This website suggests how basic concepts in marketing and finance can be combined with new management services to encourage much needed consumer support for sustainable food systems. We are beginning to apply these ideas in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area through our work on supply contracts with food retailers and a local farm organization.

The motivation for our work is tied to two small farms that we own in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area, and to my father’s work as the farm manager for Father Flanagan at Boys Town, where I was raised. Some readers may remember my father, Bob Steffen, as one of the early leaders in sustainable agriculture in the Midwest. He was a founding member of the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, one of the early board members of the Center for Rural Affairs and a contributor to publications and journals on organic and Bio Dynamic agriculture.

After Dad’s retirement from Boys Town in 1978, my parents moved to our Bennington farm where Dad grew certified Bio Dynamic grain for specialty markets, and fresh vegetables for white tablecloth restaurants in Omaha. This 80-acre farm is being converted to permanent pasture for intensive meat and poultry production. Tree, vine and cane fruit may be added in the future. Our 320 acre farm near Massena, Iowa is also fenced for intensive grazing.

Please contact me, Jim Steffen, at jimsteffen@localfoods.org or 402-317-2639 for additional information and a summary of my qualifications. Thank you.

End 08-31-10