Dane County Buy Local Initiative

The Dane County Buy Local Initiative is a coalition of local independent businesses, social impact groups and citizens working together to support a healthy community economy. While not focused on food, they do include local food companies.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot

Recent Federal legislation authorized funds for a program that offers free fruits and vegetables to students during the school day. Public Law 109-97 provides $6,000,000 to be distributed among six States: Utah, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Idaho. Within each State, 25 schools will participate. The purpose of the program is to increase fruit (both fresh and dried) and fresh vegetable consumption in elementary and secondary schools.

Slow Food USA

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic, member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes, and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

Madison Convivium

Milwaukee-area Convivium

For more about the Milwaukee group, contact Martha Davis Kipcak at mkipcak@wi.rr.com. She also runs an education and advocacy project associated with Afterglow Farm that aims to elevate the role of food, agriculture and the environment in Southeast Wisconsin through healthy, sustainable farm practices, creative educational opportunities and advocacy for the field to fork experience.

UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

CIAS has provided substantial support to the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch project and the Southern Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlas. Other work with local food systems components includes:

• Our Agriculture of the Middle project is examining the problem of disappearing mid-scale farms, processors, retailers and other food businesses, and looking at marketing, policy and research approaches to help keep these farms and businesses from disappearing entirely.
• We create value-added enterprise budgets to help farmers manage their value-added businesses. Additionally, we conducted a study on the economics of fresh market vegetable production and (mostly direct) marketing.
• We participate in an ongoing study of Community Supported Agriculuture across the U.S., and have done past work on the production, economics, and organization of CSA farms.
• Our Eco-Fruit project is helping apple and other fruit growers use IPM as a production and marketing tool. Most of these growers are selling their products locally.
• Our School for Beginning Market Growers includes information on local marketing of fresh market vegetables.
• Our College Food Project has put locally grown and organic food on the dining hall menus at UW-Madison.

Contact: Cris Carusi
608-262-8018
cecarusi@facstaff.wisc.edu