Sustainable Models To Fix The Food-Supply Chain From The Bottom Up

By Melissa Lind, contributing writer

The food-supply chain no longer offers equal access and not everyone is happy about it. This year’s Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders annual forum in Denver addressed just that with the theme of “Stronger Together,” the group examined social equity in the food-supply chain and a number of successful ventures were identified

Case Study: Organic Valley’s Optimized  Operational Efficiency

The food-supply chain in the U.S. appears to have many kinks. It has become difficult to get healthy food to consumers for a reasonable cost, while at the same time allowing farmers to survive on their current earnings. Supplying American consumers with food from American soil has become difficult, with problems such as diminishing farm land, fewer independent farmers with limited access to production facilities, and absent distribution channels to get food from the farm to the city.

Successful ventures such as Viva Farms in Washington State, Common Markets in Philadelphia, and Regional Access in Ithaca, NY promote distribution of local, small-producer food products to lucrative markets. These enterprises seem to have some essential elements in common such as:

• Maintaining local agri-business by addressing a lack of capable farmers through training and financing, establishing business links from local farms to fresh-food deprived areas, and reducing payment time lags from the industry standard of 60 days to 15 days, essential for the local farmer
• Obtaining a mix of venture funders and funding types including grants, loans, and loan guarantees from well-known foundations such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Park Foundation. Each venture has multiple funding types and sources
• Creating a model with social value to attract funders who want to help change the landscape and make food more producible and accessible to different socioeconomic levels
• Serving the interests of both farmers and the consumers by bringing the needs and desires of the consumer, together with the abilities of the farmer. This will ensure the two are able to connect in a method that is altered for specific local differences

Check out how the USDA is planning to further its supply-chain efficiency

Fixing the broken links that have been caused by global-commodity sourcing will enable the small farmer to survive and the socially-deprived consumer to have equity in the food-supply chain.