The food systems profile project

Rob Sirrine<sirrine@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension -

County-level food systems data for all counties in the North Central Region.

Are you a local planner or elected official interested in informing local policies related to community food systems? Do you represent a non-profit working in food system issues? Are you interested to see how your county compares to others in the state or even throughout the Great Lakes Region vis-a-vis food system issues? Then the Food Systems Profile Project (FSPP) may be of use to you. The FSPP is an online, county-specific food system data compendium that was developed by University of Wisconsin Extension Educators and others who recognized the “growing interest in food systems as a community economic development tool in Wisconsin and the nearby states in the Upper Midwest.”

According to the developers, the goal of the FSPP was to build and promote an online food systems profile tool to:

  • Help county-based educators and community leaders better understand the local/regional food system in a systematic way in the North Central Region.
  • Understand how key indicators are changing over time.
  • Identify opportunities for growth or expansion in regional food systems through the use of food and agricultural industry cluster analysis.

The FSPP offers county-specific food systems data in categories such as: Food Access, Food Assistance, Health, Local and Direct Markets, Processing and Distribution, and Production Agriculture General Characteristics. The FSPP also offers a Profile Discussion Guide , Sample Completed Profile Discussion Guide, and a Sample County Profile Guide for an indication of the data that are available. In addition, the site offers resources on the following:

If you have questions about the profile or specific Community Food Systems questions, visit the workgroup page on the Michigan State University Extension website.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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