Local Foods Connection sent a letter to the Johnson County Planning and Zoning to request that they add to the ’2008 Land Use Plan’ language which shows support of sustainable agriculture farms and the local food economy. Included with letter was a summary of exciting local food policies and plans within the state and across the country. Several other organizations and businesses signed the letter to show their agreement.

This effort grew out of the lessons learned by Local Foods Connection when assisting farmer Susan Jutz, along with the help of several other of her friends, to appeal a request by the Johnson County Planning & Zoning Dept. that she apply for a conditional use permit to host a Harvest Party on her farm in 2009. This most recent drive to encourage the county to look at how sustainable agriculture and local food are represented in codes and laws was lead by Local Foods Connection intern Rebecca Raab.

Laura Dowd, Local Foods Connection executive director, presented the letter to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors during their meeting on Tuesday, December 21. We encourage you to send a letter to Planning & Zoning and the Supervisors at this time to explain your place in the local food system (we all have one!) and to offer your own suggestions of how Johnson County can champion local food.

Here is the letter:

Johnson County Planning and Zoning Commission
Johnson County Board of Supervisors
913 S Dubuque Street, Suite 204
Iowa City, IA 52240

December 17, 2010

Dear Rick Dvorak,

Thank you for meeting with Rebecca Raab and me this summer to discuss our interest in amending the 2008 Johnson County Land Use Plan to incorporate language that recognizes the importance of local food to county farmers and the local economy. We appreciate your willingness to listen to our concerns and to be receptive to our ideas. While conducting research for our action plan, we were pleased to discover that, in its 2009 Annual Report, the Johnson County Planning and Zoning Department stated that it wished to become “…more actively involved in the local food initiative.” To assist your office in becoming more involved and to meet our goals, we decided to offer Johnson County suggestions for wording that can be incorporated into its planning documents. The suggested wording would show support for sustainable and value-added agricultural initiatives.

Several other counties in Iowa have taken similar measures. Woodbury County has taken a comprehensive approach requiring all county departments to purchase local foods for their facilities, providing conversion loans to farmers, creating a regional trademark system and more. Story County has created a Local Food Systems Planning Division within its Planning and Zoning Department and drafted a local food planning strategic action plan in September 2010. Finally, Linn County has integrated statements supporting sustainable agriculture and value-added agricultural initiatives into its 2000 Rural Land Use Plan.

Below are statements taken from the Linn County Rural Land Use Plan that could easily be inserted into the following sections and adapted to fit Johnson County’s land use needs:

1)    From Linn County’s 2000 Rural Land Use Plan, Chapter 3, Goal 1.5, “Support sustainable farming and value-added agricultural initiatives” to be inserted into the Johnson County 2008 Land Use Plan, Section 3.1 as new Item 1.4.

2)    From Linn County’s 2000 Rural Land Use Plan, Chapter 4, Policy 1.10, “Encourage locally grown farm products by allowing activities such as farmers’ markets, roadside stands, u-pick operations, tree farms, agri-tourism and similar activities” to be inserted into the Johnson County 2008 Land Use Plan, Section 4, Agricultural/Rural Strategies as new Item 5.

Inclusion of such statements in Johnson County planning documents could encourage an interpretation of codes friendly to local food activities and small farm operations. Furthermore, by taking these steps, the Johnson County Planning and Zoning Department can demonstrate to the county its awareness of current trends in agriculture and economic development.
We are excited to invite the Johnson County Planning and Zoning Department to take these initial steps and to join our community’s active local food network. In case you are interested in studying these issues further or developing a more intensive local food action plan, we have included with this letter more information.

Appendix A:  A summary of additional local food policies from other counties in Iowa
Appendix B:  Regional-National local food legislation and planning documents

If you have any questions or comments regarding this letter, or about local foods in general, please feel free to contact our organization. We will contact you early next year to get your feedback on our proposal.

Sincerely,
Laura Dowd, Founding Director
Local Foods Connection

Susan Jutz, Owner and Operator
ZJ Farm, Solon

Jason Grimm, Food System Planner
Iowa Valley RC&D

Janette Ryan-Busch
Fae Ridge Farm, Iowa City

Kim Friese
General Manager, Devotay
Manager Editor, Edible Iowa River Valley

Kurt Friese
Publisher, Edible Iowa River Valley
Iowa Food Systems Council Board of Directors

Scott Koepke, Grocery Manager
New Pioneer Food Co-op

Slow Food Iowa City

cc: Johnson County Board of Supervisors, 913 South Dubuque Street, #201, Iowa City, IA 52240

APPENDIX A
Examples of County Policies Supporting Sustainable and Value-Added Agricultural Practices in Iowa

Woodbury County and the City of Sioux City, IA

April 29, 2008 – “Sioux City Sue Local Foods Network Program” designed to facilitate the sale of locally produced food in regional restaurants, hospitals, schools, and other food service establishments.

October 1, 2007 – “The Organic Market Project,” a public-private initiative, promotes the area as the Midwest leader in organic food production and processing.

July 3, 2007 – “Sioux City Sue” logo was adopted and made available to any producer who resides within 100-miles of Sioux City and complies with the terms of the license.

June 1, 2006 – “Local Food Purchase Policy” Woodbury County shall purchase, by or through its food service contractor, locally-produced organic food when a county dept. serves food in the usual course of business.

June 28, 2005 – Woodbury County adopted its “Organics Conversion Policy” that provides a 100% rebate of all real property taxes for 5 years for those farmers converting from conventional to organic farming practices. Education support for new organic farmers is provided by local colleges and non-profits such as Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service,  the Organic Trade Association and the USDA.

