Ken Meter

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Finding Food in Farm Country
Ken Meter
Crossroads Resource Center (Minneapolis)
From the Ground Up Springfield, Minnesota
April 8, 2004
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Crossroads approach

• Better answers when local residents engaged
• Professionals serve resident needs

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Crossroads approach

• Start by measuring local assets
• THEN ask what is missing
• Build local capacities assets

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Crossroads approach

• Having good numbers matters
• Negotiate with strength using solid data

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Usually, farm analysts measure

• Specific crops or commodity programs
• Specific types of farm operations

What do we learn if we take the view of the whole
community?
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Finding Food in Farm Country
Southeast Minnesota
Partners Community Design Center University of
Minnesota
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Southeast Minnesotas Food Farm Economy

• 303,000 residents
• 10 billion purchasing power each year
• 8,436 farm families
• 1.4 million farm animals

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Southeast Minnesotas Food Farm Economy

• Stable farm community
• Lasting social bonds
• Leaders in conservation tillage
• Many small farms
• One of most diverse farm economies in U.S.

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Southeast Minnesotas Food Farm Economy
However
Houston, MN spent 2 years with no grocery
store Fragile, small food businesses are
springing up all over
How to explain this?
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Southeast Minnesotas Food Farm Economy

• Regions farmers produce 866 million of food
  per year (1997)
• Spend 947 million to raise it
• Lose 80 million in production costs

Yet
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Southeast Minnesotas Food Farm Economy
So

• Farm families require 129 million of other
  farm-related income to cover their costs
• This includes 42 million in federal supports

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Losses in 12 of last 21 years!
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Finding Food in Farm Country
Moreover, as farmers struggle...

• The regions consumers spend 500 million
  buying food each year
• Most bought from outside region

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Finding Food in Farm Country
In fact

• The average food item in the U.S. travels 1,500
  miles from farmer to consumer
• Over 60 of the cost of food is an energy cost

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Finding Food in Farm Country
All told, Southeast Minnesota...

• Loses 400 million raising food,
• Loses 400 million buying food
• Potential wealth lost each year

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Finding Food in Farm Country
Total loss is

• 800 million each year!
• Totals 92 of the value of all food raised in
  the region

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Finding Food in Farm Country
If local consumers bought only 15 of their food
locally
45 million of new farm income earned each year
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Finding Food in Farm Country
Impact of the study...
Southeast Minnesota Farm Network
50 farms processors work together Goal
250,000 sales in 2004
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Southeast Minnesota is not alone...
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IOWA
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IOWA
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Meanwhile, in Hawaii...
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Farm production expenses outpace sales since 1992
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Cumulative loss1992-2000 for all farms is 171
million
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Farms gain little income from tourism
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UNITED STATES
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UNITED STATES
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(Source USDA/ERS)
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(Source USDA/ERS)
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505 billion deficit, 1913-1999
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Two 2003 studies project the US will become a net
food importer by 2007
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Food sales are concentrated

• 40 of groceries sold by 5 chains
• Wal-Mart Sams Club are top 2
• 85 of food industries lack competitiveness

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Consumption out of balance

• 50 of U.S. public school students qualify for
  free / reduced lunch
• 10 of households are food insecure

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Consumption out of balance

• Over half of all adults overweight
• Half of elderly seeking medical care are
  undernourished

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Supply Demand out of balance

• Farm prices low due to high production
  foreign competition
• Researchers focus on producing even more!

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Health suffers

• Diet-related diseases cause half of all deaths
  in industrial world
• Change in diet could prevent 30 of cancer
  worldwide
• 5,000 deaths due to food poisoning each year in
  U.S.
• 30,000 coronary cases in US could be prevented
  by eating 1 less fat

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Health suffers

• 76 million gastrointestinal illnesses treated
  each year in US (total population 281 million)
• Medical costs of obesity amount to 118 billion
  per year25 of what all US consumers pay for
  food each year

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Key shifts

• From consumers to co-investors
• Farming that builds wealth in communities
• Shared risk among clustered firms
• Farm policy supports rural communities instead
  of commodities
• Reduced energy use

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Community-Based Food Systems
Map courtesy of www.FoodRoutes.org
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Solid data matters!
Could Southwest Minnesota use a Finding Food in
Farm Country study?
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Finding Food in Farm Country
http//www.crcworks.org/ff.pdf kmeter_at_crcworks.org
[phone]
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Food with the Farmers' Face on It
Media guide covering community-based foods
systems
W. K. Kellogg Foundation http//www.wkkfweb.org/F
SRDFullGuide.pdf
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Food service lodging income rises as
farming manufacturing income falls
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Source USDA in Willard Cochrane, The Development
of American Agriculture
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Source ERS (Cochrane, p. 232)
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Source ERS (Cochrane, p. 232)
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AERO
Southeast Minnesota Food Network
Food Alliance
Red Tomato
Six Iroquois Nations
Buffalo Commons
CISA
Sunflower Fields Farm
NYC
Food Trust
California Alliance with Family Farms
Food Circles
Oglala Aquifer
Community Food Alliance
ASAP
Federation of Southern Coops
Tohono Oodham