Consultant

SCALE, Inc

SCALE, Inc was formed in December, 2009 by Anthony Flaccavento, founder and former director of Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD).  Based on 25 years of sustainable community development experience, primarily in low-wealth communities, Anthony launched SCALE to help catalyze, strengthen and accelerate food system and local economy work in communities around the nation.  The focus of SCALE – which stands for Sequestering Carbon, Accelerating Local Economies – is building the capacity of local communities to develop more ecologically sustainable, healthy food systems and local economies.  In addition to his practical experience in food system and community development work, Anthony’s education in ecology and economics helps broaden the knowledge base he brings to SCALE.  Anthony is a commercial organic farmer, and writes and speaks regularly about these issues.  He is the author of Healthy Food Systems:  A Tool kit for Building Value Chains.

In its first year and a half, SCALE has worked with over a dozen different communities in New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, Charlottesville, VA and several parts of Appalachia.  While each consultation is customized to meet the needs and opportunities of specific places and organizations, certain elements have been common to many of these partnerships: 

• Conceptualizing, launching or strengthening value chains that link small farmers with larger markets
• Launching and growing farmers markets and other forms of direct markets
• Developing means to increase access to healthy food for low income and working folks
• Building producer networks that increase local wealth, capacity and market access
• Technical training for farmers in season extension, intensive organic production, and accessing and meeting the requirements of commercial markets
• Help in design, feasibility assessments, market analysis and coordinated production planning

For more information on SCALE, visit the website at www.ruralscale.com