Mark Winne • www.markwinne.com • win5m@aol.com; (860) 558-8226 • Senior Advisor, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future • Books: • Closing the Food Gap • Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas • Stand Together or Starve Alone • Food Town USA (Island Press) • Email John Cameron at The Book Haven: salidabooks@gmail.com • 15% Book Club Discount for AgriSummit Attendees • Books can be shipped
First Day of the Hartford Farmers’ Market July, 1978: “What’s your favorite vegetable?” asked the Hartford Courant reporter. “Pork Chops,” responded the farmer.
“All You Need in Life is Ignorance and Confidence, Success is Sure to Follow” - Mark Twain • Farmers’ markets went from begging for legitimacy to having others beg them to open in their neighborhoods – from about 300 in 1970s to 8,700 today • While they did not invent the Internet, FMs did set the stage for the local food movement, growth of CSAs, farm-to-school, Whole Foods, farm-to-table/ institution/day care, farmland preservation, urban agriculture, innumerable value-added food businesses, public policy initiatives, and most importantly, the proper use of the plural possessive.
Local Food’s Growth & Impact • Local food sales: $404 m. in 1992; $6.1 B in 2012; $20 B. by 2020. • 75% of consumers eat local food at least once a month; • 87% say local food is important in their choice of a retail store • 65% say it’s important in their choice of restaurant. • Federal funding grew: $800 m. in 2009 to 500 grants in 2013/14 supporting local food infrastructure • 300 food hubs, thousands of CSAs, and 50,000 schools participating in farm to school • SNAP at FMs gone from $4m. to $22m.; Double-up Buck, veggie scripts incentivize lower income shoppers (over $40 m. per year) • Wal-mart local food sales from $404 m in 2010 to $750 m. 2018. • 650 kinds of ketchup and least 2,709,223,476,903 kinds of salsa!
What We Now Agree On is Huge Progress! • Large agriculture generally recognizes that organic and sustainable production are here to stay, and that it has scientific validity • The medical establishment recognizes exercise and good nutrition reduce disease and increase health • The marketplace recognizes “local food” has growing economic value and strong consumer interest • Non-profits and policy makers recognize that low- income citizens should also be able to get healthy, local, and affordable food
“Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything” – Charles Kuralt The local food scene has restored a measure of local and regional identity to say nothing of: • Cultural expression, taste, health, personality, imagination, community, sweat and body odor, funkiness, bare skin, sensuality, deliciousness, compassion, and companionship (Latin: “com” with combined with “panis” bread : breaking bread together ) Local is an alternative to and rejection of the industrial food system as well as: • Big box stores, food with thousands of frequent flyer miles tricked out in gauds and bangles like a trashy Mardi Gras Queen; in other words, everything my dear mother served me as a kid! Local food has given us a food story and a delightful cast of characters
Farmers’ Market Sign: “All Ye Who Enter Must Wear Birkenstocks and Carry a Committee-Approved, Caramel-Infused Latte” • Farmers’ markets and the local food scene have acquired the taint of “elitism” and the whiff of privilege • Tension between two narratives: 1) Farmers can increase their revenues and improve their margins while preserving farmland; 2) FMs will make healthier and more affordable food available in underserved areas and strive to be inclusive of lower income shoppers • Local food markets allow farmers to become price makers, but has that served all segments of the community equally well? That’s the struggle…
Conundrums and Challenges • Does a robust food scene lift all ships, or are most people clinging to the sides of the lifeboat? • “There goes the neighborhood!” in response to the opening of a hip, new café; Rents go up, affordable housing decreases • The farmers’ market manager said to a food bank CEO: “We now have 5 kinds of goat cheese at the market!” who responded, “Our food bank gave away more food this year than ever before!” • “In places like Spokane, Boise, and Reno…you have growing wealth disparity, affordable housing problems, evictions and an influx of new immigrant communities…I advocate for requiring more from those who have more money than anybody can spend in 100 lifetimes.” Justin Farrell, Yale Sociologist.
