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Washington State University

SW Washington Food Hub Planning and Implementation Project

The following page was developed with funding from a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Local Food Promotion Program Planning Grant. The webpage is updated periodically to provide public access to project findings and resources. 

Regional Food System Resilience

Local and regionalized food systems have long been looked to for their potential to generate ecological, economic, and social benefits. Given global economic disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, decentralized food systems are of increasing interest to improve resilience and food security. Build Back Better programs developed by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in 2021 identify the need and opportunity for food system regionalization, acknowledging that efficiencies associated with the conventional global food system have come at the price of resiliency in the event of major disruptions. 

Washington Food Hub Network

 

The SW Washington Food Hub

The storyline of the establishment and growth of the SW Washington Food Hub: SW Washington Food Hub Adventure

At the forefront of efforts to improve food system resiliency are value-based supply chains, mid-scale aggregation and distribution systems, community food processing facilities, and other efforts that are regionalizing production, processing, and distribution infrastructure. In the southwest region of Washington State, producers and agriculture business-support partners have documented the need for localized food system infrastructure, and from 2020 through June 2021 utilized a USDA Local Food Promotion Program Planning Grant to identify both challenges and strategies to expand an emerging farmer-owned food hub cooperative.

Project Results and Resources

In the News