Research

Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

Strength Through Diversity: People, Products, Markets

By PSFN’s Communications and Outreach Coordinator, Emma Brewster

On Thursday, Cascade Harvest Coalition hosted the Olympic Peninsula Farm to Table Trade Meeting in Port Townsend. The overwhelming theme of the day was the importance of diversity: diversity of knowledge, experience, markets, and products.

To kick off the event, Dr. Laura Lewis, the new Director of WSU extension services for Jefferson County, delivered a refreshingly scientific keynote address. Dr. Lewis spoke about “agrobiodiversity” and economic development opportunities therein for farmers and members of the local food economy on the Olympic Peninsula.

Much of Dr. Lewis’s presentation drew on the concept of Edge Theory, commonly used in permaculture design, among other applications. Edge Theory asserts that the edges of areas (of biomes, of neighborhoods, of garden plots…) harbor a tremendous amount of diversity, and discusses the desirable resiliency and stability found through such eclecticism. Dr. Lewis offered the example of ecotones: the areas between biomes or environmental regions such as the salty march which separates the grassy dunes from the sea, or the Serengeti savannah which joins the Sahara desert to the central rainforest in Africa. These inter-regions are areas of great biodiversity, abundance, and environmental dynamism, and are less affected by changes which might devastate the environ on either side. Ecotones both result from and indicate a gradient of conditions between zones, such as changing precipitation levels, shifting temperature, or differential access to sunlight.

Dr. Lewis reminded us that realms between more distinct areas are not just an environmental or biological phenomenon, but that the local food economy on the Olympic Peninsula (and in other regions) is a sort of ecotone itself. Dr. Lewis pointed out that our agricultural system is not simply a linear chain from seed to spoon, but rather there is in fact a large amount of dynamism and potential where players in the food system interact and overlap.

In these overlapping areas of knowledge and practice, we can choose to ignore or capitalize on our interconnectedness by choosing to either share or withhold knowledge from one another. For instance, a chef who discontinues his order from a local farm, but does not tell the farm what it was that made the chef switch to a different source – quality, price, delivery hiccups – foregoes the opportunity to improve the relationship and the system as a whole because the farm has not learned or grown from the experience. Relationships among different players in the system and the system entirely are strengthened and both see more stability in the long term when knowledge and experience are shared.

The space in the center of the diagram here is the “area of vital connection” across systems. It is this area of diversity and interconnectedness in our own agricultural system that we need to sustain together, and which should be more highly valued and utilized in an effort to strengthen our local agricultural economy.

With this in mind, as players in the regional food system we can decide to capitalize on the edges that exist within our own systems to identify barriers and weaknesses and to strengthen bonds and systematic resiliency. Interaction between producers and consumers can point out the weaknesses in processing capacity, storage facilities, marketing assistance, and distribution capabilities available. We can then work together to develop milling, meat processing, and distilling facilities; wholesale, direct, collective, and cooperative distribution options; and other infrastructural helps. The more successful we are at preserving interconnectedness, the more stable we’ll all be in the long term. PSFN is proud to be a group that represents each sector in this vital center (consumers, producers, processors, distributors and other service providers). We aim to help share knowledge and information across perceived barriers in an effort to support the regional food economy in the Puget Sound.

Photo courtesy of Nash's Organic Produce

A panel discussion also spoke to the idea of diversity and to the benefit to diversifying both products and markets. PSFN Member Kia Armstrong spoke about all the different outlets for Nash’s Organic Produce, and about the pros and cons of each. Nash’s is currently wholesaling about 50% of their products through three or four major wholesalers throughout the Northwest and Canada. Nash’s recently opened its own small grocery store where you can buy all your favorite Nash’s produce and everything else “from olive oil to toilet paper!” as Kia says. In addition to the store, the farm is now more active than ever before at farmers’ markets, and is looking to expand its partnerships with regional institutions. Nash’s currently holds an on-site farmers market at the Olympic Medical Center on Tuesdays. Hospital staff are able to swipe their payroll deduct cards at the market (as opposed to needing cash), which is convenient for shoppers and reliable income for the farm. In its efforts to expand its institutional relationships, Nash’s is also in the process of getting into local schools through the Jefferson and Clallum county Farm to Cafeteria programs, as both schools are working under new local buying initiatives. Kia and Nash’s Organic Produce has partnered with PSFN in the past in marketing their produce to child care centers and to senior meal programs through our Farm to Table Project.

