Local Foods and Sustainable Agriculture
Interest in local foods and sustainable agriculture is growing rapidly across the country. President Obama and the First Lady have developed new initiatives focused on healthy eating and obesity prevention through activities like the White House Garden. Activity in North Carolina is no exception to this trend. Research at UNC and at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is addressing local foods issues and their connection to public health outcomes.
Project Descriptions
Gillings Innovation Laboratory Sustainable Agriculture Project
Work continued this year on the Gillings Innovations Laboratory (GIL) Sustainable Agriculture Project, Linking Local, Sustainable Farming and Health and examining whether eating local foods can address obesity, the environment, and economic viability. The GIL has used an innovative array of approaches including case studies, documentary photography, and quantitative data analysis as researchers explored the agricultural transition in North Carolina as tobacco becomes less economically important and farms across the state and country grow larger and more industrialized. After three years of research, the GIL funding has spawned expanded research beyond what was originally defined, as well as incubated new projects with significant potential. Specifically, the GIL helped launch a number of studies including: an Economic Innovation Grant to link local growers with consumers using Women Infant Children’s (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program Cash-Value Vouchers; an NIH-funded study to help teenagers feel empowered about their future through exposure to career opportunities, agriculture experiences and eating fresh fruits and vegetables; and a study (funded in addition by NC TraCS) by Dr. Christopher Heaney, Kellogg Scholar, at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention to examine bacterial-resistant strains of MRSA. Heaney’s team is comparing the prevalence of MRSA in workers on sustainable hog farms versus those employed on conventional farms. The GIL has incubated other projects as well.
Carolina Campus Community Garden
The Carolina Campus Community Garden (CCCG) was developed through a collaboration of dedicated faculty, staff and students at the university to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to low-wage UNC employees. Many of these founding garden members are affiliated with the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP), the North Carolina Botanical Garden, UNC Employees Forum, and the original student group that managed a student campus garden Carolina Garden Co-op (CGC),. This dynamic group has been led by a garden manager to realize a highly productive, community-catalyzing garden that now distributes ample produce twice a week to low-wage UNC employees, primarily housekeepers.
Expertise
Experts from HPDP are called upon regularly to serve on key national, state and regional committees and taskforces. For example, Dr. Alice Ammerman, Center Director and professor of Nutrition, was appointed to serve on the North Carolina Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council. Dr. Ammerman leads collaborative initiatives across the country working with academic and public health researchers to address policy barriers and opportunities to helping people access more fresh fruits and vegetables. Dr. Molly De Marco, HPDP Research Associate, is called upon regularly to address the media and provide interviews related to sustainable agriculture and public health. Her research is focused on reaching historically underserved populations and partnering with faith-based communities to improve health disparities. Robin Crowder, Marketing Specialist and Project Director, is often tapped for her expertise to work with groups regarding school gardens, social marketing initiatives and ways to build consumer demand for local foods and help farmers and distributors meet that demand.
Food Corps
Researchers at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) served on a collaborative committee to submit a successful application for North Carolina to serve as one of the inaugural hosts of the national FoodCorps program. FoodCorps places motivated young leaders in limited-resource communities for a year of public service and is similar in ways to the AmeriCorps program. Working under the direction of local partner organizations, FoodCorps Service Members, deliver hands-on nutrition education, build and tend school gardens, andstrategize about how best to bring high-quality local food into public school cafeterias. During this competitive process, HPDP researchers were successful in securing a FoodCorps member to live for a year in Warren County, where a number of symbiotic sustainable agriculture research projects led by HPDP are taking place. A total of six FoodCorps members have been placed in NC and they will be working to build school gardens as well as community capacity related to helping schools source food from local farmers.
Produce Packs
Researchers at HPDP were awarded an Economic Innovation Grant from the North Carolina Rural Center to launch a program aimed at helping consumers, specifically people using WIC Cash-Value Vouchers (CVVs), to buy local fresh fruits and vegetables. The project team is working with farmers in Warren County, NC, to bundle produce into packs that are priced to correspond with CVVs; these packs do not need to be bagged, measured or weighed, hence making the shopping process easier. A branding and targeted marketing campaign are helping launch the products offered in an independent grocery store and two corner stores for a 10-week pilot period.
Black Land Loss
Researchers from the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention partnered with attorneys from the Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) to conduct a needs assessment of Black farmers in North Carolina. The needs assessment provided information to determine: (1) Whether land preservation needs, such as legal consultation, are being met, and if not, what needs exist and (2) The extent of mental health issues being experienced by Black farmers, especially those related to the loss of their land. The needs assessment was conducted in two phases. The initial phase consisted of interviews with a small group of Black farmers. In the second phase, a short survey was developed and administered to Black farmers throughout North Carolina.
