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Small Bites
November 19, 2024
Creating opportunities to support & amplify regional food systems, not only in Vermont. We feature producers, distributors, and retail connections in a global marketplace with insights applicable to regions outside the state.
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The Producer, Distributor, Buyer Forum on November 12th was a hit. Held at the Retreat Farm Barn in Brattleboro, we addressed current issues with a wide range of topics across production, distribution, & the conundrums faced by retail buyers. With five of the six New England States represented, The Forum touched on the alignment of goals of NEFNE and the 30x30.
The best part of the Forum, is that there was no one single best part! We received loads of wonderful comments from past attendees, and from first timers. New relationships are surely being made, just the way I like it. The food system as we know it will be undergoing changes the next four years. Though we touched on a few systemic variables, there is much to speak out about as to effect positive changes. Find your place, & find a pace to keep up our good work, because Trump confirmed that he intends to bypass normal legal constraints on his actions by declaring a national emergency on his first day in office in order to launch his mass deportation of undocumented migrants (HCR) That will undoubtedly impact our nation as we have known it.
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"It was excellent! The candid conversation and inside baseball knowledge about distribution was invaluable. In addition, the contacts both with distributors and information sharing with other producers was ideal one-stop networking. It's really hard for small producers to get away from their farm or production facility. I'm glad that I invested the time in participating yesterday. I know that other participants felt the same way. Thank you again! " -Sisters of Anarchy | |
This issue of Small Bites dives into connected food issues & policies, along with our usual Bites covering local foods, stores & operational considerations. Take a look-see. -Annie | |
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Not Taking Things
for Granted
According to the incoming president, tariffs are going to be levied lickety-split impacting decisions across the supply chain as soon as the first quarter. They are expected to impact both imports & exports.
When supply chains are disrupted, there are unintended reactions. Remember way back in 2020 & 2021 when container ships were lined up in San Diego & packaging supplies for CPG bottled products couldn't get to our food manufacturers? Or how disruptions favored the large entities such as huge stores that didn't include you? Packaging materials contribute to end prices for shoppers. With tariffs on incoming costs will undoubtedly continue to be added impacting prices at the store & consumer level.
Of course we do not know how this will play out, or what products will be most impacted BUT we do know there will be significant repercussions in our food / food adjacent businesses. Costs of imported food will go up. All those nice specialty products at our regional distributors could take a hit. (San Marzano tomatoes, world class imported cheese, fruit come to mind)
For Vermont's wood industry & pallet manufacturers, there may be an opening for expansion. 90% of wooden pallets are made domestically, but they could be in higher demand with an increase in domestic production & distribution.
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Fact or Fiction?
Upon Trump's win, the entire Cargill-MacMillan family decided to give up their salaries to lower food prices immediately. With revenues topping more than $160 billion, the 100 members of the family's global empire will not be taking any income for 12 months. This family (each a billionaire) controls more than a quarter of the entire global grain trade market & recognizes the struggles shoppers have been experiencing with high food prices in the US. By taking no income, they are directly lowering prices across the food system. FICTION (they are not giving up their salaries, dividends or stocks to immediately lower food prices)
Read more on Cargill in Austin Frerick's book Barons
|  | November is busy at Maple Wind Farm. Turkeys, turkeys, & more turkeys. Yet they took the time to attend the Forum! They are excited to say their product line is expanding to pet food. The Pasture Pet products are available in 14 stores & MWF seeks to take this brand national. They welcome food hubs & independent distributors to take note of this new line to round out their mix & contribute to the $65 billion dollar pet food business. Their tag line For the Animals & the Land, speaks to the 26 years the farm has nurtured their business. Check out the tail wagging tale about nutrient dense jerky & nibs at WCAX. |  | |
Service Still Matters!
Stores continue to differentiate their product mix with merchandising & service. The more staff learn, the more they serve shoppers & the more the sales are enhanced through relationships. With a well-trained staff knowledge becomes an element of trust, with trust comes reciprocity, which translates into sales.
