Local Foods Summit unites food leaders in southwest Iowa

“I'm passionate about local foods and want to make connections with other people who produce and sell locally. I have aspirations to be an entrepreneur and do things around local foods, so it's good to make connections and talk with all the people and groups here.”

“In Iowa, we have all this valuable soil, and we're bringing in all this food from other places. Why are we not able to do this ourselves? You know, produce healthy food that supports our own members of our community.”

“I read a statistic that in Iowa, specifically, we import 90% of our food for humans. And that's a little bit crazy because we have so much farmland. I have space and I like to grow food, so I am excited about providing a little bit of food for my neighbors and changing that percentage.”

“I have nine apple trees and I have planted a few cherry trees. I'm trying to make a diverse orchard. Last year I started hundreds of pawpaws. I sell the fruit at farmer's markets and dry and sell apple chips. I also give a lot of fruit away.”

“I'm a small town advocate and full-time artist. There's a lot of similarities between being an artist and growing food, believe it or not. I'm primarily a painter of public art, murals, smaller oil paintings, commissions, that sort of thing.” 

“Local foods are important to me because of quality; you know what you're getting. I've learned the term food desert, and we just don't have much of a selection for living in the Heartland and being able to have fresh lettuce or something that hasn't already been on the shelf or in the distribution. I grew up eating fresh fruit. I remember when a peach was juicy, and you go to a store now and you bite into a peach that has the texture of an apple. So, definitely there's a difference in taste.”

“When we first started farming it was to save on our grocery bills. I thought I could build a job for myself that I really wanted to do and do it the way I wanted—to grow organically and have clean, healthy food while helping the family business. We were worried about groceries and constantly fighting those bills and then through that process, it really opened my eyes to the school issues and the other food insecurity issues. Local food access is something I'm very passionate about and the fact that we can gather people and share ideas is a big gap that it is missing. This kind of community and sharing and people helping each other is needed and I love helping try to grow it.”

“I was really excited to be able to spend the day with people who are excited about real food.”

“Food is nourishing our bodies, but you also have to have things that are nourishing your soul. When I think about the food that I'm eating, I'm thinking about who grew it, who picked it, who washed it, who sent it to me, and how I got it; that's the nourishing part. When I'm eating a beautiful heirloom tomato that one of my fellow farmers grew, I'm thinking, ‘This is so good because Ali grew it, and it's part of her connection to the soil.’ That is real community.”