Who's Connected? Sustainable Producers in the North Central Florida Food System

Not commodity specific

A food system is ultimately a connected network of people and organizations. In order to understand how the system or network impacts sustainable agriculture and

how producers use the system to support sustainable agriculture, we must understand what resources and needs they still seek in order to better develop their farming practices and markets for their products. It is also important to understand how well-connected producers are to the network to access such resources. Needs assessment for a group is often accomplished with focus groups, as the discussion among  participants often reveals deeper insights and more information than one-on-one interviews. Focus groups will also identify barriers to adoption of

existing practices related to sustainable agriculture and will be used to identify the central nodes in the network for social network analysis. Therefore, we will conduct focus groups with a subset of North Central Florida food system producers, then use social network analysis of the entire system to determine which producers are most well-connected to the network and which producers or groups may need to be brought in more closely. Results from these two types of data collection will direct outreach materials and event production. Outreach materials and events will target groups and individuals who are not well-connected to the local food system network to introduce them to the resources of this network. Through our outreach, we will highlight existing resources to support sustainable agriculture which may not yet be

visible to the producers, retailers, distributors, or other members of the food system.