It is institutional markets like these that excite Kathy Pryor of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR) and Heathcare Without Harm (HWH), who also participated in the panel. Kathy is working to gain signatories to the Healthy Food in Healthcare pledge, which commits healthcare institutions to use their enormous purchasing power to improve the health of the food system while also modeling healthy behavior for patients, visitors, and staff.

The healthcare industry is the third largest institutional purchaser of food (after colleges and universities, and elementary schools), and mostly purchases through the same mainline distributors as other, smaller institutional buyers like preschools and senior meal programs. The Healthy food in Healthcare commitment asks hospitals to use their “moral authority” as healthcare providers to support local producers who healthfully and ethically produce their products. By harnessing the purchasing power of the hospitals, WPSR and HWH is able to pave the way for smaller institutions and other local buyers to source their food carefully and locally.

Some local success stories of hospitals partnering with farms include:

The Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles was the first hospital in the state to set up an onsite farm stand, and to use produce purchased from that stand in kitchen at least once a week.
Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton is now directly purchasing whole carcass beef over the winter months, something that Kathy hasn’t seen yet elsewhere.
United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley just won second place in the nation for its sustainable food purchasing. Head Chef Chris Johnson made lots of local purchasing relationships with PSFN member farms at our Skagit and Seattle summer Wholesale Markets, and has been able to sustain them, leading to his award.

United General Hospital is currently purchasing 15% of its food for cafeteria and in-patient dining from local producers. The hospital that placed first in the competition (Fletcher Allen Healthcare in Burlington, VT – not far from where I grew up) is at an astounding 40%! So… it can be done!

In contrast to these inspiring local purchasing percentages of 15 and 40%, panel moderator, Katherine Barill of EDC Team Jefferson, reminded us that across the country, only one half of 1% of consumer food is purchased direct from the farmer by the end user. In Jefferson County, that proportion is a relatively impressive 4%. Ms. Barill challenged the audience to envision what might be possible economically for the county and the region if we could raise that number to 20% by 2020? The goal of 20% by 2020 is also the goal set out by the Real Food Challenge, a key partner of PSFN this year, for colleges and universities in the Northwest. The Real Food Challenge also has a food commitment to be signed by college and university presidents and chancellors to similarly harness the purchasing power of colleges and universities.

Kathy sees this region of Washington as a prime candidate for this type of innovative food purchasing at healthcare and other institutions because of the high diversity of farms, as well as the somewhat limited geographic layout: Kathy markets the idea of local food purchasing to hospitals as an essential part of the facilities’ emergency preparedness plan, which all hospital are required to have. It’s an incredible resource to have food at their fingertips (and have the necessary relationships in tact) to feed patients in case of any major disaster which might result in limited transportation or other infrastructural losses.

This panel also discussed the importance of diversifying local products manufactured and sold in our region. Panelist Laura Lawless of the Port Townsend Food Co-op harped on value-added products as one of the most effective ways of ensuring income over the winter months for regional farms. She suggested the alternative value-added markets of health and beauty products, the herb and spice market, and medicinals as the next frontier for local producers. (PSFN is so excited for our soon-to-be-former Operations Manager, Ann Leason, for soon devoting the majority of her time to her own herb farm for health and beauty products, as well as medicinal herbs. Go Ann!)

Laura also gave some great suggestions of value-added products needed in the area:

Processed meats like salami and sausage
Frozen convenience foods for busy families – at the Port Townsend co-op they have a frozen Tamale that they can’t keep on the shelves!
Kale and produce chips
Salad Dressing
Pet food

For advice on, and assistance in, entering the value-added marketplace, PSFN and NABC are offering a Transition to Value Added Business Course this winter. The introductory courses in market assessment and business plan development have already passed, but product development classes in a variety of categories remain:

Value-added Dairy Workshop – Friday, January 27, 2012
Value-add Floral and Nursery Workshop – Thursday, February 2, 2012
Value-added Meat Workshop – Monday, February 6, 2012
Valued Added Prepared Foods – Thursday, February 16, 2012

For more information about these classes, contact Jeff Voltz: jeff@agbizcenter.org / (360) 593-4744

As a final word of advice, Laura said the most important thing you can do as a producer is to take the time to come to the store, demo your product, and tell your story your way to your customers. We at PSFN agree. Telling your story through your brand, your label, and in person is essential.

