Feed & Seed Reconnecting Farms, Markets, and Tables

An interdisciplinary group of farmers, health experts, educators, policy makers, marketing experts and architects have put together a coalition to explore the creation, building, and managing of a food hub and education center in Greenville, SC. The project is unique in its holistic approach— reconnecting farms, markets, and tables.

What is a food hub?

A local or regional food hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.

Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June 2013

How do we know it will be a success…Research

Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June 2013

ALL RESEARCH SAYS IT CAN BE DONE SUCCESSFULLY!

SC Unique Assets

Land is plentiful

Farmers have multiple growing seasons each year

Water is often adequate

Excellent local restaurants are emerging across the state

Urban populations are large enough and close to farmland that farmer and consumer do not have to travel far to meet

Key leaders know each other and the state is small enough to coordinate effectively

South Carolinians seek connection and authenticity

Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

Recommended Strategies

The State must adopt a formal commitment to creating a solid economy focused on local food production for local markets

Emerging ‘food production nodes’ should be strengthened by offering funding through a competitive grant proposal

Expansion of the Clemson’s New and Beginning Farmer Program as well as Lowcountry Local First’s Incubator Farm will enhance the food production node development

Food Hubs are essential to larger regions

Supportive state policy

Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

Food Hub and Nodes

Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

Upstate Food System

Regional, statewide, neighborhood

Our focus: ten county Upstate region

Greenville Area Food System Assessment, 2012

Food Hub Feasibility Study, in process

Farms in Rural Counties

Markets in Urbanized Cities

Distribution at multiple scales

Significant findings of the Feasibility Study

Failing food distribution system

Obesity

Small and local farms are disappearing

Available land

Produce and livestock is feasible

Producer support

Local Food is in demand

Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June 2013

Vision

Leveraging Upstate South Carolina’s Research Universities, strong private foundations and invested business interests, Feed & Seed will serve as the nexus for improving our current farm capacity; train our next generations of farmers, food professionals and light manufacturers in sustainable business; and use our local products as the vehicle. Invigorating the economy, providing it with trained workers, and supplying local, fresh, healthy foods to all socio-economic sectors of our populace, Feed & Seed will serve as a model to communities across our state, region and nation, leading the way to create a consorted effort to propel our community toward physical and economic vitality.

Goals

Improve public health by increasing the variety, quality and quantity of fresh foods

Use existing systems to get the locally produced products into mainstream diets

Secure local farms for future food security

Re-orient institutional buying patterns in order to bolster the economic growth of farms

Work with farms to create market-driven specialty crop plans which will encourage economic growth of farms.

Reduce the cost of food by eliminating long-haul trucking and transport

Keep more money spent on food in the local system

Challenges on the Farm

Labor Costs and Availability

Land Costs and Availability

Access to Processing

Certifications

Access to Markets

Liability

Business planning

Communication

Challenges of the Consumer

What is it?

Higher costs for local foods

Where do I get it?

They’re all out!

I live in a food desert

I may be among the 67% of obese adults

the Farmer and Product

the Process

the Outreach

the Benefit… farm to market to table

Why Greenville?

Over the past 50 years, industrial food has displaced local food infrastructure

About 300 farmers and farmers’ markets exist within 150 miles of Greenville.

Greenville County food/bev tab $1.1B, 2010

“Good” tourists also request authentic SC food

Abundant educational systems from technical colleges, private and state research universities

Proven record of innovation, collaboration and investment across the political spectrum.

An excellent health system, tied to long term research programs

A diverse population with high demand for culturally appropriate fresh foods.

What’s in it for Greenville?

Grow Jobs and Economy

Long term support to Manufacturing, Headquarters

Grow a resilient food system

Provide better access to healthy food

Access to fresh, culturally appropriate foods will support a healthier population, which means happier people.

Robust and diverse food helps attract outside investment by improving professional recruitment qualities

How to make it happen

First…a catalyst…

Transparency and Trust

This project is the result of years of work across a wide swath of people across many professions and trades. Listening. Communities, farmers and markets know what they want and need; our job is to keep Feed & Seed informed, listening closely and behaving as a partner, and adapting as we grow, filling niches, and encouraging the growth of new businesses to take on the increasing productivity through private initiative.

Stakeholders

Farmers

Distributors

Processors

Labor

Consumers Retail (restaurants, grocery, farm stores)

Wholesale (schools, hospitals, jails, etc.)

Recycling and Composting

Partners

AdvantageWest

AgSouth

ACOG, Appalachian Regional Commission

Ballentine Equipment

Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

Clemson University - Extension, SBDC

Coastal Conservation League

Community Foundation of Greenville

Community Loan Fund

Culinary Partners

Daniel Mickel Foundation

DHEC

Edible Upcountry

Erwin Penland

Farm Bureau

Furman University

Gardening for Good

Graham Foundation

Greenville County & City

Greenville County Schools

Greenville Forward

Greenville Health System

Greenville Technical College

LiveWell Greenville

Loaves and Fishes

Marvin’s Produce

Nexen Pruett

Palmetto Agribusiness Council

Partners for Active Living

Rhino Concessions

Slow Food Upstate

Spinx

SCDA

SC Commerce

TATT

USC, The George

USDA/ Rural Development & FSA

Interconnected group

Why such a diverse group?

• The power of community, when focused on a goal is amazing.

• We all eat food. And our food system is broken. • Leaders in education, business, governance, private

foundations, farming and health all have important roles to play in the work.

• We don’t need a “new” project, we need to re-orient our

existing institutions towards a collaborative food system engagement. Learn from the past and apply that knowledge to a well informed present, with serious planning for the future of our public health, food security, and personal engagement.

Universities and Learning Institutions

• Orient coursework and research on the Feed & Seed food hub model

• Real World Training across the spectrum • Working knowledge of the whole food system –

dirt to mouth • Certified in aspects of DHEC, HACCP, etc…

The research will empower the Feed & Seed with real data to measure its effectiveness

Community Organizations

Offer access to people and engagement

Inform the Feed & Seed about product needs

Experts in the people of the community

Government Organizations

Facilitate Institutional Cooperation, i.e. schools, prisons and other large consumers of foods that will benefit from greater access to fresh products.

Help find efficiency when implementing the program

Knowledgeable of existing structures and programs that can be accessed or leveraged.

Private Companies

• Support via direct donations • Diverse private sector • Diverse work force in the region wants specialty

farm products

Renaissance through food

The Feed & Seed is evidence of the rebirth and

revival of interest in food that is authentic. The

project focuses on building from the culture of Greenville and teaching all members of the

community. The project hopes to address a broad range of challenges with a holistic approach to reconnecting farms, markets and tables.