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Small Bites
January 15, 2025
Creating opportunities to support & amplify regional food systems, not only in Vermont. Featuring producers, distributors, & retailers connecting global marketplace insights
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The year has gotten off to a painful start with the fires in LA. The depth of sorrow & the economic impact will never be fully measured. It feels like wherever we are it is only a matter of time before we succumb to climate tragedy first-hand, as many Vermonters have with the floods the past two years.
Another painful bit of news from California is the rounding up of farmworkers in the citrus groves. From CAL Matters: Acres of orange fields sat unpicked in Kern County this week as word of Border Patrol raids circulated through Messenger chats and images of federal agents detaining laborers spread on local Facebook groups.
The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers.
This appears to be the first large-scale Border Patrol raid in California since the election of Donald Trump, coming just a day after Congress certified the election on January 6, in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency. The panic and confusion, for both immigrants and local businesses that rely on their labor, foreshadow what awaits communities across California (& Vermont) if Trump follows through on his promise to conduct mass deportations. “If this is the new normal, this is absolute economic devastation,” says one local economist.
From the Organic Insider, in late December Congress passed a last-minute spending package to prevent a government shutdown and extended the Farm Bill for another year. Yet, lost in all of the headlines was that funding for vital organic programs was excluded. Though the cost is minuscule in relation to the overall Farm Bill, just over $10 million per year, the damage to our industry will be severe. Among other things, thousands of organic farms and businesses across the U.S. will see a big jump in the cost of getting certified, and an inability to purchase critical technology infrastructure will cripple efforts to enforce organic regulations and prevent fraud.
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What's in Store for Retail?
Word around the block is that grocery prices are not expected to immediately drop on January 20th despite the wishes sweeping the nation prior to November 5th.
What we expect is a year of major uncertainties across food & agricultural policies under the new administration. The implications to the retail landscape will develop over time.
Our independent stores & coops will be juggling procurement decisions to balance out product mix & pricing. What we can also predict is that the enormous profits of publicly traded companies- which drive food prices- will continue as will the pay structure of management. This makes for significant disconnects to the store price image & the shopper.
We shall see who is to thrive & who will just barely survive in 2025.
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A Short List of 2025
Notable Updates
At the Roots Farm Market in Middlesex, January is getting off to a great start. A long awaited "grand opening" retail & operations expansion is happening Friday the 17th. In its five years, the stores focus on local & regional foods has met its goals, which includes utilizing grants & VSFJ coaching services to help grow its economic impact.
The Plainfield Coop will be completing its move to the new location on Route 2 & continue to retool its merchandising & operations. The move will help drive sales of more Vermont products, create another welcoming environment for shoppers & in tandem with Plainfield Hardware be a unique setting for folks in the area to buy food & home-good essentials.
The Rutland Food Coop will be hiring a new GM as announced in December.
Maple Wind Farm has an opening for an inventory & fulfillment specialist, a unique position that integrates the retail farm store with the farm operation.
Center for an Agricultural Economy has a major expansion underway & seeks a Facilities Coordinator to prepare for their move to the eagerly awaited expanded logistics of Farm Connex & the CAE food hub.
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2025 Artisan Cheesemaker Winter Conference
Vermont Cheese Council hosts a virtual conference in February.
Two deep-dive topics, each spanning a half-day with industry experts will educate producers & cheese mongers. Descriptive Sensory Analysis with Roy Deroschers highlights consumer testing methods, & flavor criteria.
The Art of Affinage with Eric Meredith provides technical info on managing the aging process, common affinage-related defects, & shoestring fixes all for continuous improvement.
These two days will benefit cheesemakers, retail cheese mongers, distributors, & industry friends. Get more info & Register now!
| Affinage: the art & science of how cheese is produced & cured. For a more detailed picture, read this article from Cheese Connoisseur | |
Say Cheese, Please!
Up in northern Vermont the Boston Post Dairy handcrafts goat & cow milk cheeses to sell to stores across the region. They also operate a successful farm store of local products, complete with a window into their production room where customers can learn about the farm & watch the cheesemaking operation. Stores throughout the state have access through several distributors: Pumpkin Village Foods & Provisions International.
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Shelf Stable Staple
Salsa from the Gut & Catamount Salsa are hot hot hot flying off the shelves up & down Vermont. Small batch made & a fan-favorite for their line of jalapeno salsa. The Gut is named after a neighborhood in Rutland & has made a name for itself.
Both lines of salsa are strong & steady at coops & inde stores. Lesser distributes weekly on set routes that include South Royalton Food Coop & Londonderry Village Market, Healthy Living, City Market & in season, farmstands including Jubliee.
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Building the Retail Mindset
Many Small Bites readers are familiar with our cohort & friend Jeanie Wells. She is the brains behind a fantastic training program for inde & coops stores, Mighty Community Markets. In November of 2023 she joined with James Morrell & the Vermont Grocery Project's retail team to share her skills in person with stores across the region.
Like many of us with a deep reverence for community-focused stores, she shares her skills to help drive profitability. From engaging with store workers across the country, she knows firsthand that our store workers are essential, no matter if that recognition is (still) widely proclaimed. Check out this sweet video she made, it is an act of joyful appreciation! AND pay attention as we are lining up more engagements with Jeanie for stores to thrive in '25.
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Attention!
Tradeshow Season is Upon Us
Gaining sales skills is imperative to effectively meet buyers or potential consumers of your products. The VAAFM has helped food manufacturers gain marketing skills through the Tradeshow assistance grants program. The deadline to apply is coming right up. Get the details here. Local food centric non-profits & food hubs offer "gateway" meet ups to build your skill level too.
