United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Systems research team from the Colorado State University (CSU) developed the Local Food Systems Toolkit to help stakeholders explore the impact of local food efforts and to evaluate the economic impact of local food systems. The project was based on principles of inclusiveness, realistic action, empowerment, flexibility and increasing partner understanding of data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Given the real-world projects, experiences, and applied research of the Colorado State University (CSU) -led team, the Toolkit is grounded in practices that are credible and useable within the economic development discussions for guiding communities. The goal of this Toolkit is to guide and enhance the capacity of local organizations to make more deliberate and credible measurements of local and regional economic activity and other ancillary benefits.

It opens the door to having conversations with officials and funders who might normally dismiss localised food systems as relatively unimportant. Even small organisations can use elements of the Local Food Systems Toolkit.

Find here the publication of the Toolkit ´´The Economics of Local Food Systems´´.

Find here more information about the initiatives and resources that the Toolkit offer.