Increasing Local Production of Table Food in Iowa to Improve Agricultural Sustainability: A Food-Energy-Water Systems (FEWS) Project Case Study

Abstract

In 2021, harvested crop areas accounted for over 24 million acres of land in Iowa. More than 94% of this area was dedicated to production of just two commodity crops: corn and soybeans (USDA-NASS 2022). In spite of Iowa’s productive landscape, the state is a net table food (for direct human consumption) importer, with approximately 95% of table food grown elsewhere (Stone, Thompson, and Rosentrater 2021). As the human population of Iowa becomes more concentrated in urban areas, the opportunities to expand local table food production to meet nutritional, environmental, and social sustainability targets in these places increase. The ongoing Iowa UrbanFEWS project (Thompson et al. 2021) focuses on identifying opportunities to increase table food production in the six-county Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area (DMMSA) in Iowa.