A Great Barrington, Massachusetts, based local food nonprofit has secured federal support for a project to bolster farms’ connections to institutions like prisons, hospitals, colleges, and schools. Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, or BAV, operates in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. The US Department of Agriculture funded initiative will see BAV work with state governments and other partners on the regional collaboration to strengthen food systems and reinforce local farms.
By way of disclosure, Berkshire Agricultural Ventures is a WAMC underwriter.
BAV’s Local Food Systems Program Manager Jake Levin is leading the project, and spoke with WAMC.
LEVIN: The reason we ended up focusing on farm to institution is, a lot of our farmers in this region rely primarily on direct-to-consumer sales. That's either at a farmer's market, through a CSA -- Community Supported Agriculture -- or some other similar, farm store, et cetera, some other similar model. And we're lucky that in this region that those sales and that market channel is strong and robust, but there is a ceiling to that, and we wanted to start to look at other market channels for farmers. The wholesale market really changed during COVID, especially in terms of restaurant wholesaling. And so, we identified institutions as one of the key opportunities for extending market channels for farmers in this region.
WAMC: On the ground, what is this going to look like to help facilitate those smaller farmers to getting their wares to these institutions?
It's a really great question. The first two years are really going to be focused on understanding where the needs and opportunities are, identifying who those key players are across the value chain, including farmers, people in the middle of the supply chain. So, food hubs, distributors, processors, and who those key institutions are that can drive those sales, and then understanding where BAV and other partner organizations can come in and further help support the development of both the soft and hard infrastructure. So, whether that's, we need more light processing of vegetables or flash freezing capability, maybe we need another food hub somewhere in the region. Maybe one particular farmer or one particular processor needs some financial support, whether that's a grant or a low interest loan, to purchase the proper equipment. Maybe it's just a matter of connecting the right farmer with the right institution. And that's what we really want to focus on in the next two years- Asset mapping, landscape analysis, and a lot of this is going to happen through our bimonthly partner meetings. So, all 13 partners, including those state Departments of Ag and these other not for profit partners. And then we are going to convene a working group of key stakeholders across the supply chain, across the four county, three state region, and they will meet on the off months from the partners group. And then it's going to be me working to support those individual identified operators, stakeholders, etc.
Talk to us about the best-case scenario for this. If all goes according to plan, once you've bolstered this supply system and facilitated this exchange of, again, small farms to larger institutions in the region, what's the ceiling here that you're aiming for?
That's a great question. Again, like I said, this next two years is really focused on understanding the landscape and identifying those key players and key opportunities and needs. And then after that, BAV will be in a really strong position to do the same thing we did with the meat value chain, which is really then go in and support these individual actors to help them expand and increase their resiliency. The long term goal will be to really open up this untapped market channel for small scale farmers to institutions. So, long term, it's going to be seeing Berkshire County and Hudson Valley farmers’ products at institutions like Williams College or Berkshire Medical Center, in the correctional facility in Pittsfield, more robust food hubs, more investment into already existing operations like the Northwest Connecticut [Regional] Food Hub, for instance. And ultimately, this always goes back to creating more resiliency for our small-scale farmers and hopefully a new, reliable market channel for them.
What has this taught you about this region as you've pursued this grant? It seems like you're trying to fill in a lot of gaps in this rural community with a lot of space between farms and the institutions that could benefit from better relationships with them. What has this taught you about the Northeast?
That's a really good question. Well, the Northeast, we're unique in terms of our agricultural economy and community, and that comes with its strengths and weaknesses. And what is unique, especially for our region, is that we do have such robust direct to consumer sales, and that's due to a number of factors, but I would say, namely, the fact that we are a robust second home community, and for a rural community, somewhat unusual economic diversity. But what is surprising is that we don't have robust farm to institution sales, given the fact that we are a region that is so identified as a strong food and agricultural community, because over the last 10, 20, years, so much energy, rightfully so, has been investing in those direct consumer sales relationships and connecting the farmer directly to a consumer that we've lagged behind in terms of these other market channel outlets. And so, I think it's really surprising to a lot of people to learn that certain larger institutions, colleges, hospital systems, summer camps, are not actually purchasing locally, and that there is a real hurdle. It's not as simple as just telling Williams College, oh, well, here's the number of a great lettuce farmer. There's a lot more involved with that due to all the logistics and infrastructure needs to make that happen.
