By Gage Miskimen
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Johnson County has its very own resident food expert.

Shanti Sellz is the new local food and planning specialist for the county. She is also the owner of Muddy Miss Farms and co-manager of Green Share LLC, a group of organic farmers supplying local businesses. She will make roughly $45,800.

Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan said the county has a very active local-food policy council, but they’re all volunteers.

“We felt like we really needed a staff member to help follow through with goals and policies,” Sullivan said. “We just need to narrow down the scope of work, and [Sellz] will help us with that,” he said.

Sullivan said Sellz would be involved in a lot of different areas across the county’s work.

“I think that she is going to have a hand in a lot of things.” he said. “I think people who are worried about the health of the community look at local food as a piece of that. We are going to have to try to figure out what we want to focus on.”

Sellz said she’s excited to be in the new position.

“We have a lot of potential to build a great local food program,” she said. “There’s a lot of potential for small-scale growers to make a living here in Johnson County.”

Josh Busard, assistant administrator Johnson County Department of Planning, Development, and Sustainability, agreed with Sullivan that having a member of staff along with volunteers would be beneficial.

“It will be helpful having a dedicated staff member,” he said. “It will advance the local-food goals and initiatives that are adopted by the supervisors.”

Busard said the goal is all about collaboration.

“We want to bring producers, growers, and organizations that are in the market of local food together as well as improve access to it,” he said.  “The first plan of action is going to be to promote Johnson County as a resource for local-food producers and growers.”

Sellz said many of the goals revolve around access. The county wants to develop more accessibility to the former Johnson County Poor Farm for people, she said.

“Health education is a big part of what we are looking at,” Sellz said. “The first step is access and we are trying to develop more programs.”

She said that Johnson County already has one of the more vibrant local food systems, with a strong Farmers’ Market and retail outlets that sell local food.

“What we’re hoping to do is expand beyond the obvious conscious consumer. We want to support small farmers in making a living,” Sellz said. “There’s already a lot happening. Our work will be to expand the access and production over time.”