So in summary, diversity is the key! We should all work to diversify relationships and enhance interconnectedness among different players in the regional food system; producers should diversify their markets (and focus on institutional partnerships) and their products. Diversification of activities across the agricultural continuum will enable all stakeholders to manage risk, which will promote economic development. Diversity is the key to regional economic stability and resilience. So… let’s get talking!

Posted by Emma Brewster on December 12th, 2011

PSFN Under the Big Sky!

Add your comment

PSFN’s Operation Manager, Ann Leason, and Farm to Community Coordinator, Emma Brewster, spent this last weekend in Missoula, Montana attending the 2011 Joint Annual Meetings of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS), & the Society for Anthropology of Food and Nutrition titled Food and Agriculture Under the Big Sky: People, Partnerships, Policies.

University of Montana, Missoula Campus

The meeting in Big Sky Country was just what the conference title promised: a tremendous convergence of all folks food (we met gastronomy students, nutritionists, produce distributors, winemakers, Thai agronomy students, chefs, grocers, sociology professors, corn farmers, policy makers, buffalo ranchers, food anthropologists, cookbook authors…) all looking to think and work collaboratively on a wide array of contemporary food and agriculture challenges.

Ann and I were privileged to present on the recent work of PSFN with institutional foodservice in the Puget Sound region. Our session was titled, Equity, Health & Regional Food Economies: the Power of Institutional Markets. Ann introduced session attendees to PSFN’s work setting up and hosting its Wholesale Markets in the Skagit Valley and Seattle last summer. (This year’s Wholesale Markets will run mid-July thru early September. Contact ann@psfn for more info on buying and selling). Ann spoke of the successes of the Wholesale Markets for PSFN Members– producers and buyers alike! She shared anecdotes of Chef Chris Johnson’s overhaul of the Coho Cafe at United General Hospital and how sponsor Wholefoods picked up Dale Sherman’s unique sugar hubbard squash to sell in all of their Washington and Oregon stores. I then presented PSFN’s involvement in the CDC-funded Farm to Table (F2T) project, which is working to connect fresh fruits and vegetables from local producers to typically underserved consumers in Seattle and King County. The Wholesale markets, namely working with Chef Chris Johnson and Chef Peter Roberge of Skagit Valley Hospital, as well as PSFN’s periodic cooperation with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility opened PSFN’s eyes to the opportunity of institutional purchasing to local producers and thus and opened the doors for the F2T Project.

Co-presenter Crissie McMullan with Emma and Ann

Also on our panel was Crissie McMullan of Grow Montana, and one of the founders of Montana FoodCorps, and now advisor to the National FoodCorps program. Crissie also works for the National center for Appropriate Technology. Crissie shared her work integrating locally produced products into the University of Montana, Missoula dining halls, and in establishing the FoodCorps program first in Montana and now as an advisor to the development of a national Food Corps. Together, we were able to speak about farm-to-institution purchasing specific to hospitals, senior meal programs, childcare, elementary schools, and university cafeterias. Our session harnessed a decent-sized and active audience: a mix of academics, farmers, students, educators, non profit groups, and others. One of the most interesting attendees was a representative of the Center for a Livable Future of Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. The mission of this institute is to bringing together research and thinking on the confluence of agriculture, food, and public health – a liaison which, for us, became somewhat of a theme of the whole conference.

The Keynote Address solidified this theme of food and health. Albert Borgman, Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana since 1970 and former classmate of Wendell Berry, delivered “The Culture of the Table: Reweaving the Contexts of Celebration.” Borgmann quoted Aristotle, reminding us that “nutrition and growth are marks of life,” uniting and syncing all creatures. In this way, Borgmann called eating a universal act which has the perhaps unique capability of uniting necessity and transcendence.

