Growing the Local Food Economy by Expanding Access to Legal and Regulatory Education for Rural Entrepreneurs and Small Farms

Over the past decade, the U.S. has experienced substantial growth in the number of new foodbusinesses launched. At the same time, rural firms and farms faced obstacles impeding theirabilities to fully capitalize on food startup opportunities. A significant barrier to entry is theability to navigate food laws and regulations, and legal and regulatory resources for rural foodentrepreneurs are scarce, if they exist at all.Startup Food Biz will bridge this gap by designing an online platform providing educational andlegal tools needed to start, manage and protect rural food businesses. The platform assistscustomers to identify and understand laws and regulations through on-demand courses, andoffers additional tools to help address other legal and regulatory needs.Phase I is focused on determining market need, educational design, prototype development,usability testing, and demonstrating feasibility of the platform to impact the socio-economicdevelopment of rural areas. Since laws and regulations vary from state to state, we will test ourproduct in two states (Michigan and Louisiana) with different legal and regulatory environments.Phase I will result in the modeling, development and proof of feasibility of a legal and regulatoryeducation platform to help grow the rural food industry.The goal of this project is toincrease access to legal and regulatory education to food businesses and small farms inrural communities, where resources are scarce, if they exist at all.As moreentrepreneurs manufacture food products in rural communities, it will result in more moneyremaining in the pockets of the local residents, especially since the majority of the ingredients aresourced from within their communities. Thus, by providing tools that educate and help protectfood businesses, this project would directly contribute to economic and social growth of ruralcommunities throughout the country.