Each department offers an opportunity for store staff to develop their own set of insights & understanding to share with shoppers. For instance, cheese mongers can tune into The Mobile Monger, a podcast series devoted to sharing info that ultimately builds upon itself to enhance sales. We met Janee’ Muha, when she joined the Vermont Cheese Summit this summer as a curd nerd, taking in our farms & cheese makers & spreading her passion for all things cheese.
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NEK: Hey Hey Hey
Tucked in the hills & valleys of the northeast corner of the state are loads of independent food-based businesses. Many of them reach their sales goals by selling through the online platform Green Mountain Farm Direct & GM Farm to School in Newport. Products are shipped through the logistics food hub Farm Connex, in Hardwick.
This type of NGO business to business partnering supports our rural stores, schools, & institutions to access local food. The easy on-boarding of products & the clear ordering timeframe has been made possible by grants since 2009. The commitment to partnering with producers & agents for change has contributed to the strength of the Vermont food shed. All the partners contribute to the Farm to Plate Network & the goals of sales of regional 30x30 for New England
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Defining VT Local
In prior Small Bites, you have seen the clues about what is "local" to Vermont per ACT 129. Here is an example of a complying business:
FUNJ.shrooming is considered local to Vermont.
In the “raw agricultural product” definition, one hundred percent of the raw food product was grown or tapped in Vermont.
A ‘raw agricultural product’ is any food in its raw or natural state without added ingredients, & includes pasteurized or homogenized milk, maple sap or syrup, honey, meat, eggs, apple cider, & fruits or vegetables that may be washed, colored, or otherwise treated in their unpeeled natural form prior to marketing.
A raw agriculture product is “local” &/or “Vermont” food if it is: Exclusively grown or tapped in Vermont; NOT milk, & was derived from an animal that was raised for a substantial period of its life in Vermont (meaning the animal was harvested in Vermont and lived in Vermont for at least one third of its life or one year); IS milk, where a majority of the milk was produced from Vermont animals; or Is honey produced by Vermont colonies located exclusively in Vermont when all nectar was collected.
FUNJ.shrooming is considered Vermont Local & sells through GMFD! It is based in state & meets the definition of raw. Stores, please provide a "Vermont local attribute" in your POS so you can capture the sales data for NEFNE!
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What is Behind Food Costs?:
Independent grocers are failing, not because they can’t compete with the bigger chains on service. It’s because those chain retailers have been allowed by lax antitrust enforcers to bully their suppliers into exclusive deals. Those suppliers, squeezed by powerful retailers, then try to make up their lost profits by overcharging independent grocers for the same goods.
Without the ban on price discrimination, massive retail chains like Walmart & Kroger set off a domino effect of consolidation among grocers, wholesalers & consumer goods companies all trying to get bigger to keep from getting squeezed.
Unchecked price discrimination gave rise to monopoly power across the food industry. Read more from ILSR & on Robinson-Patman Act
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Follow the Money:
It's Going to be Bad
Since the election there is a lot of "food system" angst around what will happen with the implications of Project 25. Among many of the alarming elements is deportation. We know our food system is broken. Our federally subsidized dairy industry requires undocumented laborers to sustain it.
Nationally, an estimated 30–50% of the meatpacking workforce are undocumented. 'Meat employers use both the H-2A & H2-B visa programs to find workers for positions they are unable to fill with American workers. The H-2A visa, for temporary agricultural workers, is used to hire workers to tend to livestock or maintain the machinery and buildings on the farm. The H-2B visa, for temporary non-agricultural workers, is used to hire workers to butcher meat or inspect and clean all cuts of meat and machinery according to federal regulations. Dairy farms, which require year-round help, do not typically benefit from the H-2A or H-2B visa programs, which only allow employers to bring in agricultural workers for a season.' Read more from -AIC
Policies supported by billionaire titans of the industries, are going to be at cross purposes. But the GEO Group, a for profit detention business will benefit from rounding up workers across different ag & food sectors.
"GEO Chief Executive Officer Brian Evans added that unused beds at their facilities could generate $400 million in annualized revenues if filled, & the company has the capacity to scale up an existing surveillance & monitoring program to cover “millions” of immigrants for additional revenue. This is to us an unprecedented opportunity,” he said. -Bloomberg
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Fact or Fiction?
