FoodWorks A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System The New York City Council Christine C. Quinn, Speaker Acknowledgements This report would not be possible without the insights and contributions of hundreds of New Yorkers and organizations who work every day to improve our food system. In particular, we would like to thank the following people for their invaluable guidance and dedication to this project: Hilary Baum, Baum Forum Joel Berg, New York City Coalition Against Hunger Nevin Cohen, The New School Michael Conard, Urban Design Lab, the Earth Institute at Columbia University Fern Gale Estrow, FGE Food & Nutrition Team Christina Grace, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Karen Karp, Karp Resources Ruth Katz, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture Robert Lewis, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Report prepared by: Sarah Brannen Research and editorial assistants: Gabrielle Blavatsky and Heidi Exline Report designed by: Antonio M. Rodriguez Additional assistance provided by: Kubi Ackerman, Lisette Camilo, Brendan Cheney, Crystal Coston, Brandon Colson, Pamela Corbett, Danielle DeCerbo, Lyle Frank, Matthew Gewolb, Jeffrey Haberman, Anthony Hogrebe, Jarret Hova, Noah Isaacs, Wayne Kawadler, Meghan Linehan, Omany Luna, Christine McLaughlin, Jeffrey Metzler, Margaret Nelson, Robert Newman, Laura Popa, Danielle Porcaro, Steven Presser, David Pristin, Alix Pustilnik, Adira Siman, Samara Swanston FoodWorks • A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 2 OUR FOOD SYSTEM: A HISTORY OF CHANGE 2 MOVING FROM FOOD SYSTEM INSECURITY TO OPPORTUNITY 10 THE FOODWORKS PLAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 13 PROCESSING 31 DISTRIBUTION 39 CONSUMPTION 47 POST- CONSUMPTION 65 73 NEXT STEPS A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System • FoodWorks Introduction FoodWorks A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System ach morning before Dagele Brothers has provided choices about using fertilizers sunrise, a truck leaves them with over 40,000 pounds and pesticides. Restaurants Dagele Brothers Farm of produce—everything from make choices about where to in Orange County, peppers to celery.) After buy ingredients and how to ENew York, and travels 60 miles these employees finish turning dispose of their food scraps south to the Hunts Point Mar- fresh produce into salads, the and cooking grease. City gov- ket in the Bronx. There, the new products are then trucked ernment makes choices every driver makes his first drop of to a network of more than day about what type of food it the day at a warehouse operat- 350 delis and grocery stores buys and from where. It makes ed by the Food Bank for New around the city. choices about infrastructure York City. (Each year Dagele improvements and investments Brothers provides 560,000 Every day, New Yorkers make in our food economy. And it 1 pounds of fresh produce to choices about what and where enacts building, tax, and ad- the Food Bank from four dif- we eat. When we buy a salad, ministrative policies that affect ferent New York State farms.) we might not think about all communities and businesses. Food Bank trucks then make the people and places that their way throughout the city, were involved in its creation. Individual choices like these dropping off fresh produce to But the simple act of eating have an impact on every phase over 1,000 food pantries, soup that salad could be creat- of our food system, from farm kitchens, and other community ing jobs on a farm in Orange to table and beyond. Each organizations across the five County, at a distribution center action has the potential to boroughs – groups that serve in Hunts Point, and at a factory improve our health, our econ- 400,000 free meals to hungry in Jamaica, Queens. It could omy, and our environment. New Yorkers every day. also be supporting a growing This FoodWorks plan explores operation that helps get food some of the ways in which the Meanwhile, our Dagele Broth- to hungry New Yorkers. And many pieces of our complex ers driver has continued over it could be a healthy choice to food system are interconnect- the bridge from the Bronx help reduce our risk of obesity, ed, sets goals to help us make and on to a food processor diabetes, and heart disease. better choices, and presents a in Jamaica, Queens, which blueprint for some initial steps, employs more than 200 New Businesses and government both large and small, that can Yorkers making salads, wraps, also make decisions about how make the system stronger and and other healthy meals. they produce, process, and more sustainable for genera- (Just in this growing season, distribute food. Farmers make tions to come. A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System • FoodWorks FoodWorks OUR FOOD SYSTEM: NYS Farmers and Population 1840-2007 A HISTORY OF CHANGE Food is one of our most basic needs. Throughout human history, the pursuit of food has driven our social, economic, and cultural develop- ment. The domestication of animals and the