Mark Bauermeister • Ph.D. Student

103 East Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011
markB1@iastate.edu

Mark is living in Larkspur, CA where he is working with UC Extension Services, conducting an needs assessment of community gardens. The assessment evaluates existing community gardens in the county, which will offer clues about the barriers for maintaining sustainable gardens as well as the necessary considerations to ensure development for future gardens. Mark’s primary interests are sustainable communities, which can especially flourish if supported by a viable, local, healthy food system–a community garden is one of the cogs in this system. This work and research interest fits well with his academic life as a third year sociology Ph.D. student, minoring in sustainable agriculture at Iowa State University. His dissertation research focus is aimed at completing a food system assessment of Marin County as a whole to determine the integrated network of organizations, agencies, and community stakeholders interested in creating a more sustainable local food system. Besides his recent and upcoming work in Marin, Mark has been working in various parts of the Bay Area, specifically the East Bay where he performed food system and economic research for a local food initiative in Oakland. His work aided the goals of the HOPE Collaborative, which is a collaborative composed of community based organizations and residents of Oakland working toward getting healthy, affordable, local food to Oakland’s underserved populations.