Local Food Prospectus

The Local Food Prospectus explores how feasible it is for Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin to scale up produce production for wholesale markets and compete with other produce regions such as California and Mexico. The purpose of analyzing these issues is to explore the feasibility of capitalizing on the local and regional food trend to build up the produce industry. Wholesale production is the focus of this report because that is where the greatest amount of economic opportunity is.

The Prospectus is composed of the following sections:

• Project Background & Context: Background information on the project including the purpose of the report, the project process, and an overview of the project study area.
• Market Feasibility Analysis: Exploring the supply, demand, pricing, cost, and comparative advantage of fruit and vegetable production in the study area.
• Conclusions & Recommendations: This section discusses both challenges and opportunities covered in previous sections and develops recommendations that focus on areas stakeholders could work on to minimize challenges and leverage existing resources.
• Grower Guide: Exploring the amount of crops needed to support a processing facility, the amount of investment needed to achieve that supply, and production practices for select crops.