“Left to themselves, economic forces do not work out for the best except for the most powerful” John Kenneth Galbraith Public policy has become the preferred way of balancing a playing field thrown out of balance by market forces Incentives to: • Locate in socially and economically distressed areas • WIC/FMNP • Senior/FMNP • Veggie Scripts • SNAP incentives: “Market Bucks,” “Double-up Bucks,” “Fresh Market Bucks”… • FINI and GusNIP • One Santa Fe market had 6 incentive programs • Farmland protection programs
State Legislation (2012-2018) Harvesting Healthier Options • 91 bills enacted in 36 states & DC from 2012-2014 • 9 states in South enacted bills State Law Companion • 40 bills enacted in 23 states & DC from 2015-2018 Farm to School • 209 bills passed in 46 states, DC & 1 US territory • 146 bills enacted, 63 resolutions • 453 bills introduced National Conference of State Legislators - Harvesting Healthier Options: State Legislative Trends in Local Foods 2012-2014 Healthy Food Policy Project – State Law Companion National Farm to School Network - Farm to School: State Farm to School Policy Handbook
Santa Fe FPC – The Agriculture & Ranching Implementation Plan • Santa Fe County facing development pressure that affected farm and ranch land as well as water • “When I came onto the BCC in 2008, food and farming were not on our radar screen. Today we have an agriculture plan.” Commissioner Kathy Holian speaking at 7/26/16 BCC Meeting • SF FPC jumped on County’s 2010 Comprehensive Sustainable Management Plan rewrite to include food and agriculture • SF FPC was able to influence the County Plan to take a pro-active approach to local food production
Public Procurement • LA FPC and Good Food Purchasing Program ($150 m. of food purchased annually by LAUSD) • New Mexico State Auditor Report on Spending for Food Services: State and local government have $132 million in large food contracts – only 12% went to New Mexico-based vendors • “Support for innovative practices…such as food hubs and pilot programs by government can overcome the challenges that make it difficult for local food vendors to compete for government contracts.”
Food Town USA: What Can Seven Unlikely Cities Teach Us about Our Food Systems ( as told through a farmers’ market lens ) I wanted to: • Demonstrate that “Good Food” is the new normal • Consider the diverse ways that food influences a community • Identify the factors that contribute to the development of a robust food culture • Understand how communities are meeting the challenge of “good food” for all, i.e. “taking care of our own” • Identify the challenges facing these communities
Alexandria, Louisiana • Central Louisiana, 12 parish region, mostly rural with high poverty and obesity rates • Central LA Economic Development Alliance makes food and farming central part of the area’s economic revival – has 3 full- time food system staff • Attracting higher paying industries requires a high quality of life that includes farmers’ markets, cafes, brew pubs, and farm to table restaurants • Colfax Farmers’ Market and FINI/GusNIP support
Boise, Idaho • Growing and relatively progressive city in one of the reddest states in the nation (a thriving FM in northern Idaho copes with pro-gun advocates and anti-abortion protestors) • Farmers’ markets(s) at the heart of city’s thriving food scene • Inspired many new products (e.g. 12 new brands of hard cider in one year) • City government has provided funds for Double-up bucks programs and support for a mobile farmers’ market to senior housing • City planning incorporates food and farming into city’s master plan • Janie Burns: a dynamic and long-time food and farm advocate began her career making $27 on her first day selling at the FM as a prelude to many food achievements (e.g. Tomato Tuesday)
Sitka, Alaska • Pop. 9,000 and very little arable land • Only accessible by air and water; has highest food prices in U.S. • Significant “subsistence food” issues for Native Alaskans • “Planning Day” spawned a farmers’ market, several market gardens, and several other food projects • Farmers’ market only operates for 10 weeks (Opens at 10 AM and was sold out by 11) • Fisherman to School Program • Favorite foods: salmon, herring roe, and beach asparagus
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