(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Food System Coalition wants to make locally-produced food the norm, not the exception, and is releasing a 250-page plan to get there in the next decade. One priority in the plan is to make it easier to get food from the farm to the table. That means supporting more local and regional infrastructure, like small-scale processing for specialty crops, grains, dairy and livestock. Coalition executive director Chris Schwartz says more than 40 partners across Iowa helped shape the plan.

“Which details all the things that we think we need to do in the state of Iowa to have a food system that is more local, that is more nutritious, that is more environmentally sustainable, and is more just for people doing the work.” Strategies include improving farmers’ access to land and expanding incentives to adopt practices that protect Iowa’s soil, water and air. Giselle Bruskewitz is the senior program director at Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development.

“We’re talking about small grain processing, rural grocery stores getting the infrastructure that they need,” Bruskewitz says, “vegetables that can be processed at scale so that schools and other institutions can buy them.” She says the coalition also wants to invest in more refrigerated trucks and food hubs, which aggregate and distribute local products.

Iowa’s network of food hubs serves nearly 70% of the state’s counties.