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Northeast Farms to Food Understanding Our Region’s Food System The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group PO Box 608, Belchertown, MA 01007 413-323-4531 [email protected] September 2002 ©2002 NESAWG/New England Small Farm Institute Preface and Acknowledgments NORTHEAST FARMS TO FOOD: UNDERSTANDING OUR REGION’S FOOD SYSTEM The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Kathy Ruhf, NESAWG coordinator Researchers and co-authors: Vern Grubinger, University of Vermont Matthew Hora, Capital Area Food Bank (Washington D.C.) Sue Ellen Johnson, New England Small Farm Institute (Mass.) Kathy Lawrence, National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture (N.Y.) The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) was founded in 1992. It is a regional network of groups and individuals working together to create a more sustainable, secure, and just food system for the Northeast. NESAWG works on the full range of food system issues, including local, state, and federal farm and food policy, local and regional food-based economic and community development, public education, food access and nutrition, natural resource conservation and stewardship, and leadership development. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The project coordinator would like to especially thank Vern Grubinger, Sue Ellen Johnson, Matt Hora, and Kathy Lawrence for their exhaustive research and written contributions to this publication. Thanks go to the Capitol Area Food Bank for sharing information that originally appeared in their 2001 publication, From Farm to Table: Making the Connection in the Mid-Atlantic Food System. Thanks to the authors of the NESAWG White Papers. Thanks also to NESAWG Steering Committee members Cynthia Barstow (Mass.) and Judith Gillan (Mass.). Funding for this project comes from the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, the Lawson Valentine Foundation, and the Wallace Genetic Foundation. KZR SEPTEMBER 2002 ©2002 NESAWG/New England Small Farm Institute Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments . .iii Chapter Two: PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION . .37 Section One Overview . .37 Introduction . .vii Major Trends . .37 Section Two Processing . .38 Part I — A Look at the Food System . .1 Section Three Distribution . .41 Chapter One: PRODUCTION . .1 Wholesaling . .42 Section One Northeast Farms and Land Resources . .1 Wholesale Industries . .43 Farmland by Type . .2 NE Fresh Produce Distribution . .44 Farms by Size . .4 Retailing . .46 The Cost of Land . .6 Direct Marketing . .49 Farmland Loss . .7 Transportation and “Food Miles” . .50 Section Two Northeast Farmers . .8 Chapter Three: CONSUMPTION . .51 Farm Operators . .9 Section One Population and Demographics . .51 Farm Labor . .11 Census Population Change . .51 Farm Ownership and Tenure . .13 Population by Race or National Origin .52 Section Three Northeast Production . .15 Section Two Eating Habits and Market Trends . .53 Farms by Type . .15 Dietary Patterns in the US . .54 Agricultural Sales . .17 Food Purchasing Trends . .55 Production by Commodity . .18 Food Fears . .57 Section Four Production Systems . .22 Section Three Food Access and Insecurity . .58 Fertility Management . .22 Food Insecurity . .58 Pest Management . .23 Food Access: the Challenge . .59 Livestock Waste Management . .24 Responses: Government Programs . .60 Energy Use . .25 Responses: Community Food Projects . .61 Water Use . .26 Chapter Four: CONCLUSION . .63 Organic Agriculture . .27 What Have We Learned? . .63 Section Five Northeast Farm Economics . .28 What Do We Want? . .64 Farm Sales by Class . .29 How Do We Get There? . .64 Farmers’ Share of the Food Dollar . .31 Net Cash Returns in the US and NE . .33 Part II — References and Resources Exports . .34 Government Payments . .35 BIBLIOGRAPHY . .74 WHITE PAPERS . .76 NESAWG MEMBERS . .79 Introduction But, ... we should first learn the winds and the nature of the sky, the customary cultivation and the ways of the place, what each region bears and rejects. Here corn shoots up, and there grapes do. Elsewhere young trees grow strong and the wild grasses. — Virgil, The Georgics, Book I, 29 B.C. ver five years ago, a small group of NESAWG members The purpose of this document is to provide information and analysis envisioned a “little publication” that would describe and about the Northeast food and farming system. It is intended as an Oexplain the Northeast food system. Wouldn’t it be great — introduction for those who are new to thinking about Northeast and important — for us to have in hand all the information about food and agriculture, and as a resource for anyone who wants to production, distribution, and consumption of food (and fiber) in our increase his or her understanding about