Specialty Crop

University of Wyoming Extension, Central Wyoming College, the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project, and others are part of the six-state Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center (NRMRFBC), which helps connect local food producers with consumers, and strengthen food supply chains in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.

Bolstering the local food economy in Wyoming will occur in a variety of ways, including (1) capacity building within local food system organizations and agencies; (2) supporting aggregation and distribution infrastructure; (3) providing producer education; (4) facilitating land access for beginning farmers and ranchers; and (5) promoting local foods.

The 2017 USDA Ag Census reported that only 5% of Wyoming farms participated in direct-to-consumer sales, and NRMRFBC—Wyoming is working to help address this state issue. The Wyoming Food Freedom Act (see listing below) is among the keys to success, as it allows direct-to-consumer sales of locally grown and value-added foods without inspection or licensure.

NRMRFBC awarded a grant to UW Extension to hire a local foods coordinator (see listing below).