Following is a draft of the outcome of our most recent meeting, at which we discussed assessment of the goals established by the Ohio Food Policy Advisory Council.  Some will be easier to assess than others.  Before we send this to the other task forces to see if it captures their intent in setting the goals, please look it over carefully and edit, comment, suggest alternatives, etc. by commenting on this post (you'll need to login to comment).  Please reply by next friday, June 5.  Thanks!  Casey

Proposed Food Systems Assessment Task Force research to measure progress towards goals set by the Ohio Food Policy Advisory Council:

Agricultural Viability Task Force

1. Retain and expand local food processing capacity in the state of Ohio by 15% by 2015.
Assessment:  Stan Ernst, Ohio State University, will be conducting a survey of Ohio food processors during 2009.  The survey will include questions on volume, licensing, raw material inputs and sources, excess capacity, and information on supply chains and their constraints.  This survey will provide a current baseline and the Food Systems Assessment Task Force will begin planning for a follow-up study in 2015 to document changes.

2. Expand poultry processing and flash freezing capacity to new and underserved producers by a minimum of one unit each on line by 2010.
Assessment:  A simple count of processing units.

3. Develop a minimum of one food business incubator within a region that has the capacity potential.
Assessment:  A simple count of incubators.

Healthy Food Access Task Force

1. Identify rural and urban food deserts in Ohio by December 31, 2009 and decrease these
areas by 10% by providing access to healthy local foods by 2015.
Assessment:  This goal is difficult to assess for several reasons:  1.) the term food deserts is ambiguous, particularly in terms of how accessibility, affordability, and nutritional quality of available food are included; 2.) the terms healthy and local are ambiguous, as is their relative importance in a combined target; 3.) rural and urban food deserts are fairly different in terms of transportation modes and availability of land for food production outside of the market; 4.) data for retail food outlets are readily available but cost and nutritional quality data are not.   Given these constraints, we propose the following:
1.) A study of rural food deserts is currently being conducted in terms of distance to retail locations, both in season including farmers markets and out of season.  This study will set a baseline for areas with the least access throughout Ohio and can be repeated annually or in 2015 to examine change in areas within a given distance to a retail outlet. 
2.) Efforts are underway via a number of organizations to increase access and affordability of food in the major urban areas of Ohio.  The Council will seek collaboration with these groups to measure the changes in access in their cities, using a common framework if possible.
3.) Changes in rural access in terms of distance, affordability and quality will require case studies in collaboration with local councils or coalitions.  The task force may be able to provide a set of protocols for these case studies to monitor access in greater detail in specific areas where the collaboration exists between 2009 and 2015.

2. Increase the number of schools using the national farm to school program by a minimum of 50 schools by 2015.
Assessment:  The Assessment Task Force will collaborate with ODE and USDA to maintain data on Ohio schools in the program.

Market Connections Task Force

1. Expand the distribution system assessment to include analysis and recommendations for the location of regional distribution centers across the state.
Assessment:  Jill Clark and Shoshanna Inwood, Ohio State University, have received an ODA grant to conduct a study of 1,100 food distributors in Ohio, conduct the analysis and make recommendations for new centers as well as new approaches to distribution that will improve market access for Ohio producers.

2. Identify and build regional food networks across the state
Assessment:  This goal requires a definition of regional food networks.  Such networks should be identifiable by an internet presence.  If this definition is used, then networks that coincide with the Ohio Department of Development regions could provide the geographic focus, and internet use and connectivity may be a useful representation of overall network growth.  Data may be available through website statistics at no or very low cost.  Methodology is being developed and growth of such networks within Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan will be monitored from 2009-2013 through a USDA Regional Partnerships for Innovation grant to Casey Hoy, Ohio State University.  Therefore, the USDA study will be used to develop a means of monitoring the establishment and growth of food networks in Ohio.

3. Increase the amount of local food in the distribution system by 10% by 2013
Assessment:  Current studies on both distribution centers and processing facilities (described above) will provide a baseline for these two components of the distribution system and these studies could be repeated in 2013 to measure progress.