Back in 2011, we heard from farmers in the Driftless about the many challenges you face in accessing the Chicago market. Your concerns initiated a multi-year effort at the UW-CIAS to figure out why and support transformative change.

The work to diagnose our food system is documented in a new journal article entitled Identifying Critical Thresholds for Resilient Regional Food Flows: A Case Study From the U.S. Upper Midwest. This article is part of a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Achieving Food System Resilience & Equity in the Era of Global Environmental Change.

The number of Driftless residents involved in this project over its three phases and many years is too long to list here — hundreds attended one or more public meetings, shared your thinking and experiences one-on-one, and served as speakers, project advisors or reviewers, and most importantly are building our new food system every day. This one is for you!