Faith, Food and Farming
HPDP is leading The Faith, Farming, and the Future project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, and is working with four churches in rural Warren County, located in northeastern North Carolina, to form youth action teams to identify critical challenges and opportunities in the local food and agriculture system. Business leaders and youth empowerment experts are coaching these teams to develop innovative solutions to improve healthy food access and physical activity through entrepreneurial efforts.
Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church Harvest of Hope Garden and Farm Project
HPDP partnered with Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Warren County to cultivate better health and improve access to fresh foods through a community garden. Funded though NCtraCS, the Harvest of Hope project created a church garden at Coley Springs for its parishioners. The project examined how the garden helped develop gardening and farming skills in the community and reduced health disparities through improved access to fruits and vegetables.
New Course Introduced
A new course titled, Sustainable, Local Food Systems- Intersection of local foods and public health, will be offered through the Department of Nutrition to all students. This course is being co-developed by Dr. Alice Ammerman (Professor, Nutrition; and Director of Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention) and Dr. Molly De Marco (Research Associate at HPDP) and funded in part by an Ultetschi grant as part of the APPLES Service Learning Program. This course examines the intersection of local foods and public health in respect to nutrition, environmental issues, economic development, and community capacity. Students will explore the current impacts of the increasingly industrialized and centralized food system as well as potential solutions, such as policy, regulations, and social entrepreneurship. In addition, students will contribute to local food system development in the Triangle area by assisting community partners in their work to increase economic opportunities for small and mid-sized farmers and for local food marketers, distributors, and entrepreneurs. This volunteer work will help build systems to increase access to healthy food among lower income populations and hopefully inspire among students an appreciation of the reciprocal benefits of service learning. Piedmont GrownResearchers and marketing specialists at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention served on a keystone team and steering committee to conceptualize, define and launch a Piedmont Grown brand, www.piedmontgrown.org, to help consumers identify farm products grown in the North Carolina Piedmont.
Community Engagement
Researchers at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention continue to support community-based organizations working on sustainable food systems. For example, HPDP provides consultation and internship management to the Carrboro Farmers Market as well as other direct market venues. In addition, marketing experts consult to farmers and farm-based businesses on developing viable marketing plans.
Farmers Markets
Researchers at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention painstakingly compiled an entire statewide list of farmers markets in North Carolina. The team reviewed multiple resources, verifying details and collecting other relevant information, that helps researchers at UNC and others in North Carolina access farmers markets and their leadership to further work in this direct marketing arena. The list led to the US Department of Agriculture recognizing North Carolina as one of the top 10 states for having the largest number of farmers markets.
Tar Heel Guide to Restaurants and Caterers Using Local Foods
HPDP continues to make available the Tar Heel Guide to Restaurants and Caterers Using Local Food to help event organizers at UNC Chapel Hill to find food vendors who strive to use as much local farm product as possible and Resources
Headlines
The January/February issue of the Carolina Alumni Review includes an article about local foods movements and features the work of Dr. Ammerman and others at UNC, “The Top of the Food Chain,” http://www.sph.unc.edu/news/food_chain.
Farmer Foodshare and Table Bring Year Round Fresh Local Food to Children at Risk of Hunger
Watch the Carolina campus community garden anniversary celebration
New Warren County project to create regional food center
Tools and Resources
Resources
The Center is pleased to announce the new Tar Heel Guide to Restaurants and Caterers using Local Foods – plus local food resources – farmers markets and CSA’s publication. This project was identified as a priority by the five deans of the health affairs of UNC and will help people related to the university work with local business who have taken a pledge to support local farmers and buy as much local product as possible.
Local Farmers Markets
Chapel Hill Farmers' Market
Location:
201 Estes Drive, Chapel Hill
Parking Lot of University Mall next to the entrance from 15-501
Hours of Operation: Open Year-Round
Saturday Mornings:
8 a.m.-Noon (April-November)
10 a.m.-Noon (December-March)
Tuesday Afternoons:
3:00- 6 p.m.
For more information, visit the Chapel Hill Farmers' Market website: http://www.thechapelhillfarmersmarket.com/
Carrboro Farmers' Market
Location:
Carrboro Town Commons
301 West Main Street, Carrboro
Hours of Operation:
Saturday Mornings:
7 a.m.- Noon
Wednesday Afternoons:
3:30-6:30 p.m.
For more information, visit the Carrboro Farmers' Market website: http://www.carrborofarmersmarket.com/index.shtml