Iowa Corridor Food & Agriculture Coalition

As the Food System Planner with Iowa Valley RC&D in Amana, I corridinate the Iowa Corridor Food and Agriculture Coalition. The Coalition is local and county governments, health authorities, schools, producers, non-profit organizations, food processors and developers who are working to build a sustainable food and agriculture system in the Iowa Corridor Region that includes Benton, Iowa, Johnson, Linn, Tama, Poweshiek, Washington, Cedar and Jones counties.

Local food system planning was my focus during my undergraduate education at Iowa State. In 2008 I received an ISU Dept of Landscape Arch. Barbara King Scholarship and a University Honors Project Grant to fund my senior thesis Food Urbanism that I termed based on my interests in urban planning and urban food systems. My research, how food relates to the organization of a city and how it becomes infrastructure that transforms the urban experience, included research on urban agriculture in London and interviews with officials and local producers in Ames and the surrounding counties. My research awarded me with a 2009 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) President’s Award for academic excellence, and an ASLA Certificate of Honor.

Today in addition to my food system planning work with the Coalition I read, write and give many presentations about the potential and importance of urban agriculture.  My wife and I live in the Iowa City area where we are heavily involved in many other organizations and I work heavily with my family's small farm south of Williamsburg.