Research, Data, and Annotated Bibliographies

Overview of Local Food Systems:

• Brinkmeyer, E., Dankbar, H., & Bloom, J. (2023). Local Foods: Clarifying Current Research. North Carolina Cooperative Extension. 
  • A summary of research of the “environmental, economic, health, and community benefits of local food systems in order to provide practitioners, community members, and interested consumers with the knowledge to make informed decisions.”
• Campbell, D., Feenstra, G., Galt, R., & Marshall, C. (2013). Local and Regional Community Food Systems Bibliography: Categorizing Key Topics. University of California, Davis.
  • This bibliography lists and annotates published literature from 2000 to 2011 on local and regional community food systems. Listings are organized by key topics such as definitions of local food, consumer behavior and demand, direct marketing, farmers markets, farm to institution, and economic benefits of regional food systems.
• Cornell University Library. (2021). Local and Regional Food Systems: Glossary. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/local_food.
  • “Food systems are complex and dynamic, consisting of an intricate web of relationships affected by many factors. A variety of terms and measures are used to describe these systems, their processes and relative health. This glossary offers one starting point for understanding some of the terminology used.”
• Enthoven, L., & Van den Broeck, G. (2021). Local food systems: Reviewing two decades of research. Agricultural Systems, 193, 103226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103226.
  • “The goal of this article is to test eight common beliefs on local food systems – from a consumer, farmer, community and environmental perspective – against scientific evidence, with a focus on North America and Europe. We conduct a systematic multi-disciplinary literature review and identify 123 peer-reviewed studies on local food systems.”
• Low, S.A., Adalja, A., Beaulieu, E., Key, N., Martinez, S., Melton, A., Perez, A., Ralston, K., Stewart, H., Suttles, S., Vogel, S., & Jablonski, B.B.R. (January 2015). Trends in U.S. Local and Regional Food Systems. AP-068, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
  • This report “details the latest economic information on local food producers, consumers, and policy, relying on findings from several national surveys and a synthesis of recent literature to assess the current size of and recent trends in local and regional food systems.”
• Martinez, S., Hand, M., Da Pra, M., Pollack, S., Ralston, K., Smith, T., Vogel, S., Clark, S., Lohr, L., Low, S., & Newman, C. (May 2010). Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues. ERR 97, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
  • “This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems.”
• University of Illinois Extension. (2022). Watch Your Garden Grow. https://web.extension.illinois.edu/veggies/glossary.cfm.
  • A glossary of vegetable gardening terms.
• Chaifetz, A., B.B.R. Jablonski, A. Bauman, D. Broadaway, L. Christensen, T. Cable, H. Edmondson, M. Gill, H. Leighton, A. Long, C. Naumoff, E. Rausch, J. Rossi, M. Sankey, S. Schaffstall, J. Stoll, A. Vega-Labiosa, B. Wolff, D. Wolnick, T. Woods. (2022). Data to Support a Thriving and Informed Local and Regional Food Sector. eXtension Community Local Regional Food System Community of Practice. https://localfoodeconomics.com/data/food-and-agriculture-data-explorer/

• U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). (2022). Surveys: Local Food Marketing Practices. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Local_Food/.
  • Linked on this website are the survey and results of the 2020 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey, conducted by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Equity in the Food System:

• Chen, W., Clayton, M. L., & Palmer, A. (2015). Community Food Security in the United States: A Survey of the Scientific Literature. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. 
  • “Community food security (CFS) is a concept that represents a subset of food security oriented toward the community level rather than the individual, national, or global levels, and seeks to account for the social, political, and economic context of food insecurity.” This report synthesizes the latest research and grey literature on community food security in the United States. It also identifies gaps where further research is needed.
• Feeding America. Map the Meal Gap: Food Insecurity in the United States Before COVID-19. https://map.feedingamerica.org. 
  • This resource is the result of an annual study, conducted by Feeding America, “to improve our understanding of food insecurity and costs at the local level.” The interactive map allows users to explore the study’s data by state and by county. The latest data available is from 2019.
• Kelly, R., Pirog, R., Carr, K., Guel, A., Henderson, J., Wilcox, K., Wimberg, T., García Polanco, V., Babayode, D., Watson, K., Nelson, E, & Burnstein, S. (2023). An annotated bibliography on structural racism present in the U.S. food system (10th ed.). Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems. https://foodsystems.msu.edu/resources/structural_racism_in_us_food_system
  • “This annotated bibliography provides current research and outreach on structural racism in the U.S. food system for the food system practitioner, researcher, educator, and advocate.”
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (ERS). (2020). Food Environment Atlas. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environment-atlas/.
  • “The objectives of the Atlas are:
    • to assemble statistics on food environment indicators [store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics]  to stimulate research on the determinants of food choices and diet quality, and
    •  to provide a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so.”

