County Food System Assessment and Postharvest Food Infrastructure Asset Mapping in New Mexico

Increased interest in local and regional food markets has driven the expansion of the emerging discipline of food systems research; however, until recently, food systems have received little attention within the academic community. The overall goal of this project was to propose assessment criteria that can be used to evaluate the potential functionality of food systems at the county level, with possible scalability to regional or state levels.  To achieve this goal, we qualitatively described and quantified selected local food system components in New Mexico. Through this work, we propose that local food systems are comprised of four essential components, without one, the system may be incomplete and unstable.  These components include: 1) advocacy groups; 2) agricultural and horticultural production; 3) consumer demand and markets; and 4) infrastructure. This project quantified the postharvest horticultural infrastructure (PHFI), distribution routes, and advocacy organizations within three county food sheds in New Mexico. To visualize these selected components, an asset mapping effort was designed to aid with the assessment of New Mexico’s PHFI. Counties for this study were originally selected based upon recent local food activity level, but a more in-depth assessment was required. PHFI was defined as shared-use or publicly available cold storage facilities; food processing facilities; and other agricultural facilities for grading, storing, and packaging of horticultural products (primarily fresh produce). We categorized and quantified food related community groups, food policy councils, other support organizations, and distribution and transportation channels for horticultural commodities. To aid in post infrastructure identification and classification, the following methods were employed: i) communication with New Mexico State University (NMSU) extension agents and specialists, industry professionals, and other key informants via a system of feedback loop interviews; ii) the use of Internet based searches and directories; iii) ground truthing and verification of data elements identified; and iv) entry of geospatial data into a geodatabase, processing these data, and mapping key elements of the PHFI. Utilizing the four critical food system components, we developed a comprehensive post harvest asset map; a scalable county-level protocol to define and assess the local food system in New Mexico, with potential applicability across the United States; and a novel criterion tool to assess food system functionality. To the best of our knowledge, this assessment is the first of its nature on the topic, and the authors believe that it will have considerable utility to others interested in food systems research.