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Throughout Virginia there are a multitude of social, environmental, and economic challenges facing farmers and communities. In 2010 and 2011, an interdisciplinary team of faculty, practitioners, and graduate students collaborated to address these challenges through the creation of the Virginia Farm to Table Plan. As part of the plan, the team completed a comprehensive food system assessment. Comprehensive food system assessments use qualitative and quantitative methodologies to analyze the systematic nature of a local, state, or regional food system to address the interactions of food with social, environmental, and economic concerns. The overall purpose of this article is to present the results of an online survey of Virginia agrifood system stakeholders that investigated their priorities for strengthening Virginia's local and regional food systems. A total of 1,134 Virginia respondents completed the online survey. Respondents were asked to rank 34 items in four major categories in terms of their level of importance for strengthening Virginia's food systems. Respondents rated increasing the "understanding by government officials of the economic, environmental, and social issues surrounding local food systems" as the most important priority among all of the items listed. The category with the most highly rated items was "food system planning, management, and policy." This survey provided key information for developing the Virginia Farm to Table Plan. Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Integrated Internal Competitive Grants Program Published version Funding for this research was provided through the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Integrated Internal Competitive Grants Program. The authors of this paper are grateful for the support of the Virginia Farm to Table project partners, the Virginia Food System Council and its affiliate organizations, and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Community Viability Program. The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty who supported the development of the Virginia Farm to Table Plan, including Susan Clark, Joe Eifert, Jonah Fogel, Steven Hodges, Francie Kennedy, Kenner Love, Theresa Nartea, Jactone Ogejo, Elena Serrano, Amber Vallotton, and Pete Ziegler. The authors are grateful for the support of Dr. Mido Chang, Virginia Tech Associate Professor in the Educational Research and Evaluation Program. Additionally, the authors are grateful to the reviewers of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development for their suggestions and comments, which greatly improved the quality of this manuscript. |
