This annotation was created by Maria Frank. The last update was by Food and Society Workshop.
Review of Community Food Security Literature and Future Directions for Addressing Community Food Insecurity in North Minneapolis (summary & metadata)
For over seven years, Minnesota Food
Association (MFA) has worked with immigrant communities, with a special
focus on those groups with traditionally strong ties to agriculture, to
develop economic opportunities in farming. Through the New Immigrant
Agriculture Project, MFA has partnered with farmers according to their
needs - presently, a reliable customer for specific produce. This
challenge is especially complex given the growers' seasonal mix of fresh
produce. Small growers in particular struggle to access the retail
market alongside large distributors. These distributors are able to
undercut prices offered to small growers while providing a larger
variety of produce through suppliers in places like California and
Florida, where growing seasons are longer and the climate more
favorable. However, the more salient barrier relates to transportation
logistics and volume of locally grown produce. Some marketing and
relationship building in food distribution chains can increase consumer
and retailer awareness of local products. For example, health and
community conscious buyers increasingly identify positive growing
practices through certification and branding. Balancing these
considerations, MFA can choose a plan of action to meet high demands for
fresh produce. The report discusses the possibilities of several
marketing strategies and models.
Quick Facts:
- Author: Nicole Yarbrough
- Published: May 2007, CURA, Univ of Minnesota
- Intended audience:
Minnesota Food Association (maybe helpful to similar organizations
looking to assist small farms in accessing the larger market) - Goals / purpose:
To give MN Food Association recommendations to assist immigrant produce
farmers as they compete with larger producers/distributors. - Methods - How would someone know they could trust this?
- Clearly
structured with bullet points covering advantages and challenges of
numerous areas of / players in the food system. Seems very thorough and
ends with clear recommendations.
- Clearly
- From 1 (not very well)–4 (very well), how well does this source of food knowledge:
- Engage an adequate range of perspectives and types of knowledge? (3)
- Translate between diverse perspectives? (2)
- Address conflicts across perspectives? (2)
- Generate useful information for those affected by the issues addressed? (4)
- Include an adequate range of relevant stakeholders throughout the knowledge-creation process? (1)
- Help users of this knowledge source learn from each other? (2)
- Allow users of this knowledge source to put what they learn into action? (4)
- Consider the larger context as necessary? (4)
- What is useful, meaningful, surprising, or a problem? Questions?
- Positive: very clear and apparently thorough, actionable for the intended audience, TOC hyperlinked w/in the pdf
- Challenges:
extremely specific audience, considers many facets of the system but
unclear if involved any of the other areas' input or simply researched
- What do you think could or should be done with this source of knowledge?
- What has already been done?
- How should we keep track of what this knowledge does as it circulates in the world?
- What connections would you like to see made to other information / people / organizations?
See http://www.cura.umn.edu/publications/catalog/cap-116 for this and other resources from CURA.