Jan. 18 - Efforts increase for locally grown food

If only a portion of that capital leakage on edible food products were to be captured by Hoosiers buying local eggs, meat and vegetables from the farmers nearby, it would amount to additional revenue for Hoosier farmers. Meter estimates, “(i)f Indiana residents purchased 15% of their food for home use directly from Hoosier farmers, this would generate $1.5 billion of new farm income for the state. This level of purchasing is not a large shift — it would require each Indiana resident to purchase an average $4.50 of food directly from Indiana farmers each week, or $230 per person per year.”

Meter came back to Indiana more recently to do a far more detailed study of Northeast Indiana in 2016 for the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership called Northeast Indiana Local Food Network. Out of that project, an economic development organization was formed under the same name to promote both the supply and demand of local food, and can be found at www.neifood.org.

I lead a nonprofit economic development organization, Heartland Communities, which since 2013 has focused on developing a local food economy. We have been members of Indiana Grown since its inception. Based on the recommendations of Hoosier Farmer? the first project we incubated was a for-profit agricultural cooperative, Plowshares Food Hub, an aggregation and distribution company that fulfills a piece of Meter’s call for infrastructure as the “most critical gap.” Meter cites, “the primary obstacle to growing local food sales is a lack of supportive infrastructure (smaller farm equipment, green energy, greenhouses and hoop houses, warehouses, freezers and cold storage, processing facilities, distribution networks, and knowledge) that creates more efficient local food trade.”

Our next piece was to develop the local food supply by training new farmers. Rose Avenue Education Farm is a 10-acre business incubator for vegetable farmers, running a program for refugees who have experience farming, which produced $280,000 in sales over the last two growing seasons of culturally specific food to Burmese customers. They are creating their own local food economy while having an impact on health outcomes by increasing fresh vegetable consumption for hundreds of local families.

Our next upcoming project is an attempt to fulfill the promise of a permanent local farm product stall at the highly popular General Electric campus redevelopment, Electric Works’ Union Street Market, as a cooperative of farmers and producers who would not be able to attempt a permanent stall as individuals. There is support from several organizations including the McMillen Foundation and St. Joseph Community Health Foundation. Some few but significant barriers remain, however, and so the effort continues to overcome the last hurdles and engage more collaborators and sponsors.

The local food development movement sure could use the expertise of Mr. Marcus, and I am happy to read that he has invested in the Indiana Culinary Trails Passport guide to Hoosier restaurants. There are plenty of other opportunities to join in the effort to secure our health-enhancing food supply as we have recently seen how long, and far-away supply chains have resulted in empty shelves at the grocery store. And while we are at it, we can make Indiana more prosperous.

Jain Young is administrator of Heartland Communities, Inc.