The reelection of Donald Trump will have a grave impact on Migrant Justice’s community & will shape their work in the coming years. Over the past two weeks, they have held many conversations on farms & around kitchen tables about what this election means for the organization.
Spokesperson Rossy Alfaro participated in a roundtable of farmworker leaders from around the country & was interviewed by truthout online.
The GEO Group, houses ICE detainees, is on the NYSE & their CEO total compensation to Brian Evans is $2.17 million in 2024. Detention before deportation is a money making operation supported by shareholders & the NYSE. All the above is FACT
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Wheels of Fortune
Going for Gold x 2
From wonderful hill-farm grazed cows comes fabulous Vermont milk, & two gold Super Gold awards at the World Cheese Awards for 2024.
Winning with MT Alice & Mad River Blue, the Von Trapp Farmstead was up against a whopping 4,786 cheeses from around the world & evaluated by 240 international judges to identify 104 Super Golds, which were then re-judged to find the Top 14 Cheeses in the world. (WHEW!)
They are one of seven US cheesemakers to receive Super Gold, & the only US cheesemaker to receive TWO! Congratulations to VTF, it is such incredible validation to be recognized in the top 2% of cheesemakers internationally!
(Janee' Muha how's this for your podcast!?)
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FUNJ.shrooming was one of the companies who joined in the FUN at the Forum. Kevin came away with new insights on "differentiation" & relationship building by speaking with our panelists & meeting new potential buyers & continuing to hone his sales pitch.
"I got connected with Upper Valley Produce and Brattleboro Co-op and hope to explore working with them, although there is no guarantee yet. I learned just how important telling my story is as a small producer. Differentiation is tough and while us small producers may not always be the cheapest option, we often care the most about our quality, our people, & our mission." -KM
| Forum attendees (& all of you!) check out The Checkout podcasts from Errol Schweizer AND I remind readers to dive into Austin Frerick's book Barons, Money, Power, & the Corruption of America's Food Industry. Between the Errol & Austin they fill in the blanks of how the financial incentives & power structures drive the trillion-dollar food economy, impacting directly or indirectly "local & regional" sales. | |
Networks Matter:
Farm to Plate Annual Gathering
November 20 & 21. is two days of collaborative problem solving, skill building, & innovation in Vermont’s food system. See you in Killington!
Vermont Fresh Network partners with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets to publish an annual guide to finding holiday meal fixin's from local farms, markets, & restaurants around the state. This year, the guide was featured on WCAX, Morning Ag Clips, MSN.com, & Bennington Banner, & Rutland Herald's print edition.
| ACORN's Annual Meeting had a fabulous turnout. The organization is growing Vermont food sales one relationship at a time & expanding it's warehouse capacity. Details on cross docking, storage & on-boarding new vendors delighted the crowd. Two of their staff attended the Forum meeting so many folks interested in this newest of food hubs in Vermont. | Kalpana of Kay's Curries was excited to share her business at the Forum! | |
New England Feeding
New England
A huge shout out to the food manufacturers, distributors, buyers, allies & advocates from Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, & New Hampshire who joined Vermonters at the November 12th Forum. This is how we expand our regional food sales. Everyone present engaged to carry forth regional food sales.
Kalpana worked the room with her upbeat personality showcasing her sales skills. Bringing a new product to market requires this type of engagement. By traveling a bit she developed new opportunities to engage with potential ,outlets & chat it up with folks who have confronted distribution & growth challenges. She welcomes inquiries from stores & distributors: Kay's Curries Contact
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Did you Know?
Farm to Plate's events/news/jobs page is a go-to list to connect & learn. Check it out regularly & share your good stuff too! Ooddles of updates that can include agroforestry, women farmer summits, butchering seminars, staffing news, & so much more.
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Special Thanks: to everyone who voted with kindness
Small Bites comes to you via grants & is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales. We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership effort to strengthen the regional food economy
Contact: Annie Harlow
smallbites802@gmail.com
All info is subject to change.
Created with support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust
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