A growing number of farmers are selling their products directly to consumers. Expanding localmarkets for agricultural products connects producers with eaters and increases farmers' incomes by eliminating the middleperson.Food and dollars stay in town, transportation costs are minimized, anda connection between farmers and the community is fostered. Usingfarmers markets, community supported agriculture, and new statemarketing and inspection programs, a new turn towards local markets hasbegun. As these markets expand, local food systems are being rebuilt toreplace the centralized, corporate ones currently in place. Below arethe rules and trends that are driving such a transition.
Farmers Markets
The number of farmers markest in the United States has more than doubled since 2000. According to the USDA, there were 6,132 active farmers markets in mid 2010, including 886 that operate in the winter.
Laws and codes pertaining to farmers' markets generally provide regulationson locations, hours, and format. The best code (such as the one highlighted below) ensures that farmers' markets are kept for farmers.
Community Supported Agriculture
Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a partnership between a farm and a group of local supporters. The supporters each buy a share of the farm's output at the beginning of the season, providing funds upfront to cover the farm's anticipated operating costs and the farmer's salary. In return, they receive a share of the farm's produce during the growing season. Through this system of mutual support, the farm's subscribers share in both the risks and rewards of farming, giving farmers a measure of financial security and relieving them of the burden of marketing.
The number of CSAs in the U.S. has been growing rapidly. Local Harvest maintains a comprehensive online directory of CSAs that now includes well over 2,500 farms.
Policies to Support Local Food Systems
Below we have highlighted several policies that can support local food systems, including federal policies that provide low-income families and seniors with food aid allowances that can be redeemed at local farmers markets, state and local policies that encourage or require public schools and other public agencies to source a portion of their food locally, and state meat inspection programs that enable small-scale, local livestock production.
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Organizations
This program allows recipients of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to receive part of their supplemental food aid in the form of coupons that can be redeemed at local farms and farmers markets. In 2009, about 2.2 million recipients received farmers' market benefits. Coupons redeemed through the FMNP resulted in over $20 million in revenue for farmers in 2009. More than 17,000 farms, 3,600 farmers markets, and 2,600 roadside stands are authorized to accept WIC FMNP coupons.
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Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) began in over 30 years ago in Japan - where it is known as
"teikei", meaning "putting the farmers' face on food". In the CSA
model, citizens buy seasonal shares in a local farm, receiving weekly
deliveries of vegetables and other produce. As shareholders, members
often form a close relationship with the farmer(s), directly sharing
the uncertainties and rewards of the season, often helping with
planting and harvesting. Farmers benefit by having a stable,
predetermined market to grow for, reduced marketing costs, and
financial stability from pre-season "seed money" paid up front. Nearly
all CSA's in the US use sustainable, organic methods of cultivation,
are small in size, and serve local customers. Lacking
supportive laws, CSA's have nonetheless seen tremendous growth in the
US and now number over 2,500.
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This Iowa county has a two-pronged policy approach to encourage the
production and use of locally grown organic food. First, there is a
property tax rebate for farmers who convert from conventional to
organic farming practices. The second approach is a mandate that the
County purchase locally grown organic food through its food service
contractor.
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Prior to 1999, Georgia levied ad valorem taxes for some agricultural
commodities, such as fruit and nut trees and livestock. Legislation
passed in 1998 relieved small scale farmers of this additional burden.
For other crops, such as ornamental trees and shrubs, the possibility
of ad valorem taxation was eliminated.
The legislation is noteworthy not because of the tax impact- farmers
will save about $ 2.5 million a year, or an average of less than $
20,000 per Georgia county- but because it targets those tax cuts to a
well defined "family farm" scale agriculture.
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Colleges and Universities, especially the nation's land grant
universities are a perfect laboratory for policies that support
locally-grown and/or organic food supplies. The University of
Wisconsin's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems completed a
survey of schools in 1998 and
identified a handful that had policies in place that supplied their
food service departments with significant quantities of locally grown
and/or organic food.
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In 1967, the Wholesome Meat Inspection Act and the Wholesome Poultry
Products Act authorized states with inspection programs certified by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as "at least equal to" the
federal program to inspect meat and poultry products for distribution
within a state's borders. An adversarial relationship between state
programs and the USDA and little interest in direct marketing caused
many of the programs to be dropped. Today, meat producers interests in
niche markets and marketing have resulted in 25 state meat inspection
programs being reinstated and expanded across the country.
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The Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) is a program
established by USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). Under the
program, CCC makes grants to States and Indian tribal governments to
provide coupons to low-income seniors that may be exchanged for
eligible foods at farmers markets, roadside stands, and community
supported agriculture programs.
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Vermont has passed legislation (
VT Act 145 of 2006)
that tries to strengthen the connection between schools and local
farmers and farm products. Although relatively a small program, the
training and food processing programs are excellent features to support
local food production.
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Farmers' markets are for farmers directly selling what they produce.
However, as the markets have proliferated, some retailers have been
allowed to set up their own stands to sell produce from out of the
state and the country. Some cities such as Dallas, Texas, have set up
their code to clearly delimit how a farmers' market is to be organized,
and who will be allowed to sell at it. The code keeps the markets true
to their name.
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The Berkeley School District passed a food policy requiring school
cafeterias to serve organic foods to its 9,500 students. The policy
explicitly makes a commitment "to increase the amount of products
purchased from local farms". To fund the initiative, a portion of the
$650,000 the district currently spends on cafeteria food is allocated
for local organic food. Organizers have also sought bulk discounts from
growers and manufacturers. In addition, school sponsored gardens are
expected to provide a significant percentage of the necessary food.
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