development of agriculture paved the way for the first settle- ments. Later it was the ability of farmers to move from subsistence to surplus production that allowed (1000s) State Population York New for specialization of labor and fueled the growth of civilizations around the world. Similarly, increased efficiency and consolidation of food produc- tion helped feed a rapidly growing Source: USDA Agricultural Census 1840-2007 population throughout the 20th Century. In the United States, the ways helped transport goods from investments can encourage positive growth of large scale, centralized coast to coast, further supporting changes for the food system of future food production and distribution co- centralized food production. generations. This report outlines a incided with the Industrial Revolution plan for key legislative changes, public and supported mass urbanization Food systems have changed through- and private investments, infrastructure and economic growth. Advances in out history to support the evolution improvements, and partnerships to agriculture through pesticides, syn- and economic growth of societies. improve our food system. thetic fertilizers, mechanization, and Today we are once again confronted 2 public subsidies increased the ef- with the need for additional change MOVING FROM FOOD ficiency and productivity of American to the food system. Our national SYSTEM INSECURITY farmers. As a result, from the 1930s food system evolved to support a TO OPPORTUNITY to 2002, the portion of Americans rapidly growing population, and it employed in farming decreased from has allowed us to feed more people As New York City is expected to 24 percent to 1.5 percent.1 Whereas than ever before. Yet, that evolution add nearly one million new resi- in 1940, each farmer produced had unintended consequences. Our dents in the next two decades,3 we enough food to feed 11 people, by current system is characterized by high must identify ways to move from an the 1990s each produced enough energy usage and waste throughout all unsustainable food system to one to feed 100 people.2 The develop- phases; an aging farming population; that promotes health, environmental ment of quick freezing and other loss of farmland to development and sustainability, and a thriving econ- preservation techniques allowed degradation; and an obesity epidemic omy. In 1996, the Food and Agri- food to maintain nutritional value for that threatens to reverse generations culture Organization of the United longer periods and reduced product of public health progress. Because of Nations wrote that “food security” loss for both producers and retail- these challenges, the very system that occurs when food systems operate ers. Government services like the is meant to sustain and nourish us im- so that “all people, at all times, have Supplemental Nutrition Assistance poses costs to our health, our econo- physical and economic access to Program, which started in 1939, of- my, and our environment. However, sufficient, safe, and nutritious food fered a basic level of food access to just as the policies and technologies to meet their dietary needs and food all Americans, regardless of income. of the past created the food system preferences for an active and healthy And after World War II, new high- we experience now, new policies and lifestyle.”4 By this definition, the NYC stops Refrigerated dumping First U.S. Invention John Deere train cars garbage aluminum Henry Ford Horses are of food & Leonard Mixed introduced, from a recycling Food and introduces Clarence domesticated preserved Andrus begin chemical increasing na- platform plant opens Drug Act the Fordson, Birdseye, a Egyptians use for transport, Chinese in cans feeds manufacturing fertilizers tional markets built over in Chicago, & Meat the first mass Brooklynite, yeast to make plowing, use salt to Napoleon’s steel plows & sold com- for fruit and the East IL and Inspection produced tests frozen bread and drafting preserve food Army threshing mercially vegetables River Cleveland, OH Act pass tractor food technology 4000 B.C. 3000 B.C. 2700 B.C. 1810 1837 1849 1870 1872 1904 1906 1917 1923 U.S. Industrial Revolution World War I FoodWorks New York City food system is not New York City Food Outlets fully secure. Additionally, our food NYC Food Outlets 2010 system faces a number of issues Food Outlet Quantity that compromise its long-term sus- Restaurants 24,000 tainability. Agricultural production Supermarkets, Grocery Stores & Convenience Stores 5,445 is energy intensive, greatly contrib- Food Wholesalers 1,730 utes to greenhouse gas (GHG) Public Schools 1,500 emissions, and is not economi- Emergency Feeding Programs 1,000 cally viable for many farmers. Food Food & Beverage Manufacturers 1,000 processing and distribution require Green Carts 445 Source: Bureau of Labor large non-renewable energy inputs Farmers Markets 120 Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and further impact our environ- and NYC Dept. of Health Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) 100 ment.