Local Food and Economic Development Research

CDFA Defining the Food System Asset Class - Learn about traditional financing approaches for local food systems

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index - search by city to learn how much of their income families spend on housing and transportation combined

Opportunity Zones - Promising or Problematic?  (2018 by Capital Area Council of Governments)

Do Farm-to-School Programs Create Local Economic Impacts?  Choices magazine (Agricultural & Applied Economics), Jan, 2017

Growing Economies: Connecting Local Farmers and Large-scale Food Buyers to Create Jobs and Revitalzie America's Heartland - Insitutional buyers, mid-size farms help rural economies (2016 Union of Concerned Scientists)

Key Studies: Why Local Matters - good summaries of a number of articles;  good place to start!

Economic Benefits of Local Food North Dakota State University

Civic Economics - Many empirical studies of the benefits of supporting local retail stores

BALLE is a network of local business with lots of good resources at this link.

Good infographic from Local First West Michigan

Duncan, Arizona: Local Food as Economic Development - editorial, City mouse vs. country mouse (The Copper Era, Nov, 2016)

Did the Local Food Movement Trickle Down to Local Farmers? (August, 2016 Dawn Thilmany, Union of Concerned Scientists)

Differential expenditure patterns of local food system participants - research on expenditure patterns of farms that sell through local markets (defined as direct to consumer and intermediated markets by USDA’s Economic Research Service).  (2015, Jablonski and Schmit)

Why Local Food Matters:  The rising importance of locally-grown food in the U.S. food system, A National Persepctive (PDF; March, 2014 USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Debra Tropp)

Lane County, Oregon Local Food Market Analysis and their study (PDF) Growing the Economy by Growing Food

The Crossroads Center many excellent food system assessments are examples of what's possible in Texas!