Methodology

The NC Local Food Infrastructure Inventory was designed as a mapped inventory of businesses that serve as intermediary steps in local food supply chains. The list was initially created in mid-2013. The objective was to create an online map from currently available information which could be continuously refined with new additions (and deletion of erroneous information) by those working in local foods. Below is an explanation of the steps taken and information used in 2013 to create the starter map:

1. Create a list of business entities engaged in food wholesale and distribution, processing, and cold storage. Initial list sourced from D&B (Dunn and Bradstreet) for all NC counties using the following NAICS codes: 311 Food Manufacturing, all; 4244 Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers, all. 49312 Warehousing and storage (select-out cold storage only)

2. Augment the listing with information from the NCDA&CS website

3. Ground-truth the information: The listing was mapped and distributed to two entities in each county for ground-truthing:

a. The NC Cooperative Extension office (individuals were emailed and called)

b. The county-level economic development contact (individuals emailed and called)

4. The listing at this stage was mapped for each Extension district (5) and the information was distributed to the NC Cooperative Extension listserve to solicit corrections and additions.

5. The final listing was mapped and made publicly available.

6. Users can easily add a location or contact the mapmakers to correct or add new entities.

Please direct all comments and questions on the mapping process to: Rebecca_dunning@ncsu.edu.

To make additions/corrections to the map, please see the Add Location and Contact links on the map's home page.