Quantifying the Economic Opportunity of Local Food Production in Cook County

The Northwoods Food Project is a nonprofit organization that started seven years ago with the goal to increase food sustainability in Cook County. The county’s economy is mostly sustained by tourism since other agricultural activities have been reduced. Cook County’s agriculture is limited by seasons, soils, and 10% private land ownership. A graduate assistant is needed to develop the best methods to collect data regarding the annual dollars spent on food in the market segments by Cook County entities, market segment estimation from vendors and delineate market segments for future growth for county vendors. The final product will be a research paper containing data that quantifies the annual Cook County food market and outlines the economic viability of local agriculture fulfilling specific food market sectors. This will be used to underwrite future grants to train local agriculture entrepreneurs in their business plans to expand and realign their current market and operations to fulfill local food needs and expand the economy.Prepared in partnership with the Northwoods Food Project by the Community Assistantship Program (CAP), which is administered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota