Being a retired sociologist, I get excited when I see new and innovative research. When I ran across “Google searches reveal changing consumer food sourcing in the COVID-19 pandemic” last week, I was intrigued. It turns out this was the first piece of research to use Google Trends analysis to track changing consumer behavior related to food sourcing. The study showed an upsurge in searches for local, direct options for buying food starting March 1 this spring and continuing to today. Bringing this closer to home, I’ve had many inquiries via the Local Foods Project Facebook page from folks looking for local meat, eggs, dairy, and produce.
The usual way in which folks access local food is through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, a farmers market, or a farm stand. We have several CSAs, a number of farmers markets, and a few farm stands on the Range. But still, the percentage of total food purchases that is local produced for the average consumer is less than 2%. In states like Vermont with an active Vermont Farm to Plate initiative, it’s about 7%, significantly higher than 2% but still relatively small. Compare that to the Victory Gardens initiatives during World Wars I and II. “In 1942, roughly 15 million families planted victory gardens; by 1944, an estimated 20 million victory gardens produced roughly 8 million tons of food—which was the equivalent of more than 40 percent of all the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States.” (https://www.history.com/news/americas-patriotic-victory-gardens) Even with the increased interest in home and community gardening, we would have a long way to go to match that proportion.
But there’s another option that has historical precedent, too, and may be the most practical idea yet. Last year when I interviewed Mark Peterson (Peterson’s Berry Farm) for this column, he told me about working in the fields on his grandpa’s farm near Hwy 53 and transporting all of the produce to Eveleth to be sold at his Uncle’s grocery store. That was true everywhere—several years ago I met the granddaughter of a Melrude-area rutabaga farmer who told me that her grandparents’ farm supplied rutabagas for all of the Iron Range grocery stores. That direct grower-to-grocer link deteriorated as it became easier for grocers to order fresh produce from just one or two large distributors, which is a lot simpler than individually contracting with a bunch of local producers. And those local producers became part of the disappearing family farm statistics. “The United States had between six and seven million farms from 1910 to 1940…. A sharp decline in the number of farms occurred from the 1940s to the 1980s. At the same time, the average farm size more than doubled, from about 150 acres to around 450 acres.” (Jason Lusk, The Evolution of American Agriculture, 2016)
Today, just a few large distributors provide almost all the needs of our local grocery retailers. Recently, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Program supported the University of Minnesota’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) and the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) in an effort to start building connections among farmers and small, independent grocers. They produced the Farm to Grocery Toolkit and released it this spring.
I attended a Webinar introducing the Toolkit. Here’s the stated goal: “This Farm to Grocery Toolkit is a resource for farmers and grocers to help facilitate the sale of farm-grown products to grocery stores, particularly those stores in rural Minnesota.” That’s us—rural Minnesota. In the U of MN Extension’s 2019 Rural Grocery Survey, the majority of rural grocers said that they want to purchase more local food. But there are perceived barriers and uncertainties, both on the part of grocers and farmers. The Toolkit aims to clarify how a farm to rural grocery system can work, within current Minnesota State laws.
For example, lots of folks don’t think that a grocer can buy directly from a farmer, and most of us aren’t clear about related rules from the Mn Department of Agriculture. Actually, farmers ARE an approved source for sale to grocery stores of produce grown on their own or rented land. The technical term for this is “product of the farm.” As long as no off-farm ingredients are added, no license is required. Farmers who add off-farm ingredients or source some products from other farmers can work with an MDA inspector to get the appropriate license. The Finland (MN) Food Chain is providing a free Zoominar on “product of the farm” on Saturday July 25, 4-5pm. You can register soon through their website www.finlandfoodchain.org
Of course, grocers will want to know that the farmers use sanitary facilities and drinkable water when they are washing, trimming or packaging produce. Farmers often voluntarily take produce safety training and many complete an on-farm food safety plan to summarize their practices and reassure grocers. Grocery stores can request the farm’s policies about food safety, worker hygiene and other safety-related issues if they wish. To help reassure grocers, the Minnesota Departments of Agriculture, Health, and the U of MN Extension have published a guide “Selling and Serving Locally Grown Produce in Food Facilities” (z.umn.edu/MDAlocalproduce). And the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and the Minnesota Farmers Market Association have published Produce fact sheets for farmers to use in marketing their produce (z.umn.edu/sellinglocalproduceMN).
What about meat/poultry? Meat or poultry sold to a grocery retailer must be processed in a Minnesota Equal to processing plant or a USDA processing plant. Again, adding off-farm ingredients requires an MDA Food Handler License. Fact sheets are available about selling meat and poultry legally at z.umn.edu/localmeat and misadocuments.info/LFAC_local_poultry.pdf. Selling eggs does not require a license if the eggs come from the farmer’s own farm with less than 3,000 hens. Farmers are required to candle, grade, pack and label the eggs and refrigerate at 50F before processing and 45F after processing.
The Toolkit contains guidance on selling grains, dry beans, dairy, honey and maple syrup and bakery from the farm to a grocer as well. There are templates for an on-farm Food Safety Plan and links to many FDA guidelines in addition to advice on pricing and purchasing. There’s an analysis of different pathways for sales: store buys and resells vs. farmer rents shelf space in store vs. consignment arrangements. There are even sample product labels and sample invoices. It’s a very complete toolkit useful to both grocers and farmers. The Toolkit is free and can be downloaded at http://misadocuments.info/Farm_to_Grocery_Toolkit.pdf.