Borgmann pointed to food’s unique ability to both playing a role in determining culture, and to indicate and communicate the culture of a family or community to others. Anyone who has shared a meal abroad or with a family of another culture can attest that eating has the power to “disclose the world we live in.” The way we eat is a response to the world we live in whether illustrating culturally-steeped meals using food food endemic to a region, or by illustrating the now complicated, perhaps multinational system through which food arrives at our plates.

Borgmann spoke of this transformation of food, eating, and living over the last century saying, “the mark of a new epoch is when the inconceivable becomes the plausible.” Indeed, so many inconceivable ideas are now commonplace in modern life, and especially in modern food production in America (and elsewhere, I presume, as Dr. Borgmann himself hails from Freiburg, Germany). Borgmann posited that Because of technological development and the differentiation of spheres in American life and labor and productivity, America has experienced a loss of “competence and comprehension.” That once, every person knew an essential, marketable skill, whether they were a baker, smith, or a miller. Because of this, individuals were capable and indisposable in their communities– resilient communities of interdependent skilled individuals.

Now, individuals and communities are less skilled, less engaged with one another, and therefore less resilient. The table, (both in literal and figurative interpretations– think of the expression for collaboration and cooperation,“coming to the table”) has the power to reweave the resiliency of communities through engagement and health. As he said it, the table designates the place where we eat. It is like the picnic blanket which, though somewhat arbitrary, when laid on the ground distinguishes the civilized from the uncivilized, creating a stage and a space for eating. The table then, in comparison, elevates and stabilizes that place of security and civility, (just as families coming together for meals stabilizes family life and health).

The table is a Gathering place. It gathers people– people who are dear to one another, who are accepting of one another, and who have agreed to sit with one another. It gathers food from many places, and it gathers “strands of diverse views of the world into a fabric of understanding.” Borgmann reminded us that “you cannot gather what has no extension” and that things that may be gathered are inherently things that can be traced… whether to the grocery store, to the farmers’ market, or to the original source. It is this traceability, he thinks, that will begin to restore competence and comprehension to American families.

With this traceability of food in mind, Borgmann challenged the audience to “push people to what’s better and better within the limits of the possible.” This method is very much a theme in PSFN projects, especially in the Farm to Table project where limited budgets, time, and cook skills limit the use of whole, fresh fruits and vegetables in senior and childcare meal programs. We all try to work together to do the best we can with what we have, and that’s a success!

Chefs and Catering staff (curiously constumed as fly fishermen and "farmers"...) at Feast

Other conference Events included a beautiful exhibit of documentary photographs by Katie Knight, “Montana Solutions: A Documentary of Grassroots Leadership” (view here) and “Feast,” the conference dinner event showcasing locally-sourced Montana foods.

And of course, no visit to any new city is complete without a visit to the local Farmers’ Market, and Ann and I gave it a thorough “professional investigation” Saturday morning. We sampled delicious Raspberry Chipotle Sauce (much like that of PSFN friend Aldrich Farms) which the producers suggest pairing with BBQ chicken or marinated flank steak. We (expectedly) found some buffalo jerky, and (unexpectedly) some shrimp ceviche…? At least the tomatoes were local!

All in all, it was a marvelous conference. We met a wonderful diversity of very interesting, smart, and hardworking folks, all working in different ways to study or change the evolving food system. It’s rumored that next year’s meeting will be held in New York City, if you’re interested in joining the caravan to the big city!

For more photos of the conference, visit our Facebook Page

Posted by Emma Brewster on June 14th, 2011

PSFN Welcomes New Farm to Community Coordinator (AmeriCorp)

Add your comment

Emma Brewster, Farm to Community Coordinator

Please join us in welcoming our newest AmeriCorp volunteer to NABC, Emma Brewster. Emma has accepted the position of Farm to Community Coordinator dedicated to PSFN’s Healthy Eating Active Living Farm-to-Table project. Perfectly timed, Emma will attend the first scheduled meetings with HEAL project partners in Seattle.

Emma is completing her work as a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University examining food insecurity and other indicators of poverty in Upstate New York. Emma is very passionate about, and interested in, food and its many roles in the lives of people — particularly women. She holds a bachelors degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University with courses in Anthropology, Inequality Studies and Communication.

