Today, USDA supports and invests in local and regional food projects from coast to coast, in every state — but that wasn’t always the case. We launched the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative in 2009 to break down bureaucratic silos and take stock of existing USDA programs across the Department that could support the growing demand for local and regional food systems.
Since then, the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF2) website has become a one-stop shop for resources and information about USDA programs and a place where interested producers can find support for local and regional food systems.
Today, we are pleased to announce an update of the KYF2 website. The site lists the resources available from USDA and our federal partners in support of local and regional food economies, showcases communities that are putting these resources to work and allows you to find out what’s happening near you.
In addition to featuring information about relevant grants, loans, research and other tools, the site includes the KYF2 Compass, which maps over 4,200 federal investments in local and regional food made by USDA and other Federal Agencies since 2009. In the spirit of open government and transparency, all of the data on the map are downloadable, searchable and updated annually. The Compass allows users to search for federally-supported local food projects in their community and learn what others are doing across the country through keyword or geographic searches.
Between 2009 and 2015, from the smallest on-farm projects like high tunnels, to large-scale investments like food hubs, USDA has invested over $1 billion in more than 40,000 local and regional food businesses and infrastructure projects. Today, more than 160,000 farmers and ranchers nationwide are selling into local markets, from farmers markets and CSAs to local restaurants, grocery stores and institutions, generating huge returns for local communities. Total retail and food services sales in the United States reached an all-time high in 2011 and have continued to set records each year since. In fact, industry estimates show U.S. local food sales totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008, and experts anticipate that value to hit $20 billion by 2019. The numbers also show that these opportunities are helping to drive job growth in agriculture, increase entrepreneurship in rural communities and expand food access and choice.
Header photo: Virtual Panorama of Reiter Berry Farms, in Watsonville, CA.
