers have an opportunity to differentate themselves by selling not only quality food products, but to add value through trust and personal relationships.
Sandwiched in between the above presentations were panels with farmers, local food cooperatives, numerous organization exhibits and a delicious local food lunch. The day concluded with local wine and cheese sampling.
Here's more information on local food from organizations represented at the conference.
North Central SARE
Pride of the Prairie
Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships
- Barren County, Kentucky
- Warren County, Pennsylvania
- Randolph County, Illinois
- Gillespie County, Texas
- Union County, South Dakota
- St. Lawrence County, New York
- Sac County, Iowa
- Garfield County, Okalahoma
- Amador County, California
- Polk County, North Carolina
Progressive Farmer used statistics and then attributes beyond statistics to rate the best rural counties to live, listed above in top ten order. If you don't agree with their findings, you can go to their Web site and create your own top ten best places to live based on your criteria and their data sets. While this is fun to look at, and probably much more fun if your community is high on the list providing bragging rights, we all have great communities. Each rural community has unique attributes and exciting, innovative people that make it a great place to live!
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