Community Food Works and Edacious partner to measure how growing practices impact nutritional quality, from farm to flour to bread.
MARLBOROUGH, MA, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today, farmers in the U.S. are compensated by the pounds of food they produce per acre; schools, food pantries, and other institutions purchase food based on price. Community Food Works (CFW), a Hudson Valley food processing and distribution non-profit, is working to change this paradigm by shifting the conversation on food subsidies to focus on the nutritional yield of an acre instead of pounds alone, as well as the nutritional quality of the products produced from that acre. In partnership with Edacious, the leading platform for trust and transparency in food, they are working to build the foundations for a subsidy model based on nutritional content, and to do that, they need data.
CFW sits in a unique position to measure nutritional outcomes along the supply chain. They source directly from regional growers, mill the grain themselves, and work with local bakeries to get their bread into schools in the surrounding community. In working with Edacious, they will run a study to measure the nutritional quality of wheat, flour and bread, at each step from farm to table.
Today, detailed data doesn’t exist to reward growers for food quality, and this study aims to close that gap by linking verified nutritional data to farm and processing-level decisions. Edacious will test wheat from CFW’s partner farms, the flour that is milled at CFW’s mill, and the final bread products — measuring vitamins, minerals, and other compounds that don’t show up on a standard nutrition label. This understanding will be used to set premiums for wheat that achieves better nutritional outcomes.
The goal is to start building the case that nutrition can be a basis for how food gets subsidized, that schools and emergency food programs can source on quality, not just cost, and that farmers can be rewarded for how and what they grow, not just how much. This can in turn shift both growing practices and health outcomes. But, policy makers and organizations need data to make this possible, and this study is meant as a first step towards building that foundation.
“The farmers we work with are doing things right, managing soil health and growing high-quality wheat, but the food system doesn’t have a way to recognize that yet,” said Kyle Jaster, Managing Director of Community Food Works. “Without easy access to hard data on nutritional quality, it’s hard for anyone to justify paying more for a product, and hard for a farmer to justify the investment in different practices. This study is about building the case that what happens on the farm shows up in the food, and that it’s worth paying for.”
“The food system has spent decades optimizing for bushels per acre,” said Eric Smith, Founder and CEO of Edacious. “When farmers have credible data showing how their variety selection and growing practices affect nutritional outcomes, it creates a real incentive to prioritize quality. That’s what this partnership is about.”
“Better food deserves better data,” added Smith. “This is about more than wheat and bread. It’s about proving that measurement creates accountability – and accountability drives meaningful change across the food system.”
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About Community Food Works
Community Food Works (CFW) is on a mission to make local food accessible to everyone in the mid-Hudson Valley. CFW develops everyday staple foods made with ingredients from local farms and manages the processing, milling, and distribution to schools and emergency food providers. Through this work, CFW is building a more resilient regional food system and aims to provide the tools necessary for others to do the same in their communities.
Learn more at www.communityfoodworks.org.
About Edacious
Edacious is the leading platform for trust and transparency in food. Through lab testing and nutrition software, Edacious helps producers and brands verify nutrient density and safety, benchmark product quality, and turn results into regulatory-aligned claims and market-ready assets. The company is transforming how the world measures, verifies, and communicates food quality. Proof, not promises.
Learn more at www.edacious.com.
Contact:
Kathryn Arffa
Community Food Works
Karffa@communityfoodworks.org
Jessica Student
Edacious
j.student@edacious.com
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