A $20 million food market
Good report on Morning Edition this morning on the challenge the local food movement faces to grow beyond its niche market status. Here we’re calling it “occupying the middle” between micro-farms and big Ag.
Schools and hospitals increasingly want produce and meat from their local farmers, but they also don’t want 30 different trucks pulling up to their loading docks with lettuce, each with their own invoicing, quality, etc.
Bob Golden, an industry analyst in Chicago, says that while food safety is a concern, it isn’t the main barrier to offering more local food. “The major distributors are trying to gauge demand, and adjust their orders and offers accordingly,” Golden says. “It’s very complex and complicated, adding a whole realm of locally sourced foods.”
Local organizations like the North Country Grown Cooperative are trying to cope with this very issue. According to Coop director Lynda Bage, the four colleges in Canton and Potsdam alone buy $20 million a year in food. Imagine if local farmers could capture even 10% of that.
The Coop – and many others, including this one in the Mohawk Valley – is bringing together farmers so institutions only have to deal with one supplier. But it’s a slow process.
This month, the Coop is taking a big step. It’s freezing its first crop of asparagus, so it can make the seasonal vegetable available to the colleges year-round.
That’s music to many institutional buyers’ ears.
If it is to work then we’re going to need a more varied and much larger truck garden group among North Country Farmers. And there’s the problem with local meat inspection too. I suppose it would be a good idea for whomever is involved to go to the colleges and see just what they purchase. One of my kids worked at the SLU facility for a while and I got the impression there was a lot of restaurant type prepared foods used.
As a farmer, I’m interested in getting the maximum potential profit from my commodity. Looking through the links in the story I see groups dedicated to “social justice”. That has nothing to do with my profit margin and I have no interest in participating with groups using food to achieve political ends.
Bret, what do you farm? I completely agree the local food movement needs to focus more on the bottom line…
If we can somehow figure out an efficient and cost effective distribution system, the food market might just be the tip of the iceberg. The same idea could hopefully expand into other commodities such as energy. If that is, we can figure out a way to produce more renewable energy here.
For instance, bio-mass energy like wood and grass pellets, bio-fuels, etc. Expand that into locally manufactured solar panels and micro wind mills, all subsidized (initially at least) by NYSERDA, Empire Development, and the Federal gov’t, and you’ve got another “closed loop” market that keeps the money local. A difficult proposition for sure, but the North Country seems ideally positioned for such an initiative given our vast farm and woodlands, research facilities, shuddered factories, work force, etc.
David- Sheep, lamb that is. I’m not sure my particular commodity has much chance at the colleges since lamb is becoming more of an ethnic niche market, but I can be flexible.
If Clapton- The second you mention wood products or subsidies you hit a wall. Any wood products will run into the anti-industry crowd (remember the OSB plant in Oburg?) and subsidies….well, I don’t think there’s going to be much future in getting blood from that stone. Maybe, but depending on subsidies is a real iffy thing.
Ideas like this have been floating around for years and years. I’m too cynical to believe anything will come of it after having been sold a dream several times before.
Bret,
Along the lines of biomass, there was an article in yesterday’s Watertown Times regarding a grant to fund free consultations for businesses, not-for profits, agencies, etc. who wish to convert to biomass heating for buildings at least 5,000 square feet in size. The grant will fund these consultations in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. The grant was secured by a group of economic developers hoping to create a biomass industry in Northern NY. There’s more to the article so check it out if you can.
I agree that we’ve heard all this before, but I think there’s more urgency now as much of our wood products manufacturing is gone (Specialty paper for instance) and there’s a need to replace it.
Clapton- I agree the need is getting critical, I just doubt the grants and subsidies will continue. We’re broke.
Bret,
The subsidies I mentioned were more along the lines of those available via NYSERDA for solar panels, wind mills, solar water heaters, geo-thermal, etc..I think manufacturing such equipment could be done here in upstate, NY as well as using them here.
And yes, those subsidies could go away. However, NY could take some actual initiative and utilize profit motive to spur such development and use of alt. energy. They could do this by dropping the “net metering” boon doggle protectionist idea and incorporate the “feed in tariff” concept. If residents could actually be paid real money for producing electricity instead of the pennies the utilities pay now, I suspect there would be real demand for the equipment necessary to make electricity and therefore, profit right from your house. Imagine National Grid being required to purchase all the electricity you produced and not cap it at a percentage of your use. It could change the game entirely.
NY take initiative that doesn’t involve taxes? Whoa! I think a pig just flew by!
There are probably all sorts of low cost, revenue neutral things NY could be doing to spur development of alternative energy, conservation, maybe even new mini power plants. The problem appears to be the traditional lack of leadership to move towards those goals. I’ve been burned a few too many times to think any typical NY politician will help those goals along unless there’s significant payback for him somewhere along the line.
I’d love to be able to put a wind gen or 3 on my place. Nothing between me and Lake Ontario but a radio tower or two. My flag pole has a permanent 22 degree list to leeward (east north east). The costs are staggering! We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars. Even at $300.00 a month for power it’d take decades for it to pay. I refuse to borrow money for it and also refuse to accept grant type money on the principal it should be going to pay off our deficits.
Huh, stinks being ruled by your principals sometimes.
Bret,
With that kind of payout you could pay for a small micro wind turbine built right here in NY state in about 4 years…..Look here:
http://www.windtamerturbines.com
If I read that right the savings are based on the cost of the turbine itself. What about the battery bank, controls, etc. ?