Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>]

Folks,

The Care4Iowa Campaign of the Farm Animals & Sustainable Agriculture Section 
of The Humane Society of the United States has been working with a coalition 
of consumers and farmers to develop a humane, sustainable local food system 
in Northwest Iowa.

The area is called Siouxland and includes producers and consumers within a 50 
mile radius of Sioux City. (This includes three states -- Iowa, South Dakota 
and Nebraska).

The campaign has very broad support because we are pursuing the development 
of a valueS added local food system as a form of economic development. Right 
now, Siouxland spends in excess of $320 million dollars on food purchases. 
Less than 0.8 percent of that is purchased locally.

If just 10 percent was purchased locally, that would mean $32 million in 
additional income to small and medium size family farmers and might produce 
(the most conservative figure) $100 million in new local economic activity.

The campaign includes a Farmers Pledge and a Consumers Pledge. We are doing 
considerable outreach to schools, churches, local restaurants, and health 
care institutions.
We are exploring the idea of using the health care institutions as the buyers 
of last resort for the farmers market. These hospitals and cancer centers 
might enter the market to purchase the unsold fresh produce from the market 
at below retail prices. This way both farmers and consumers in need of health 
food would be served.

The center of this campaign is the establishment of a year around Farmers 
Market and Innovation Center at 5th Street and Floyd Avenue in Sioux City. 
The whole project is run by a private non-profit corporation called 
Sustainable Foods for Siouxland. The board consists of one-third farmers, 
one-third producers, and one-third community leaders.

If you want more information about this project just email me or write me at 
the contact points listed below. We are developing a prototype business plan 
for these kinds of projects. Once completed we will be happy to share it with 
anyone who asks in writing.

Chris  Bedford
National Campaign Coordinator
Care4Iowa/Farm Animals and Sustainable Agriculture Programs
The Humane Society of the United States
#1515 Linden Street (Suite 220)
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-283-0777 office
515-283-1407 fax
240-432-7520 cell
cbedford@hsus.org