A Homegrown Economy

Strengthening the economy in southeast Minnesota requires the focus and courage of community leaders’ convictions in recognizing the region’s unique attributes, one of them being food production. Farmers, businesses, citizens, investors and University of Minnesota resources, concentrating on common interests, can develop a strong economy that creates jobs and builds wealth locally.

The Southeast Minnesota Foods Working Group involves nearly a dozen food-related projects, businesses and farms working together on a regional food system. Faculty members from the University of Minnesota have been exploring a long-term collaboration linking an array of University departments and colleges with southeast Minnesota food enterprises.

The Working Foods Group/University discussions are aimed at supporting a regional homegrown food system based on a southeast Minnesota food and farming ventures.

Central to the model are: building an environmentally-sound, sustainable regional-economy by:

• revitalizing rural communities as pillars of a democratic society
• growing and marketing of a wide-range of high quality foods
• creating new food products
• proposing new public policies
• developing new production technologies
• experimenting with new crops and processing techniques
• inspiring local and visiting consumers while respecting the uniqueness of the beautiful – and ecologically fragile – Mississippi River Blufflands landscape with its diverse farms and orchards and agricultural practices, and small towns and villages

Research, student internships and field projects, and case studies are evolving from this initiative. An example is the doctoral thesis research by a Department of Applied Economics student studying regional food supply chain issues. The goal is to quantify the movement of food – from production to point of sale – as a way of establishing a methodology by which small, regional producers utilizing sustainable agricultural practices can assess costs and constraints associated with specific supply chain opportunities.

In concert with a number of University representatives, conversations have taken place on the feasibility of a rural business development lab to cluster resources around targeted entrepreneurial food ventures. The lab could create a full-time point of access to encourage partnerships between the University and rural food businesses.

The Southeast Minnesota Foods Working Group has sponsored region-wide research to survey 400 residents. The purpose is to identify what values drive food purchase decisions and, then, to encourage food enterprises to respond to emerging consumer interests, such as in the case of Rebekah’s Coffee House – pictured above – that specializes in a menu featuring tasty home-cooked meals using local food ingredients for the increasing number of consumers who have grown weary of no-name, fast food.

A project supported by the Experiment in Rural Cooperation (651 345 4336).