a Strawman...
Welcome to the Austin Food Ecosystem website.
This site is a strawman proposal on how collaboration amongst the people who care deeply and are active in the Central Texas "good food" movement might be enabled, supported, and nurtured.
It does not purport to have *the* answer. Rather, using the "lean" principles of rapid prototyping, market feedback, and iteration combined with the transparency ideals of the open source movement, hopes to spur discussion, interaction, and sharing.
It is a first draft, the germ of an idea, a possible approach, a forum for the publication of alternative drafts, approaches, and ideas.
This site is a strawman proposal on how collaboration amongst the people who care deeply and are active in the Central Texas "good food" movement might be enabled, supported, and nurtured.
It does not purport to have *the* answer. Rather, using the "lean" principles of rapid prototyping, market feedback, and iteration combined with the transparency ideals of the open source movement, hopes to spur discussion, interaction, and sharing.
It is a first draft, the germ of an idea, a possible approach, a forum for the publication of alternative drafts, approaches, and ideas.
The Problem
Like all regions, a healthy Central Texas food system is integral to the physical and economic well-being of it’s inhabitants.
Unlike a number of regions, Central Texas has no organized effort or organization to apply the combined principles of entrepreneurial ecosystem building and regional food system development to foster collaboration on issues and “white space” facing the community.
There are thousands of players within the overall Central Texas foodshed, hundreds in the “good food” movement, and dozens of advocacy, technical support, and industry groups. Where is the list of who they are, and where, and how they’re related? What initiatives are supporters and cheerleaders working on, and how do they fit into an overall local foodshed ecosystem framework? What goals could a healthy food system community of practice aspire to, and which are appropriate locally? Where is there “white space” and how do we invite established and new participants to fill those gaps?
Kansas City’s Kauffman Foundation calls this work “ecosystem building”. They emphasize that in addition to the “usual suspects” of non-profit staffers, long-time activists, industry group representatives, and government policy makers, ecosystem builders need to recruit, welcome, and support historically under-served or under-represented peoples by building “on-ramps” to the process.
Also, some “Good Food Movement” people sometimes become insular and oppositional to conventional food producers, distributors, preparers, and retailers. We believe an opportunity exists to reach out to the community-minded and sustainability-minded representatives of area Big Food players, acknowledging Big Food’s predominance in actual food system activity and interest in local and sustainable market segments.
Unlike a number of regions, Central Texas has no organized effort or organization to apply the combined principles of entrepreneurial ecosystem building and regional food system development to foster collaboration on issues and “white space” facing the community.
There are thousands of players within the overall Central Texas foodshed, hundreds in the “good food” movement, and dozens of advocacy, technical support, and industry groups. Where is the list of who they are, and where, and how they’re related? What initiatives are supporters and cheerleaders working on, and how do they fit into an overall local foodshed ecosystem framework? What goals could a healthy food system community of practice aspire to, and which are appropriate locally? Where is there “white space” and how do we invite established and new participants to fill those gaps?
Kansas City’s Kauffman Foundation calls this work “ecosystem building”. They emphasize that in addition to the “usual suspects” of non-profit staffers, long-time activists, industry group representatives, and government policy makers, ecosystem builders need to recruit, welcome, and support historically under-served or under-represented peoples by building “on-ramps” to the process.
Also, some “Good Food Movement” people sometimes become insular and oppositional to conventional food producers, distributors, preparers, and retailers. We believe an opportunity exists to reach out to the community-minded and sustainability-minded representatives of area Big Food players, acknowledging Big Food’s predominance in actual food system activity and interest in local and sustainable market segments.
A Plan
Triangulate
Research & Publish
Convene Foodshed Leaders
Gain Consensus
Publish Website
Plan Next Steps
- a macro “vision” with existing grassroots “initiatives” with consensus “white spaces"
Research & Publish
- Features & best practices by community ecosystem builders nationwide
Convene Foodshed Leaders
- Convene “have & willing to share”, “need”, “key issues”, & “vision” kickoff
- Leverage and connect existing organizations & working groups, build new ones as necessary
- Publicize & support existing Peer Networks, and launch new ones as necessary
- Reach out to under-represented peoples, build on-ramps, engage stakeholders
- Hold State of the Food System Conference
Gain Consensus
- Central Texas Foodshed Vision, Goals, White-Spaces
- Role & focus of public policy, non-profit advocacy, for-profit entrepreneurialism
Publish Website
- Ecosystem Framework
- Orgs, Contacts, & Working Groups
- Physical & social network mapping
- Initiatives of the Orgs & Working Groups, mapped to Framework
- Consolidated events calendar
Plan Next Steps
- Ongoing collaboration
- Ongoing outreach
- Methods to welcome players to address white-spaces
WHO BENEFITS?
The target end beneficiary is ultimately Central Texas consumers by improving the local food system to more robustly deliver healthy, affordable, accessible, & tasty food. To do that, we must create an environment that allows & incents supply chain participants, from producers to preparers, to create both financial profit and positive impact. For that, food system enablers and supporters need to know who each other is and be able to collaborate.
Hoped For Outputs
- Local food system leaders know each other and what each other is working on
- New participants have on-ramps to engagement
- Consensus foodshed goals are published; ecosystem players can map their initiatives into those goals
- Entrepreneurs, non-profits, & government invited to address top priority “white spaces”
Target Outcomes
This section really needs some work. Luckily, a group has come together to collaborate on a set of consensus outcomes. Some possibilities...
- Increase in local food consumption from 1% to x%
- XX new regenerative farm/ ranch operations started
- $XX increase in sales from all local sustainable ag operations
- XX new “white-space” businesses started
- $XX local sustainable food & ag business funded
- XX new initiatives started
- XX new collaborations on existing initiatives
- XX policies passed at XX level
- e
- t
- c
WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?
This work has been spearheaded by Foodshed Investors so far, with input and support from Edwin Marty from the City of Austin's Sustainability Department, Sue Beckwith at the Texas Center for Local Food, Joy Casnovsky at the Sustainable Food Center, Robin Metcalfe at Food+City, and Clare Zutz at UT.