This report presents the consensus views of diverse stakeholders, dispels common myths about the local food movement and provides a bird’s eye view of projects underway across the nation to aid local sourcing.

The report’s six key recommendations call on stakeholders to embrace diverse agricultural systems to achieve sustainability, productivity, and profitability goals; urge flexibility in the federal definition of local food systems to allow continued innovation at the local and state levels; encourage the U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the philanthropic sector to further develop and refine tools and information resources that empower local connectivity, coordination, and investment; suggest USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adapt programs and regulations to serve local food systems; advocate for more research to understand demand for local food and to inform investment by quantifying the economic, environmental, and social benefits; and call for greater engagement of experts in economic development, transportation, health care and other fields at both the local and federal levels to develop local food systems.