She has solid academic research and writing credentials in social sciences, is a critical thinker with good analytical and organizational skills. She has worked with non-profits both domestically and abroad, including New York, Kenya, Dominican Republic and Ethiopia and has served in multiple student leadership positions. Academically interested in the implications of global agriculture and the development of regional food systems intersection with public health, Emma looks forward to taking a more active role in research and community engagement here in Washington.

Emma will play an important role representing PSFN in the Farm to Table partnership led by Seattle Human Services. Emma will divide her time between Seattle and the Mt Vernon office working to establish contacts with project partners and farmers through site visits and regularly scheduled partner meetings. Emma will be responsible for tracking PSFN’s involvement in the partnership, writing reports and tracking all transactions related to the project as assigned by the HEAL Farm to Table coordinator. Throughout her 9-10 month assignment, Emma will report directly to Lucy Norris, PSFN Project Manager and will interface regularly with PSFN’s Farm to Table Coordinator and other NABC staff and contractors.

City of Seattle-King County Public Health announced the 2010 award recipients who applied for $8.9 million in Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grants from the HEAL (Healthy Eating/ Active Living) Community Grant Program. The Northwest Agriculture Business Center’s Puget Sound Food Network (PSFN) is receiving partial funding for its partnership participation with a project led by Seattle Human Services Aging and Disability Services. The Farm to Table partnership is focused on connecting local food to Seattle’s least served communities through Congregate/Home Delivered Meal Program programs. The goal of this project is to make healthy foods, preferably local, affordable for senior congregate and home-delivered meals and child care centers by cooperatively purchasing fresh local produce through a Farm to Table partnership.

It will be the PSFN Farm to Table Coordinator’s responsibility to identify local food sources, negotiate pricing and create solutions that will lead to opportunities for expansion in Puget Sound and modeling in other cities, especially underserved communities. A job announcement for Farm to Table Coordinator will be posted later this year. PSFN will be tasked with tracking and reporting our contributions to this project, identifying key obstacles, and creating new solutions for the future. The project’s full duration is twenty months starting September 2010.

Posted by Lucy Norris on September 10th, 2010

PSFN Receives CPPW Grant Funding for Partnership with Seattle Human Services

1 Comment

On July 21, 2010, City of Seattle-King County Public Health announced the 2010 award recipients who applied for $8.9 million in Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grants. Award recipients represent many talented and passionate local organizations committed to increasing healthy choices for King County residents.

Seattle Human Services Department was awarded two HEAL (Healthy Eating/Active Living) grants and Puget Sound Food Network (PSFN) is receiving partial funding for its participation in one focused on connecting local food to Seattle’s least served communities through the Congregate/Home Delivered Meal Program. The goal of this project is to make healthy foods, preferably local products, affordable for senior congregate and home-delivered meals and child care centers by cooperatively purchasing fresh local produce through a Farm-to-Table partnership.

Aging and Disability Services will set up regular Farm-to-Table coordination meetings to create a strategy for and track the progress of the cooperative purchase of local produce from local farmers. Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) will assess senior meal provider capacity to plan seasonal menus, store and prepare fresh produce. WSDA will also train meal site managers as needed. WSDA and PSFN will work together to identify and link meal program purchasers to ethnically diverse farmers who have produce available at an affordable price. Clean Greens Farm will expand growing capacity within existing land to offer produce that meets meal provider cost and produce specifications. Meal providers will purchase processing equipment as needed, facilitate staff training, and pilot test cooperative purchasing at 2 to 3 meal sites. After the pilot test, meal providers will implement cooperative purchasing for home-delivered and congregate meals. WSDA will assess the feasibility of expansion of cooperative purchasing to ELFS child care centers.

PSFN is receiving a total of $57,624 of the $200,000 awarded to this specific project to hire a contractor who will serve as “benevolent broker” for a 12-month term, and act as PSFN’s project liaison working directly with local food producers on behalf of senior meal services, childcare centers and public school sites identified by Seattle Human Services in underserved South Seattle. It will be PSFN’s responsibility to directly identify local food sources, negotiate pricing and create solutions that will lead to a richer understanding to create opportunities for expansion and modeling for similar models in other cities, especially underserved communities. PSFN will be tasked with tracking and reporting our contributions to this project, identifying key obstacles, and creating new solutions for the future. The full project’s duration is twenty months starting this month. Recruitment for the 12-month HEAL project contractor will commence in late 2010.

