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Field Guides to Food

Marketing Study of Opportunities for Foods Grown Locally or Sustainably in Minnesota (PDF)

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Demand for traceability of food products to their origin...
...causes distributors to favor a few large farms over many smaller ones.
This statement was based on passages from "Marketing Study of Opportunities for Foods Grown Locally or Sustainably in Minnesota"
"Requirements for doing business with retail and foodservice distributors included... More producers able to meet food safety and traceability requirements."(p.4) The Wholesaler Wish List includes under the heading "More Producers Able to Meet Food Safety and Traceability Requirements," "We love to buy local, but our national accounts drive our volume. We are adamant about their traceability program, and we will not approve local vendors because of traceability concerns."(p.25)
It is also reflected in statements from the Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association...
"The MSCA will continue to call for regulatory relief [and] press for Congress to intervene in USDA-GIPSA rulemaking to ensure the cattle sector is not harmed by government overreach."
...and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
"Loopholes [in government policy] and unlimited subsidies have helped fuel an exodus from farming and rural America by favoring mega-farms over family farms, driving the consolidation of farmland, and inflating land prices. In a time of record budget deficits, scarce federal dollars should not be flowing without limit to the wealthiest mega-farm owners, and should instead be targeted to those most in need of assistance and capped at a reasonable level."
Many people are working to ensure that food businesses contribute significantly to the regional economy...
Many people are working to ensure that food businesses (such as those engaged in production, processing, distribution, and food-related events) contribute significantly to the regional economy by generating more food and jobs at a range of skill levels in SE Minnesota.
This statement was based on passages from "Marketing Study of Opportunities for Foods Grown Locally or Sustainably in Minnesota"...
In both the retail grocery and the foodservice sectors, companies are consolidating seeking to gain ever-increasing market share and power to influence the price they pay for food products. (p.9)
..."Finding Food in Farm Country"...
Moreover, if farmers and consumers fail to devise a more locally-based food system, then the outcome is likely to be further erosion of the capacity of the region to build wealth, and further harm to soil and water resources. (p.29) More money cycling through the region for food would mean more local youth could remain in their home region and make a decent living. (p.29)
...and "Migrant Farmworkers in South-Central Minnesota: Farmworker-Led Research and Action for Change."
Each year, 20,000 to 35,000 migrant agricultural workers come to Minnesota to work in farm fields and food processing plants...Some [survey respondents] noted that migrant farmworkers are the only people willing to perform the jobs offered in the food processing plants. Others suggested that the main benefit that factories and farmers receive is cheap labor. (p.1,5)
It is also reflected in statements from the Minnesota Grocers Association...
The food retail industry provides jobs for thousands of Minnesotans... Statewide, the food retail industry pays millions of dollars in local property taxes and acts as a collector for sales taxes.
...the Minnesota Pork Producers Association (on a past version of their webpage)...
Minnesota pork producers are fortunate to have two major pork processing plants [Hormel and JBS] within its borders... Research shows that each job at the farm level in hog production creates two supporting jobs in pork processing.
...and Olmsted County's "General Land Use Plan."
The vast majority of agricultural products are exported from the county with income flowing into the county. In addition to its significance as a basic sector industry, agriculture supplies raw materials to other local and regional basic sector industries...
Pressure to increase efficiency and profit has reduced farm and industry diversification...
...and increased concentration, meaning, for example, that most farmers grow only a few crops.
This statement was based on a passage from "Marketing Study of Opportunities for Foods Grown Locally or Sustainably in Minnesota".
The second point on 'Wholesalers' Wish List' was "A Wider Variety of Local Products that Reflect a Stronger Understanding of Market Demand. Most distributors said there is demand for a greater diversity of local products. They would encourage producers to grow complementary products and avoid 'everybody growing the same stuff,' as one put it."
And it is reflected in a statement from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
"In the mid-1980s... prices had dropped below the cost of production. Family farmers were told they were inefficient and they had to either get big or get out. Deeply flawed national and international policies were the root cause of the crisis."