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RATIONALE
Evidence is mounting worldwide that a powerful path to prosperity for communities across the globe may be local ownership of enterprises that meet food needs. Various meta trends, such as rising oil prices and new models of small-scale organization, are changing the economics of food. These changes are fostering a new generation of community-based enterprises as farmers and other local entrepreneurs begin to take greater ownership roles.

Research into how community food enterprises operate and what they may accomplish is needed to both understand and expand this sector. Community Food Enterprise is a project to undertake that research and share knowledge gained with community leaders and practitioners around the world.

ACTIVITIES
The initiative is led by John Fisk, Director of the Wallace Center, and Michael Shuman, author and Vice President for Enterprise Development at the Training & Development Corporation. Anthony Garrett of Anthony Garrett & Associates will provide strategic communications expertise for the initiative and launch.

Community Food Enterprise will:

• Produce a practitioner’s guide consisting of case studies from the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Each case study will paint a full picture of a distinct local food enterprise – its origins, operations, successes and failures, tradeoffs, economic and social outcomes, and aspects in need of further development.
• Conduct an outreach and communications campaign that engages opinion leaders, community groups, planners and entrepreneurs worldwide and builds a global brain trust for advancing the design and application of community food enterprise models.
• Build a dynamic, online resource to inform and link practitioners worldwide, including an open-source system for collecting and sharing examples of community food enterprises.
• Formally showcase research and case studies at a Fall 2008 DC-area publication launch event.

CASE STUDY CRITERIA
Click here to download case study and research criteria as a PDF

COUNTRY: United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe.

CONTACT
If you would like to learn more about Community Food Enterprise, contact Matt Kurlanski, Research Associate, Wallace Center, at mkurlanski@winrock.org.

“***Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting potential case study suggestions. Many thanks for all of the submissions,and for the important work being done. Check back on this site for details about inclusion in our forthcominglocal food enterprise database.”

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