PSFN is proud to be engaged in this new partnership because it has enormous potential to make a positive impact on the health and sustainability of both urban and rural communities, while helping to preserve our rich farming traditions in Northwest Washington by creating diverse market opportunities for local food.

For more information about CPPW, it’s goals and a full list of direct grant recipients, please visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/partnerships/CPPW.aspx.

Please contact Lucy Norris, PSFN Project Manager, at lucy@psfn.org for information related to PSFN’s role in this important new project.

Posted by Lucy Norris on July 28th, 2010

Leopold Center study compares local, non-local food prices

Add your comment

If you think local foods are more expensive than their conventional counterparts, think again. Research conducted last summer by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture shows few differences in price for Iowa-grown vegetables, eggs and meat when compared to similar non-local products.

“We wanted to look at prices for some of the fresh foods that might be found in a typical Iowan’s shopping cart,” said Rich Pirog, Leopold Center associate director who collaborated on the study with Iowa State University graduate student Nick McCann. “We found that during peak season, produce items at farmers” markets were very competitive and in several cases lower than prices for the same non-local items found at supermarkets.”

The study surveyed prices for eight different vegetables sold at Iowa farmers’ markets in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Ames and Iowa City. On the same day, prices were documented for similar produce from national or international sources being sold at supermarket chains in those cities. Prices were checked on five days during July and August.

The results showed no statistical differences for local and non-local vegetables during Iowa?s peak growing season: an average price of $1.25 per pound for locally grown zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, string beans, cabbage, onions, tomatoes and sweet corn from a farmers? market, compared to $1.39 per pound for non-local items from a supermarket.

The lower prices for the local items can be attributed in part to competitive pricing of zucchini and summer squash at farmers? markets. A
two-week supply of those eight vegetables for a family of four, based on per capita consumption, would cost $15.03 at a farmers market, compared to $16.91 at a supermarket.

A second part of the study looked at prices for lean ground beef, pork chops and brown eggs sold at supermarkets, natural food stores and
butcher shops in those four Iowa cities in June, July and August. Pirog said it was difficult to find products with similar attributes available at all venues to make meaningful comparisons. However, they did find that locally raised lean ground beef and bone-in pork chops from butcher
shops are similar in price to their non-local counterparts from
supermarkets.

Pirog said the study did not look at relative freshness, taste or overall quality of local and non-local products. The study also did not examine produce or food items sold under organic certification. “Keep in mind that this study was conducted during the height of the Iowa growing season when produce was in plentiful supply from multiple vendors at farmers’ markets, and their prices were lower than at other times during the farmers’ market season,” Pirog said.

He added that the study also points to an obvious opportunity for growers who extend their production season by using greenhouses or high tunnels and market their harvest at competitive prices. “Given the increase in construction of high tunnels in the past two or three years, Iowa growers may be able to increase the supply of locally grown vegetables and sell to a wider array of market venues,” he said.

For more details, including comparative charts and tables, see the new report, “Is Local Food More Expensive? A Consumer Price Perspective onLocal and Non-Local Foods Purchased in Iowa,” on the Leopold Center Web site at: www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/prices.html

Posted by Elliot on December 24th, 2009

Can local food jump-start the economy?

Add your comment

A recent article from the Washington Post reviews further information which suggests that eating and buying local does wonders not only for the environment but also for the economy.

After a long period of ambiguity, the verdict is in on how much locally owned businesses promote economic development. More than a dozen studies have shown that every dollar spent at a locally owned business generates two to four times the income, wealth and jobs than at an equivalent nonlocal business.

Read the full article here.

Posted by Elliot on December 15th, 2009

Ecology of Food

Add your comment

In a recent article, the Hartman Group predicts future trends of how American will obtain and consume food. The study suggests a number of notions including the advent of private label foods, like Trader Joe’s, growth of Farmer’s Markets and smaller to medium sized retail outlets which will lead to increased diversity.

[S]uch evolving needs for quality food experiences prove an opportunity for retailers willing to make bold moves and stake out clearly delineated positions in the marketplace of the future.