Many cities, such as the City of Danbury, will contribute a buildable unimproved lot within city limits for new organic farmers.

The county hosts an Organic Growers Conference each November.

Regional Hy-Vee stores and Whole Foods in Omaha have made a commitment to stock local organic produce.

A non-official centralized broker, the Firehouse Market, helps streamline distribution of local foods and ensures that foods receive the Sioux City Sue trademark. This also helps farmers get the best price for their products from a wide variety of purchasers including large supermarkets and restaurants.

Story County, IA

Story County Local Food Systems Initiative
Since the beginning of 2008, the Story County Planning and Zoning Dept. has been working on a multi-phased project to develop a local foods systems planning initiative at the county government level. Departmental tasks include creating a foodshed of the region with mapping of area food producers, retailers, wholesalers and supporters of the greater Story County food system as well as identifying gaps in the foodshed requiring further investigation.

September 21, 2010 – The Story County Board of Supervisors adopted “Local Food and Farms:  Growing Story County,” which is an action plan for supporting the county local food system.
Oct 7, 2008 – Story County Board of Supervisors adopt Resolution #09-16 which created:
- a “Grow Story County” steering committee and
- a Local Food Systems Planning dept. within the county Planning and Zoning dept.

The resolution states that “[c]ounty governments have a role to play in helping the local food system as well as addressing the issues of the food system at a local level.”

September 2008 – The County Planning and Zoning Dept. published a report entitled “The Story County Local Food System – Issues and Opportunities”

Linn County, IA

Linn County has integrated policies and strategies supportive of a variety of sustainable and value-added agricultural initiatives into its Rural Land Use Plan as stated in the enclosed letter.

Polk County, IA

Polk County has integrated policies and strategies supportive of the area local food initiative into its Comprehensive Plan entitled “The Polk 2030 Plan.” According to the plan the “…proximity of high-quality agricultural areas to the urban core…provides…opportunities for direct marketing to consumers and the food service industry. Direct marketing to consumers could occur through farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture, sale of products at point of production, and farm tourism such as wineries, corn mazes, and seasonal sales. Access to the food service industry could include marketing of locally-grown foods in local stores and sales to local restaurants.” (pp 6-3)  This belief is reflected in the “Economic Growth and Agriculture Goal: Policy 1 – Value-Added Economic Development”. (pp 6-8)

Scott County, IA

In its“Strategic Plan 2010-2015-2025,” the Scott County Board of Supervisors and County Administrator expressed their support for sustainable initiatives within their county. Goal 6 of the plan expresses the desire for “national and regional recognition as a leader in ‘green’ and ‘sustainability’.” (p 12)  Among other things, the county will draft a Sustainability Plan.

The Scott County “Go Green Team” steering committee consists of 21 county and state officials.  The committee focuses on broadening departmental and public awareness of sustainability in a variety of ways.

Sioux County, IA

As stated in the Sioux County 2007 Comprehensive Plan, “Sioux County has taken extensive measures to create an environment that is friendly and inviting for value-added agricultural enterprises.”

Appendix B
Local Food Legislation and Planning Documents

Iowa

1. Iowa Local Food and Farm Plan

The Iowa legislature passed an amendment this past session requesting that the Leopold Center develop and submit a Food and Farm Plan complete with recommendations to create a more robust local and regional food and farm economy in the state.  This Plan will be submitted to the general assembly by January 10, 2011 and will become available to the public on the Leopold Center website at the time.

2. Iowa State University Research
Alan Vandehaar and Gary Taylor of Iowa State University are working on a Leopold Center project “to engage community planners and local elected officials with local food system producers to integrate local food systems into community plans and policies”.

In an email invitation to stakeholders they said, “As planners we are interested in learning what cities and counties can do to better support and encourage local food systems through their plans, policies, and regulations.”

“This is important because the interest in developing local food systems (LFS) around Iowa and the U.S. is rapidly growing both as an economic development strategy and as a means to improve local health with greater access to locally grown fresh food. The attractiveness of local foods is that food grown, processed, and sold locally is better for Iowa communities, consumers, farmers, and the environment. According to the USDA direct consumer food marketing doubled from 1997 to over $1 billion in 2007. The development of more LFS can benefit both urban and rural areas of our state.”

The recommendations from this project will be made available in Spring 2011.

State Specific

1. Missoula (Montana) Community Food & Agriculture Coalition

The Community Food & Agriculture Coalition is a multi-stakeholder coalition that addresses community needs related to food and agriculture in a comprehensive and creative way.  The group aims to develop and strengthen Missoula County’s food system, promoting sustainable agriculture, building regional self-reliance, and assuring all citizens equal access to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food.

Among their accomplishments include:

* Provided written comment and testimony on 25 subdivision proposals regarding their impacts to agriculture in 2008 and 2009.  Twelve of their members were involved in the process. As a result:
o One subdivision was outright rejected. Four were required to permanently protect farmland, conserving over 250 acres in total. Two others were re-designed to include community gardens.
o Developers are contacting CFAC early in the design phase to discuss ways to minimize their impacts to agriculture.

National

1. American Planning Association (APA)
Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning

How planning operates to balance the need for an efficient food system with the goals of economic vitality, public health, ecological sustainability, social equity, and cultural diversity will present a formidable challenge to planners who engage in community and regional food planning, and in planning for various community sectors such as transportation, economic development and the environment.