Report: Farmers markets boost economies

Here's an interesting report on the economic impact of farmers markets (and by extension, the local food movement) just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists:

WASHINGTON (August 4, 2011) – Over the last several decades, thousands of farmers markets have been popping up in cities and towns across the country, benefiting local farmers, consumers and economies, but they could be doing a lot better, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). What’s holding farmers markets back? Federal policies that favor industrial agriculture at their expense.

“On the whole, farmers markets have seen exceptional growth, providing local communities with fresh food direct from the farm,” said Jeffrey O’Hara, the author of the report and an economist with UCS’s Food and Environment Program. “But our federal food policies are working against them. If the U.S. government diverted just a small amount of the massive subsidies it lavishes on industrial agriculture to support these markets and small local farmers, it would not only improve American diets, it would generate tens of thousands of new jobs.”

UCS released the report just a few days before the 12th annual U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Farmers Market Week, which starts on Sunday, August 7. According to the report, “Market Forces: Creating Jobs through Public Investment in Local and Regional Food Systems,” the number of farmers markets nationwide more than doubled between 2000 and 2010 jumping from 2,863 to 6,132, and now more than 100,000 farms sell food directly to local consumers.

All that growth happened with relatively little help. Last year, for example, the USDA spent $13.725 billion in commodity, crop insurance, and supplemental disaster assistance payments mostly to support large industrial farms, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The amount the agency spent that year to support local and regional food system farmers? Less than $100 million, according to USDA data.

In 2007, the most recent USDA figure, direct agricultural product sales amounted to a $1.2 billion-a-year business, and most of that money recirculates locally. “The fact that farmers are selling directly to the people who live nearby means that sales revenue stays local,” O’Hara said. “That helps stabilize local economies.”

Keeping revenues local also can mean more job opportunities. Last summer, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked Congress to set a goal in the 2012 Farm Bill of helping at least 100,000 Americans to become farmers by, among other things, providing entrepreneurial training and support for farmers markets. O’Hara’s report takes up Vilsack’s challenge and argues that supporting local and regional food system expansion is central to meeting that goal.

In the report, O’Hara identified a number of initiatives the federal government could take to encourage new farmers and the growth of farmers markets in the upcoming Farm Bill. For example, the report called on Congress to:

• support the development of local food markets, including farmers markets and farm-to-school programs, which can stabilize community-supported markets and create permanent jobs. For example, the report found that the Farmers Market Promotion Program could create as many as 13,500 jobs nationally over a five-year period, if reauthorized, by providing modest funding for 100 to 500 farmers markets per year.

• level the playing field for farmers in rural regions by investing in infrastructure, such as meat-processing or dairy-bottling facilities, which would help meat, dairy and other farmers produce and market their products to consumers more efficiently. These investments could foster competition in food markets, increase product choice for consumers, and generate jobs in the community.

• allow low-income residents to redeem food nutrition subsidies at local food markets to help them afford fresh fruits and vegetables. Currently, not all markets are able to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

“Farmers at local markets are a new variety of innovative entrepreneurs, and we need to nurture them,” said O’Hara. “Supporting these farmers should be a Farm Bill priority.”

New idea: Local-In-A-Box

In the move toward making local food a regular part of life for shoppers, Lowes Food added a new fold earlier this summer: The Locally Grown Club, a sort of supermarket-based CSA.

Farm-based CSAs are well-established, of course, as subscription services that let a shopper pay in advance and receive a regular share in a farm's harvest.

Lowes' new version is a little different: The Winston-Salem-based chain with locations in Charlotte is letting shoppers sign up to receive a weekly package of produce from N.C. farms. The club runs until Sept. 17 and varies in price, from $30 for a one-week trial subscription to $75 for three weeks or $175 for a 7-week subscription. Shoppers pick up their produce every Saturday at the stores. Each box has six to 10 items, weighs at least 12 pounds, and is designed to be enough produce for a family of four for a week. Sign up and get details here: lowesclub.

So how does the company define local? Most of the farms used are in North Carolina, although the chain also works with farms in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Viriginia, based on availability and seasonality. For instance, this week's boxes would include Roma tomatoes and Athena melons from Patterson Farms in China Grove, Sprite melons from Southeastern Growers Association of Kinston, lettuce from Shelton Farms in Whittier, mini sweet pepppers from Bailey Farms in Oxford, and white peaches from Lindsay Deal in Taylorsville, along with N.C. eggplant, S.C. corn and Virginia potatoes.

Looking around the country yesterday, the only program like it that I found is at the Dorothy Lane markets in and around Dayton, Ohio, which started a similar subscription service about a year ago. But it's something we may see more often as stores look for ways to harness the desire for local with what their region can provide.

Lorna Christy, a marketing expert with the Produce Marketing Association, says she sees CSAs going off in all kinds of directions we couldn't have predicted five or 10 years ago. "It's a really interesting example of how the lines are blurring between the locally grown CSA and retail outlets," she says. She's seen examples in many cities of CSAs opening retail operations in stores that are vacant and cheaply rented thanks to the economic downturn.

She also points to things like stores that allow farmers markets to operate in their parking lots. Even though it looks like the stores wouldn't want competition right outside their doors, it actually works: The stores get good will from the community and shoppers who start outside usually also go inside to buy things to go with the fresh produce they picked up.

