Growing a local food system can boost Ohio's flagging economy, Amalie Lipstreu, Ohio’s sustainable agriculture program manager, told the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Food Policy Coalition on December 10, 2008. Localizing 10% of the state’s food system could result in $7 billion in economic gain.

Unfortunately, with the state facing its worst budget crisis in decades, its unlikely dollars appropriated for local food systems will be enough to cover the list of policy recommendations coming from Lipstreu’s group at the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Lipstreu updated efforts of the Ohio Food Policy Council, which formed in 2007 to promote local food networks. The council has four task forces aimed at increasing locally grown food production, distribution and consumption, including:

• Healthy Food – Issues include taking on barriers to using Food Stamps at farmer’s markets. Currently, only 11 of the state’s 200 farmer’s markets are equipped to accept them. The task force has identified barriers, such as markets that lack electricity. It has responded by offering to farmer’s markets $500-1,000 grants to improve access to Food Stamps.

  Another resource for farmer’s markets is the Farmer’s Market Managers Network where market managers in Ohio are meeting and sharing resources and technical support.

• Agricultural Viability – Food processing is a big issue for small farmers. Lipstreu mentioned the state is looking at ideas like mobile poultry processing units which can be used by more than one small farm to process their birds.
• Market Connections – How does the state enhance infrastructure for farms growing diverse foods to connect with people who want to eat healthily? The task force includes independent grocers like Phil Nabors of Mustard Seed and Zagara’s in Cleveland Heights.
• Food System Assessments – Many people in cities like Cleveland have no access to fresh fruits or veggies because most big grocery store chains have left city neighborhoods and in the void came corner stores. This task force is looking at policy recommendations and ways of improving programs like the Ohio Market Maker Program, which connects farmers to consumers, with more local and up-to-date data.

Urban residents want access to fresh fruit and veggies, confirms Elaine Borawski, Director, Center for Health Promotion Research at Case. Dr. Borawski presented findings from a recent survey of 1,251 Cleveland households that included questions about access to healthy and local food. While only 15% were familiar with community gardening programs like OSU Extension’s Market Gardening program, 47% would be ‘very likely’ to buy local fruits and veggies if there were community gardens in their neighbhorhoods.

How will the state promote local food as a distinct effort from growing commodities like corn and soy? Brad Masi, director of the New Agrarian Center, asked Lipstreu.

“The Ohio Food Policy Council was a mandate from Governor Strickland, and it indicates a paradigm shift,” Lipstreu answered. “How that translates into (local, diverse food) production is more complicated, but resources will be brought to bear. We have to show the demand is out there. And we need to tell the stories of the models of innovation."

Lipstreu pointed to a Jan. 22 meeting by the Assessments task force in Columbus as an opportunity for Northeast Ohioans – both in urban agriculture and farms growing food – to share their stories with state leaders.

Thirteen policy recommendations will be promulgated by the Ohio Food Policy Council, which include:

• A Farm to School program – Recommends tapping the federal Fruit and Vegetable Program to reexamine the procurement process of those schools which get assistance. The Council is working on a primer to explain local food distribution options to those schools.
• Coordinate nutritional education and promotion – Ohio was budgeting $500,000 for local food education, while Kentucky budgets $3 million.
• A full-time staffer at the Ohio Department of Development dedicated to food and agriculture issues (currently, only half-time) – “It would send a strong message that this is an important sector of our economy.”
• Make a strong case for Ohio to get the new Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center – a small item on the 2008 Farm Bill ($3 million for three years) will fund one center for the whole country which supports the development of enterprises which distribute and market healthy and locally produced food to underserved urban and rural areas.

The recommendations will support recent efforts like new rules to allow school districts to use geographic preferences in bid requests for school meal programs that use federal funds.