Farm to School & Farm to Institution:

• Bobronnikov, E., Boyle, M., Grosz, M., Lipton, I., Nutter, R., Velez, M., & Yadav, L. (2021). Farm to school literature review. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/338161
  • Publications selected for inclusion in the review addressed research questions under one (or more) of three study objectives. 1: Identify and describe the economic contribution of farm to school and procurement processes across various geographies;  2: Assess the impacts of farm to school efforts on food growing, serving, and purchasing on schools, districts or SFAs; and 3: Identify and describe how farm to school programs and activities have impacted changes in policy.
• Fitch, C. & Santo, R. (2015). Instituting Change: An Overview of Institutional Food Procurement and Recommendations for Improvement. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, Center for a Liveable Future. 
  • A report that includes a review of the literature and key information resources regarding institutional food service procurement systems.
• Ritchie, S., & Chen, W. (2011). Farm to School: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. USDA, ARS, National Agricultural Library, Special Reference Briefs Series, no. SRB 2011-02. 
  • “This bibliography attempts to represent selected documentation from a wide range of resources: peer-reviewed literature databases, organizational websites, report citations, conference proceedings, Cooperative Extension Service publications, and more.”
• U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2019). Census Data Explorer. https://farmtoschoolcensus.fns.usda.gov/census-results/census-data-explorer. 
  • Use the Farm to School Census Data Explorer’s interactive tools to “browse through the Farm to School Census data and and see results from States and school food authorities (SFAs) across the country. You can explore a variety of different topics like local food purchasing and participation in different farm to school activities.”

Food Hubs:

• Lerman, T., Feenstra, G., & Visher, D. (2012). An Annotated Bibliography of Publications and Resources on Food Hubs and Values-Based Supply Chains. University of California, Davis. 
  • “Annotated bibliography of academic literature, reports and publications from non-profits and research firms and articles in trade, government, and other publications. Published in April 2012 by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program with support from USDA Rural Development.”

Food Policy:

• Santo, R., Bassarab, K., & Palmer, A. (2017). State of the research: An annotated bibliography on existing, emerging, and needed research on food policy groups (1st edition). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
  • This annotated bibliography includes peer- and non-peer-reviewed sources to “[highlight] existing and emerging research on food policy groups.”

North Carolina Food & Agriculture Systems:

• Center for Environmental Farming Systems. NC Growing Together Resources. https://cefs.ncsu.edu/food-system-initiatives/nc-growing-together/resources/.
  • This website contains resources published by the NC Growing Together project, a 6 year USDA-funded project whose goal was greater food security. The resources are organized by the intended audience: producers; supply chain intermediaries; local/regional food business development; and educators, community, and non-profit groups.
• Duke World Food Policy Center, Center for Environmental Farming Systems. (2021). North Carolina Food System Resilience Strategy. https://cefs.ncsu.edu/resources/north-carolina-food-systems-resiliency-strategy-2021/. 
  • This report foregrounds the COVID-19 pandemic’s “negative effects on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals and communities,” and presents a “summary of how the NC philanthropic community engages with the food system.”
• NC Growing Together. Authenticity and Success in Marketing “Local” in Retail Grocery Settings: Reviews and Recommendations. https://cefs.ncsu.edu/resources/authenticity-and-success-in-marketing-local-review-and-recommendations/. 
  • A summary of research findings and the experiences of local food retailing projects.
• NC Growing Together. (2013). North Carolina Niche Meat Producers: Survey 2013. https://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/ncgt/NCGT-NC-Choices-Niche-Meat-Producers-Survey-Summary-Dec-2013.pdf. 
  • A report summarizing the results of a spring 2013 telephone survey of registered meat handlers in North Carolina.
• NC State Extension. NC State Extension Publications. https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/catalog/category/11/local-foods. 
  • This website contains NC State Extension’s Local Food Publication Series, which includes “numbered publications, factsheets, hard copy documents, authoritative sources, and more.”

Urban Agriculture:

• Golden, S. (2013). Urban Agriculture Impacts: Social, Health, and Economic. University of California, Davis. 
  • A literature review and annotated bibliography on the topic of urban agriculture.
• McClintock, N. & Simpson, M. (2014). A Survey of Urban Agriculture Organizations and Businesses in the US and Canada – Preliminary Results. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University.
  • “This report summarizes the results of an online survey, conducted during February and March 2013, of 251 groups involved with urban agriculture (UA) projects in approximately 84 cities in the US and Canada.”