Food transportation
CIAS conducts many gatherings for farmers and their strategic business partners to understand food system concerns. A primary challenge is food transportation, distribution, and supply chains, especially for new products like organic and grass fed, perishable products that require refrigeration, and for new products to reach wholesale markets.
To understand how the food system could be better organized to serve innovative farmers who are ready for wholesale markets, we initiated a set of participatory action research projects. Below is a list of those research projects on how food moves to market, from current to older projects, linked to more information and findings.
Projects and Collaborations
US Food Flows
Research to better understand national food that is directly consumed by U.S. residents, with a focus on “diet essential”, high-value, cold-chain dependent foods.
About the U.S.Food Flows research
Regional Food Freight: Chicago
Research presenting three innovations with proofs of concept that could be applied widely in the region and beyond to improve food distribution.
Fresh Food Distribution
Research to explore rural and urban challenges in business-to-business relationships between distributors and groceries that impact food access.
Filling the Truck
Increasing local produce availability for consumers, strengthening supply chains of local food to urban markets, and increasing returns to farmers and buyers with more cost-effective movement of product.
Agriculture, Transportation, and Climate Change
Estimating the future demands on agricultural freight transport in the Upper Midwest U.S. due to climate change using remote sensing and regional climate models.
Center for Freight & Infrastructure, Research & Education (CFIRE)
A collaboration to build understanding between transportation engineers and food system researchers and begin our exploration of supply chain infrastructure for wholesale perishable foods.
CFIRE