With 38 percent of Cook County’s gross sales tied to the purchase of food, it would seem that there is a lot of room for local producers to tap into that market and make a good living.
But of the $78,239,999 spent on food products in Cook County in 2013, local growers produced and sold less than 1 percent of that total.
And no one, except for a couple of maple syrup producers, made even close to a living off of their harvest.
Cook County Community Center/Extension Director Diane Booth thinks that could change, and she was in front of the County Commissioners on Tuesday, May 24 with the results of the Green Dollar Survey conducted by the Northwoods Food Project that shows that food plays a major role in our economy.
Booth is a co-founder of the Northwoods Food Project. As a Minnesota Extension Master Gardener for the past 30 years and a co-host of the Northern Gardening radio show on WTIP, Booth is passionate about growing not only her own food, but teaching others as well, and she hopes by encouraging people, they will seek to produce and sell their products to a local market that is willing to buy locally grown goods.
In the Green Dollar Survey, 17 businesses said they would like to purchase 33 products harvested within the county. A majority wanted fruits and vegetables and some wanted maple syrup, eggs, bakery items, local meats, poultry, honey, beer, juice, coffee, beans, and BBQ sauce.
However, said Booth, businesses made it clear they wanted products delivered to them in the quantity they ordered and in a condition they could promptly use.
“If a business agrees to purchase ‘rhubarb’ or some other specialty for a specific season, they need high quality and availability as the business requires it and there must be a backup if the crop fails,” she said.
One of the restaurant owners responding to the survey wrote, “Can’t just bring in for the few weeks that their produce is available and leave our restaurant in a lurch for the rest of the year. Where can I get 30 dozen eggs when I need them in two days? Likewise, what happens in the off-season when my demand is not high?”
So there are some obstacles to hurdle, said Booth, noting the county also has less than 10 percent private land (and much of that needs to be cleared) and the earth consists of thin, rocky soil. Then too there is no local feed mill, no equipment that can be rented, a lack of labor to hire during peak harvesting seasons and the nearest place to get one’s meat butchered and packaged is more than two hours away.
Still, Booth said 79 percent of those surveyed were willing to expand production to meet the demand for locally grown food. Booth cited the recent success of Victus Farms in Silver Bay where aquaponic and hydroponic produce grown there has already been sold at farmers markets, to local restaurants, and in grocery stores. The year-round indoor farm has water circulating throughout the facility that is used to produce fish, which provide nutrients to the plants and can be sold at a profit.
While creating a Victus Farms is beyond the reach of most individuals—it is the creation and unique partnership between the City of Silver Bay and the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Center for Sustainable Community Development—lessons for entrepreneurs can be learned from what has taken place there, said Booth.
Some ideas to help local entrepreneurs include developing an “equipment needed” and “equipment available” list and a system of rotation for commonly held equipment.
Lands owned by the government might be able to be leased for farming, said Booth, and current producers should be provided with more access to affordable capital opportunities through small business loans, grants, business development and agricultural training.
The extension office can also help by assisting with the development of a website, newsletter, or weekly “hot sheet” to connect producers and businesses, said Booth. And it could offer to support producers by providing agricultural training as needed and requested by the producers. Another suggestion was to work with the University of Minnesota to develop agricultural internship programs for Cook County.
Some interesting facts from the Green Dollar Survey:
. In 2013 total gross sales for the county were estimated to be $206,909,405 and tax collections for 2014 indicate those numbers remained about the same.
.Thirty-eight percent of those sales were spent on food products. Breaking that number down, $63.1 million is estimated for food sales related to tourism, and of that, $15.1 million is estimated to be food sales related to year-round households in the county.
.The average size of a family in Cook County is two people and they spend approximately $505 per month on food—or about 21 percent of their monthly income.
Leave a Reply