Local Foods Research
This page is a clearinghouse for research on the WWC food system. Click on the titles to view or download. Email us if you have work you'd like to submit.
This study examined student demand for local and organic foods, constructing and implementing a carefully randomized sampling methodology for data collection. Student demand is calculated for 3 scenarios with varying amounts of organic, local, convetional, and "natural" foods. .
This report builds upon Hatz et al., incorporating the price and availability data (supply) to identify the "efficient" level of local and/or globally-sourced organic foods that come with a meal plan. Then it examines global, local, and internal options for achieving this target. It also examines inefficient allocation of farmland relative to the contribution each makes to the campus diet and distribution inequalities between dining options in both quantity and quality. Finally, the report examines investment and subsidy options, advocating a "specialized self-sufficiency" in which the Farm would specialize in products that it can sustainably supply in quantities at or slightly above those actually used by dining services.