Though I have not had a great deal of success in finding local food economy projects in Iowa, I have found a couple things, which are described below. I will continue to do research on the subject, and this blog will be updated with my findings.

Woodbury County Region's Food and Farm Economy: This web site consists of key points from a presentation by Ken Meter. The document is short; it profiles the farm families in the region in terms of the amount of the states resources they use. It also discusses the consumers of food in the region, and provides a summary of the County's food economy as a whole.

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/Woodbury_assessment.pdf

Black Hawk County Region's Food and Farm Economy: A similar document to that described above; describes the producers, consumers, and provides a general assessment of the food economy of Black Hawk County.

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/BlackHawk_assessment.pdf

There is much more valuable information at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University that I am busy digging through. I will post more of the important content as I encounter it in the next couple of days.

Food System Atlas for four Iowa counties: Another project by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, these papers, written by Iowa State University sociologist Clare Hinrichs, highlight the work done in each of the four profiled counties (Audubon, Benton, Johnson, and Marshall) to promote the use of local foods, as well as possible future opportunities to use locally produced food.

Some interesting things contained in these papers include:

• A listing of the "Parts of a Community Food System:
  1. Farms and Food Production
  2. Food Processors
  3. Food Distributors and Wholesalers
  4. Retail Food Outlets
  5. Consumers
  6. Schools
  7. Nursing homes
  8. Restaurants
  9. Hunger Assistance Programs

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• Statistics on the Direct Marketing of Food in Iowa:
  Total Iowa--------------------1992---------------------1997
  Farms direct marketing--------2,235--------------------2,174
  Total value of sales----------$5,382,000---------------$7,475,000

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• Facts about the economics of the Counties' food systems:
  I have compiled these facts into a spreadsheet; see attached file entitled "Economic Statistics of Four Counties"
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• Statistics on "What Americans Eat": The amount of certain foods that Americans in general, as well as residents of the four profiled counties, eat. Also includes the amount of fresh foods that these numbers include. I have compiled these numbers into a spreadsheet; see attached file entitled "What do Americans eat?"

These papers can be found at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing.htm