The food system we want in New Hampshire starts with you.
The New Hampshire Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan is an actionable roadmap toward positive change, streamlining our collective efforts to obtain funding, pass policies, develop programs, invest in infrastructure, and build networks to increase farm, fish, and food business viability and foster equity across our food system.
The Strategic Plan proposes over 140 recommendations that address 27 agriculture and food-related topics through Product, Market, and Issue briefs. Each recommendation lays out a specific suggested action, from policy changes and funding opportunities to program expansion and technical assistance and is categorized by the stakeholders who are best suited to address it. Each brief touches on a product, market, or issue that is foundational to our food system and briefs are mapped across the Strategic Plan's Vision, Goals, and Persistent Themes to ensure all of our work is aligned toward our collective goals. The tangibility of the Strategic Plan’s content puts thousands of professionals working across the food system in the driver’s seat, allowing them to deliver ideas for change to the right people at the right time and driving positive impacts across the food system.
The entirety of the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan—every brief, recommendation, and outcome—is grounded in the goal of increasing the farm, fish, and food business viability and equity in our state. It was spearheaded by the NH Food Alliance in partnership with the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food, UNH Extension, and more than 89 other food system organizations and hundreds of individuals deeply committed to New Hampshire's food system.
Our Vision
We envision an equitable and just food system in New Hampshire in which healthy and local food is accessible to and valued by all Granite Staters; where producing food can be a viable occupation, and farmers and fishermen are well-resourced and supported in producing a variety of crops and products; where there is a thriving local and regional food economy and jobs within our food system that provide livable wages, supportive workplace conditions, and access to healthcare and other benefits; where the New Hampshire food system is a steward of our natural resources and is resilient in the face of a changing climate.
An Opportunity for Transformation
Like the rest of the country, New Hampshire is reliant on a fragile and complex global supply chain to fulfill one of our most basic needs: the food we eat. A strong local food system contributes to regional food security, economic stability for farmers, fishermen, and food producers, regional economic growth, protected open spaces, a stable food supply, climate resilience, and improved public health and nutrition. Yet, a strong regional food system is also a complex challenge. The NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan is designed to align the hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals working to create a stronger food system in our state and to amplify the opportunities that will transform our food system in a way that works for future generations.
The decision to create a strategic plan for New Hampshire’s food system developed from the NH Food Alliance’s participation in the New England Food System Planners Partnership, a collaboration between seven state-level organizations, six state agricultural, economic, and environmental department representatives, and Food Solutions New England (FSNE). A 2023 report published by the partnership, titled A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience, explored what it would look like for 30% of the food consumed in New England to be produced from within the region by 2030.
Two strategies are recommended by the report to move each state closer to the stated goal: develop a state-level food system plan and perform a benchmark assessment of how much local food is currently purchased in the state. New Hampshire heeded this call by launching the development of the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan and completing its benchmark assessment, called the Local Food Count, in collaboration with the other New England states. New Hampshire’s Local Food Count estimates that 3.1% of the food consumed in New Hampshire was produced in the state in 2022. The NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan identifies strategies that will increase this percentage and support the viability of New Hampshire’s farmers, fishermen, and food producers.
are 27 products, markets, and issues that are foundational to the New Hampshire food system
The Recommendations
are the action-oriented core of the Strategic Plan; explore all 143 recommendations
The Process
The Strategic Plan was developed through a number of processes, meetings, and collaborative work from September 2023 through March 2025. Learn more and explore all of the milestones!
read about how thE Plan was developed
The Lenses
Authors were challenged to view all the planning efforts through two lenses: equity and farm viability. Explore these pages to ground yourself in the data and understand how each lens was applied.
The People
Get to know everyone who ensured the Strategic Plan is comprehensive and impactful: the Strategic Plan Development Team, the Advisory Committee, and the Brief Authors.
Meet the PEOPLE BEHIND THE PLAN
What's Next? Strategic Plan Implementation
Taking action on the New Hampshire Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan will take leadership, collaboration, initiative, and vision. The Strategic Plan lays out over 140 recommendations ranging from simple toolkit developments and research projects to multi-million dollar infrastructure investments. Recommendations can be addressed through individual organizations performing the work or a cross sector, collaborative approach. Some can be accomplished in a matter of months, for others, it will take many years of effort. What do all recommendations have in common? They are specific, identified opportunities for our network to create change across our food system. The key to successfully implementing the Strategic Plan and creating lasting progress in our food system will be knowing what recommendations each other is working on, collaborating when needed, and communicating about our successes.
Acknowledgements & Gratitude
Special thanks to the following organizations and people who helped make the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan possible.
UNH Extension and its staff for their unmatched support throughout the strategic planning process as Advisory Committee members, subject matter experts, and in various other planning, execution, and funding capacities.
Food Works Group and Claire Erley for expert organization, thought leadership, and true partnership.
Vermont Farm to Plate and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund for being a collaborative and guiding force, sharing the systems and design of their strategic plan to help craft New Hampshire’s.
The Strategic Plan was developed with generous support from the following organizations.
Funding for the 2025 NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan was made possible by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.\