these complex issues. Please, region? Then, we speculated, we could better understand our food use the information in your newsletters, presentations, and proposals, system, analyze it, and strategize toward change. in letters to the editor. (Share a white paper with your study group, organization, community, and legislators.) The path to realizing that vision has been lengthy and sobering. We now know that there is a lot that we don’t know, and cannot find While the information in Part I is factual (and the opinions of the out; certain data simply does not exist. Yet, through the diligence of white paper authors are their own), NESAWG’s perspective and several NESAWG investigators, researchers, and writers, we are biases are clear. NESAWG is a network of organizations and proud to present a substantial compilation of information about all individuals working to create a more sustainable and secure regional sectors of the region’s food and farming system, contained in Part I food system — one that produces safe and healthful food and is of this publication. economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially just. Its 70 member organizations share the conviction that our current food In 1998, about 20 Northeast food system analysts and advocates system is profoundly flawed. responded to an invitation to write a “white paper” about an aspect of the region’s food system. Two years later, the authors were invited The Northeast will never produce the volume and kinds of to update and edit their contribution in preparation for inclusion in agricultural products that are grown in other US regions. We have NESAWG’s pending publication. This rich and diverse collection natural resource, climate, and other constraints. Yet, for every from many of the Northeast’s leading food system thinkers is constraint there is an opportunity: abundant and proximate markets, described in Part II. ample water supplies, and an increasingly aware citizenry. In the Northeast, all agriculture is local. Communities rally to “save the last ❖ We have been diligent about source attribution. The farm.” States pass substantial farmland preservation bond bills. source will be identified after the last piece in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) flourishes. Other regions collection of data from that source. In some cases, look to the Northeast as a leader in direct marketing, food policy the original source could not be determined. The development, farmland protection, organic agriculture, community absence of a citation does raise questions about the food projects, supporting new and immigrant farmers and urban- veracity of the fact or data; nonetheless, the project rural connections. coordinator decided to include the information. ❖ Current federal farm and food policy has fostered industrialization, When we use the term “food system,” we are concentration, corporatization, and globalization at the cost of referring to the production, transformation environmental stewardship, local economies, the family farm, and (processing), distribution, and consumption of food. consumer control. And federal policy has continually shortchanged, However, we also include fiber products in our if not ignored, Northeast farmers and consumers. We simultaneously investigation of the production sector. For example, face the loss of agricultural resources, including land, farmers, and data about farm acreage will include acres devoted service infrastructure, and a decline in access to quality foodstuffs to fiber products such as wool from sheep, and may (with an increase in hunger and food insecurity). Perhaps the silver include forested acres that are considered part of lining to this policy failure is that Northeast states and communities the farm. And, while seafood is a major Northeast have been motivated to develop their own approaches to fostering food product, it is not considered in this analysis, regional agriculture, re-localizing and stimulating food-based unless specified. economic development, and providing access to safe, fresh, and ❖ There is a lot we don’t know and were not able to nutritious food for all its citizens. This publication is a tool to help find. “How much of what is produced in the advance these efforts. Northeast, is consumed in the Northeast?” is an example of an important question for which there is When you read Northeast Farms to Food: Understanding Our Region’s no simple answer. Our investigations have helped Food System, there are a few important things to keep in mind: us to understand not only the complexities of our food system, but also the complexities involved in ❖ NESAWG and this publication cover 12 states trying to understand it! — Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, The work involved to put this publication together was substantial. New York, Pennsylvania,