Regional chains like Lowes can be more innovative than large national chains, she says, so they're good incubators for new ideas. Finding ways to harness local food is part of that. "It's a great example of really good marketing people looking outward and finding new ways to connect."

So have any of you signed up for the Lowes food club? I'd love to hear how the experience works and whether you got your money's worth in the boxes.

One-Stop for Local: The new Reid's

Now that the newest incarnation of Reid's is up and running on Selwyn Avenue, I made a quick stop last week to take a look. A few notes:

- If you've been around Charlotte a while, you'll know the spot has food karma. It's the location of the old Fresh Market. When you pull into the parking lot, the old neon Reid's sign is there. One warning: Those have got to be the skinniest parking spaces in town.

-- Both the front and back entrances lead you into a nicely set up wine bar and eating area, with an extensive wine section. It's a nice spot for a leisurely lunch before you shop and a good stage for Heidi Bilotto's cooking classes, which continue.

-- The meat department is as good as the old Reid's. Yes, Bucky Frick and Mac McDonald are back behind the counter if you need special cuts and/or meat-cooking advice.

-- The food products section is small, but it's a nice showcase of locally made stuff. I spotted a long list of familiar names - Yah's Salsa's, Litl Taste of Heaven biscuits in a number of flavors, Beverly's Gourmet, Tizzerts cakes by the slice, Penny's pimento cheese, Polka Dot Bakery crackers. Our local-food scene is getting so lively, it's nice to have a one-stop place to find a bunch of different makers.

Two interesting things I hadn't seen: They have multicolored Chester Farms eggs raised by Edwina Willis-Fleming of Eastover (there's a chicken farmer in Eastover? Yes, but apparently her chickens actually live in Chester. Now there's an interesting commute.)

And, for pepperoni-roll fans and West Virginia transplants, we now have locally made pepperoni rolls. They're made by Heidi Ebert of LOL Kitchen on Laurel Avenue.

New goal: 10 percent on local food

People are making all kinds of efforts to eat more local food. In Tuesday's Observer, you can read about a family that ate only whole foods for 100 days.

Here's another way to work local foods into your life: The Center for Environmental Farming Systems, based at N.C. State University, has launched a statewide campaign to get you to spend 10 percent of your existing food dollars on food produced in North Carolina.

According to CEFS, North Carolinians spend about $35 billion a year on food. If we each spent about $1.05 a day, or $7.35 a week, on locally grown, raised or made food, that would put $3.5 billion into the local economy.

If you're a joiner, you can register online to pledge to do it, at www.nc10percent.com. You can also find links to organizations that can help you locate local food sources. CEFS is hoping businesses also will sign up to focus their spending power or host employee challenges to eat local. Compass Group also is a partner. It has pledged to source 10 percent of the produce it sells to N.C. clients from within the state, and will work with CEFS to develop a model "farm-to-institution" buying program.

How about it? Do you have clever ideas for how you can boost your local-food spending?

Market Report: Tuesdays at Atherton

It's bigger than I expected. Cooler, too, in more than one meaning of the word.

I stopped by the new Atherton Market at Atherton Mill on South Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon to check out the new local-shopping option. Even on a hot afternoon, the really big ceiling fans and open doors at both ends keep breezes moving, a pleasant change from sweating under the tents at the old open field at Camden and West Park.

And the chalkboard signs, big space and new local-food makers like Duke's Bread, New York Baking and Pasta Wench give it a feel of a refreshed food mission, a very painless stop on the way home from work to add to what you bought on Saturday or to boost your fresh-vegetable quotient. (That's Adam Duke at left. A $4 tub of his incredibly flavorful tomato oil helped with the fast dinner creation at my house. I brushed a little on mahi mahi before pan-searing and sticking it in the oven, then stirred a little more into the skillet to make an instant pan sauce). There were plenty of farmers with a wide variety of vegs -- Carlea Farms with cukes and a big pile of garlic, Barbee Farms with potatoes, Fisher Farms, Laughing Owl and several more.

Of course, keeping all that variety depends on people coming out to buy it . . . You know that old saying, you get what you pay for? With local-food markets, it's also true in more than one way.

In other market news:

• The York Downtown Market in York, S.C., is adding a new midweek market day, 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays. Details: http://www.themarketinyork.blogspot.com/.



• The Matthews Community Farmers Market starts its new Wednesday hours next week, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. June 9. Reports on the Saturday market include blueberry, potato and tart-cherry spottings (there seems to be a veritable cherry explosion at all the markets this year), and promises that corn and blackberries will be in within the next few weeks.



• As always, you can find our searchable database with information on markets all over the region at www.charlotteobserver.com/food.

Matthews market in winter

The first weekend of the Matthews Community Farmers Market's winter hours actually did feel like winter: Cold and drizzly, but still plenty of food to be had.

My tally: From the Koenigsbergs' stand: Green onions, carrots, Easter egg radishes, broccoli and something that looked like very dark broccoli that Sammy K. said was supposed to be cauliflower but they actually aren't sure what it is. Lettuce from Tega Hills. Eggs and black kale from Laughing Owl. Crusty sesame-seed bread from Down Home. A bag of pecans. And a pork shoulder roast and a package of thinly sliced smoked ham from Grateful Growers.

And there was plenty more I could have bought if my wallet wasn't empty and my bags full:

Swiss chard, oyster mushrooms, beets, turnips, cabbages, microgreens, Baucom's Best beef, and Bosky Acres goat cheese.

Who says there is no fresh, local food in winter?