Local, Regional, and Community Food Systems

Community food system programs

• Oregon Community Food Systems Network: The Oregon Community Food Systems Network (OCFSN) is a partner of OSU Extension. OCFSN is a collaboration of 57 nonprofit organizations dedicated to strengthening local and regional food systems to deliver better economic, social, health, and environmental outcomes across the state.
• Center for small farms & Community food systems: This OSU College of Agriculture program works towards advancing sustainable agriculture, community food systems, and economic progress for Oregon's farmers and ranchers, as well as providing a leading-edge experience for students.
• Farm to School: Farm to School is supports Oregon's farmers, and kids access to fresh and healthy foods, creates jobs and strengthens local economies, teaching students about fresh foods, increasing access to local healthy foods in schools and preschools, and stewarding the land for future generations.
• OSU Small Farms: The goal of the Small Farms program is to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of small farms by employing appropriate scale production and marketing techniques. The program works toward improving small farm ...

Featured Resources

Photo Credit: Rawpixel.com - Adobe Stock (Cropped from original)

Seeing race, ethnicity, and gender in community food system indicators

The current set of Community Food System (CFS) indicators developed by the Oregon Community Food System Network (OCFSN) obscures the differential access to power and resources experienced by people with varying identities. Bringing a...

Shannon Caplan, Lauren Gwin | Feb 2021 | Article

Photo: Melissa Fery (Cropped from original)

Seasonality Chart: What's in Season in the Region

From fruits to flowers and meat to fiber, this chart will help determine what agriculture products are in season and available directly from farms in the Willamette Valley region.

Mary Stewart, Colton Harms | Aug 2019 | Fact Sheet Peer reviewed (Gray level)

Latest Resources

Challenges and opportunities in bringing a DEI lens to the Community Food System Indicators

Adding information about race and gender to the Community Food System Indicators can bring disparities in food production and access among Oregon residents into sharper focus.

Shannon Caplan, Lauren Gwin | Jan 2021 | Article

OSU Farm to School Cross-Programmatic Efforts

Join Dr. Michelle Markesteyn, OSU Extension Farm to School Coordinator, as she discusses how OSU, the state of Oregon, and other public and private investments have come together to create a farm to school program that is ...

Feb 2023 | Video

Photo Credit: Rawpixel.com - Adobe Stock (Cropped from original)

2017 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Oregon's Farm Producers

Demographic data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture are presented on Oregon's 67,595 producers. Changes to the census lead to more women being represented as farm decision makers, shown as an increase of 31.2% women producers ...

Shannon Caplan, Benjamin Antolin | May 2019 | Article