The 8th Annual Iowa Local Food System Conference was held in Ames Saturday to discuss how diversity helps put locally grown food on the dinner tables of Iowans across the state.

Community agriculture and community-supported agriculture are growing trends in Iowa, say local experts.

Jan Libbey, information coordinator for the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture, said community agriculture centers around directly marketing food products.

“It squeezes eaters and producers closer together and creates a clearer sense of how consumers’ food is grown and produced. It gives consumers a closer connection to their markets,” she said.

Libbey said community agriculture has a wide range of benefits.

“There is an economic benefit because community agriculture keeps more food dollars in local communities,” she said. “There are environmental benefits because usually farmers using these approaches use organic or low-chemical applications.”

Community agriculture provides social benefits as well, Libbey said.

“It builds more social capital in our communities by building relationships,” she said. “It’s also important for building rural-urban relationships and it helps people get reconnected to the land.”

Karie Wiltshire, INCA Board member and graduate student in sustainable agriculture, said community-supported agriculture is a division of community agriculture.

“Community-supported agriculture means developing relationships between a grower with consumers,” she said. “The consumer invests in the grower’s farm by paying the farmer a flat rate at the beginning of the season. The consumer, or eater, gets to know that farmer and they come to an agreement about what they’re going to be getting and how much they’re going to get of it.”

Libbey said consumers become shareholders and members of the farm they buy from.

Wiltshire said the consumer meets with the farmer weekly to receive their crops.

“It creates closer connections between producers and consumers,” she said.

Participating in community-sustained agriculture is not for everyone, Wiltshire said.

“For those who have the time to cook and have the desire and willingness to use new vegetables, it works,” she said.

Wiltshire said consumers who take part in community sustained agriculture know they are buying their directly consumable produce off of Iowa land.

“Our food travels at least 2,000 miles to get to us when you get it through a regular grocery store,” she said. “By participating in community-sustained agriculture, you know you’re supporting the local farmers and you’re eating local food.”

Libbey said purchasing goods from farmers’ markets and institutional buying opportunities, such as serving locally grown vegetables in university cafeterias, are other methods of participating in community-supported agriculture.

Libbey said this form of agriculture is a growing trend fueled by increasing health concerns.

“People want quality and safety and want to know more about their food source,” she said. “The more we explore the capacity for this new type of agriculture, the more seriously we will understand and take the economic potential that it offers us.”

Libbey said these new methods will add to Iowa’s agriculture, not revolutionize it.

“I don’t mean to suggest that community based agriculture is going to drastically change the nature of agriculture in Iowa, but it does offer people new opportunities.”