Recent and projected population growth in the Treasure Valley has increased concerns of losing farmland due to development, particularly in Canyon County. In 2015, the City of Caldwell adopted a Branding, Development, and Marketing Action Plan to make Caldwell a more desirable place to live and visit as well as to lay claim to its legacy of local food growers and wineries, which supply retailers in Nampa and Boise. The new farm-to-fork and farm-to-cork programs are part of a larger plan to encourage local restaurants to serve local food. However, there is no conclusive data on how much farmland is devoted to growing edible food crops—as opposed to commodity crops like sugar beets—in Canyon County. I will map the location of local food farms and restaurants in Caldwell, Nampa, and Boise to show where local food is grown in an ArcGIS Story Map application. I will also interview Caldwell leaders, local restaurant owners, and local food farm owners to identify the challenges they face in the local food movement. I will review existing literature on the farm-to-fork programs in other communities to predict whether efforts to “rebrand” Caldwell will threaten or preserve local farmland.

Implications of Caldwell’s Farm-to-Fork programs for Local Farmland Preservation