Read the full article here.

Posted by Elliot on November 19th, 2009

Safe to Eat?

Add your comment

An insightful event is coming up in December about the science, politics and economics of food. Featuring Thomas Besser, PhD, DVM and Bill Sischo, DVM, MPVM, PhD (Professors, School for Global Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine), discussions include food safety and food related disease.

Check out the neat event preview video here.

Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009
Registration: 11:30 a.m.
Lunch program: noon
$45 per person (includes lunch)
Guests welcome

Fairmont Olympic Hotel
Spanish Ballroom
411 University Street, Seattle

Food- and water-borne illnesses are growing concerns for people in the United States and abroad. Disease-causing microbes can spread easily from animals to people through contaminated meat, water, and produce, while the processes and interventions to prevent their spread often differ. Although Americans may be relatively unaware of the ways our food is grown, harvested, and brought to market, people in less-developed countries often interact closely with food-producing animals. How do the laws, customs, and economic realities involved in our food-production system affect the things we eat? What is the science behind our on-farm food safety efforts? How can we ensure a safe, affordable, and sustainable supply of food for ourselves while respecting the needs of our global community?

Professors Thomas Besser and Bill Sischo are among innovative WSU scientists leading international efforts in food safety through their research into the detection, prevention, and control of the causes of food-borne illness. Their investigation of the science, politics, and economics of food—from farm to fork—is crucial to the health and well-being of people and animals across Washington and worldwide.

Posted by Elliot on November 5th, 2009

Minnesota's Evolving Food Industry

Add your comment

A new study by the Crossroads Resource Center analyzes the importance of food relationships to Minnesota’s economy. Here are some highlights from the press release:

Emergent Food Businesses Build Trust

A new study, “Mapping the Minnesota Food Industry,” concludes that an emerging cluster of food businesses drives economic change by building trust with their commercial partners.

Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center and author of the study, said, “The most successful firms are creating new ways of doing business, not only providing higher quality foods. They do this by building relationships of trust with both suppliers and customers.”

Meter’s study was based on a thorough financial review of the state food industry combined with close interviews with key local firms. The report was commissioned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota’s Center for Prevention, which has launched a Healthy Eating Minnesota initiative. The full study is available for free download at http://www.crcworks.org/mnfood.pdf.

…

Minnesota is a global center for food business. Of the state’s top 20 manufacturing firms, seven are food manufacturers and distributors. These seven earn $114 billion of revenue each year, two-thirds of all revenue earned by the state’s leading firms. The state has 17,000 food-related businesses, hiring a combined 316,000 employees who earn $7.8 billion of wage and farm income.

…

The study also documented that outcomes for consumers have not been positive. Two of every three Minnesotans are overweight. Nearly a third of all residents are obese. The Centers for Disease Control estimates the costs of treating obesity-related diseases in the state to be $1.3 billion — and other researchers report twice those costs. Food-related medical conditions, combined with a lack of exercise, have become a leading cause of death. Although mortality rates for diet-related diseases in the Twin Cities are among the lowest for metro areas in the U.S., only 24% of adults eat the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

Full press release here.

Posted by Elliot on October 27th, 2009

Economic Impacts of regional food trade on Detroit and Seattle regions

Add your comment

A report from Detroit, MI discussed the economic impact of a regional food economy. From the report:

” Just in the city of Detroit, shifting twenty percent of food spending would increase annual output by nearly half a billion dollars. More than 4,700 jobs would be created, paying $125 million more in earnings. The city would receive nearly $20 million more in business taxes each year.

” Were this spending shift to occur in the five counties surrounding Detroit – Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Wayne, and Washtenaw – the increase in regional output would be roughly $3.5 billion. Nearly 36,000 jobs in the region would be created, paying $900 million more in earnings. Government entities in the region would receive $155 million more in business taxes.”

Click here for the Shuman-Detroit report.

What is most intriguing is that the economic impact numbers align very closely to the numbers derived from a separate study by Sustainable Seattle. That 2008 report found that ” A shift of 20% of our food dollars into locally directed spending would result in a nearly half billion dollar annual income increase in King County alone and double that in the Central Puget Sound region.”

Posted by nabctim on June 25th, 2009