This abbreviated issue focuses on the on our new Data Dashboard for our report: A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience which is now live! These Dashboards replicate graphics from the original report with the added benefit of dynamic features possible with Tableau. Wherever possible the 2022 US Census of Agriculture data has been added since this data was not available last year when we released the main research reports. An important feature of the dashboard is that you can toggle between regional, state and county-level views across the six New England states under key topics like Common Challenges, Resilient Eating, Food Production, Economic Impact and Market Channels. These compelling visualizations offer a sophisticated and thought-provoking analysis of the very challenging food system issues facing New England at the country at-large.

We encourage you to think about how the NEFNE research and this new tool might inform or support your daily work - check out a sampling below of this exciting resource.

Leah

Director, New England Food System Planners Partnership

Within New England, the northern states have most of the farmland, while the southern states have most of the consumers. Maine and Vermont hold about 66% of land in agriculture in New England (note that nearly half of land in agriculture in New England is woodland). In fact, the county with the most acreage of farmland in New England—Aroostook County, Maine—is the farthest away from the population centers of the region. This graphic is a snapshot of agriculture in New England. You can see that farmland substantially decreased over the past 80 years, but acreage has been relatively steady over the past 20 years.

Our estimate of the amount of additional farmland necessary to reach 30% consumption of regional production by 2030, 588,430 acres, is actually a small percentage of the amount of farmland that has been lost since 1945.

This visual shows what product categories account for our regional agricultural sales. A few major product categories – dairy products in Vermont, nursery/greenhouse products in Connecticut, and vegetables in Maine – account for the majority of regional agricultural sales.

Our food systems are unjust, built from violence, stolen land, underpaid work, discrimination, and unequal access to healthy food. We can measure inequality in a variety of ways. For example, wages/salaries are the most common source of income for the majority of Americans. Some of the most compelling visualizations in our Dashboard are for median hourly wages. Unfortunately, across the United States - including New England - food system workers, particularly retail food workers, receive some of the lowest wages of any occupational category. Low wages disproportionately impact women, Black, and Hispanic/Latino Americans. While the graphic below shows Connecticut as an example, the state is not alone - in the dashboard you can see median hourly wages across all six states -revealing just how poorly paid most service sector food system jobs are throughout the region.

The vast majority of food sales in New England take place at supermarkets/grocery stores and restaurants (including fast food): 83.7% ($71.5 billion). Below is a regional snapshot of food sales in New England - the $85.5 billion ($5,772 per person) that the 2017 Economic Census estimates New Englanders spent at retail food stores and food and beverage serving businesses. By clicking on the state specific buttons in the top right corner, you can continue to navigate and see breakdowns by state - an example from Maine follows the first image below.

It will be key to get more local and regional food into these market channels if we are to reach our 30% by 2030 goal as we know these are the places that the majority of New Englanders are buying their food.

The New England Food System Planners Partnership (NEFSPP) is a collaboration amongst seven state-level food system organizations, six-state agricultural, economic and environmental department representatives and Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a regional network that unites the food system community. Together, we are mobilizing our networks to impact local and regional food supply chains, in turn, strengthening and growing New England's food system. The Partnership works together to disseminate information on trends, challenges and opportunities in alignment with FSNE's New England Food Vision, and with hundreds of groups and organizations involved in food systems development across the region.