Regional tradeshows matter too. In Boston, the SBN’s 2025 Local Food Trade Show Tuesday, January 28th is the place to connect regional New England producers & buyers in. Along with a wide range of producers, there will be buyers at grocery stores, specialty food shops, restaurants, distributors, institutions, farm stores, & CSAs. Join SBN to attend the meet up at Russell’s Garden Center in Wayland, MA.
(snow date: February 4th)
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Building Regional Sales
A collaboration between the
Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership & the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center’s Tradeshow Grant program seven organic dairy processors will be attending the Good Food Mercantile in NYC in June.
Balfour Farm, Butterworks Farm, Champlain Valley Creamery, Kriemhild Dairy, Larson Farm and Creamery, Sidehill Farm, & Strafford Organic Creamery will showcase pasture-focused organic cheeses, yogurts, milk, ice cream, & butter. These products embody the very best of New England & eastern New York’s organic dairy heritage.
At the tradeshow producers are connecting with specialty shops, grocers, & distributors eager to bring high-quality organic dairy to consumers in NYC & New England.
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On the Road
Whatever it takes to get food to folks for the holidays is how we roll. We are hearing from our distributors that sales of VT products were vibrant for the entire holiday season. From meat to cheese to all forms of dairy, 4th quarter store sales & units delivered were strong.
It can be tricky in winter for truck drivers to deliver to stores: parking lots with piles of snow, full hand trucks pushed through slush & ice. But that is what it takes. Drivers are a key reason your food shelves have the food they do. Here in Vermont, routes can be too icy, or greasy snow prevents trucks of all sizes from crossing our mountain gaps.
Lesser Distribution rendezvoused with the Lincoln General to make sure the store had its order in time for NYE. When the usual transactions could not occur because ACORN food hub was closed for the holiday a little creative meet-up was in order. There was another creative dosey-doe by Lesser to make the connection to pick up Goodman's American Pie. This is of primary importance because everyone wants this pizza. Because of the 2024 expanded production capacity, there is no shortage of this ever-popular winter (spring, summer & fall) staple! Sales at stores & for the distributors will remain strong for this favorite Vermont pizza.
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Organic Products
Effectively making changes to product offerings at the retail level can be influenced by better understanding the 'landscape of change' from around the globe.
Conceived of by farmers in Vermont now with a global reach, The Real Organic Project, is a grassroots farmer-led movement. It producers an organic food label to distinguish organic crops grown in healthy soils & organic livestock raised on well-managed pastures without synthetic chemicals and toxic chemicals. Check out the video with Paul Holmbeck: Getting Organics on the Offensive for increasing demand & increasing acreage of organic practices & international lessons-learned about national policy frameworks to help make organics thrive.
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Partnerships Grow & Move Food
Winter squash is a Vermont staple at stores & farm CSAs often delivered by food hubs & Deep Root Growers Coop. Farmers optimize their farm plans to include storage capabilities to balance their sales. Varieties that have good flavor, texture, & multiple cooking characteristics appeal to customers.
Robin's Koginut is a new squash variety developed for flavor from the chef Dan Barber, vegetable breeder Michlle Mazourek, & seedsman Matthew Goldfarb at Row 7 Seed Company. It has a creamy texture, rich flavor profile from its linage of Butternut & Kabocha. Each Robin’s Koginut seed sold supports public plant breeding research at Cornell University. The creation of this variety was funded in part by a USDA-NIFA grant. All products are certified NOP.
| This squash was grown by Deep Root farmers & is currently sold through Green Mountain Farm Direct along with a long list of root crops & hot-house grown tomatoes. GMFD products are distributed to stores along Farm Connex's robust route. | |
An Eye on Organics
From the Organic Insider: There is only one USDA organic seal, yet there are two different sets of rules enforced in the field by certifying agencies. Some organic certifiers allow hydroponics & CAFO livestock factories, while others do not.
The organic farming movement started as a values-based industry. It was built on a loving, collaborative relationship between family-scale farmers & shoppers willing to pay for food produced based on superior environmental stewardship, humane animal husbandry & economic-justice for the people who produce our food. -OrganicEye
OrganicEye’s mission is ensuring these values & commitments are not compromised. Check out their list of certifiers that are upholding the highest value & intension of organics.
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C&S Wholesaler to Lay Off Workers
C & S is one of the top fifteen largest food distributors in the country. It is based in NH yet, its regional warehouse is in Brattleboro, VT. At least 50 employees at the warehouse will be let go. The details & impacts of this layoff are not yet clear. C & S sells to stores across the nation, including here in Vermont. Historically it has not been a large buyer of local products.
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Industry Insiders:
Teachings From Errol Schweizer
My hero, & soon likely yours, has a Substack totally worth investing in for CPG brands & stores looking to understand their role in a "competitive retail environment".
As a food manufacturer seeking to widen distribution options to the national level, paying attention to how the system truly operates is to your growth advantage. Stores & vendors may not fully be aware of the cost of distribution details, but you are aware of the impacts. Below are some of Errol's insights to help store workers & food manufacturers.
The modern grocery industry is built on extractive practices. A lot of what seems normal & accepted in the industry is probably a big mystery to most consumers, & even journalists, scholars, & regulators.
Market concentration enables gatekeepers to set participation tolls & fees as they please, siphoning value from consumers, workers, suppliers & growers to enrich executives & shareholders.
Implementing a 6% EDLC (or everyday low cost scan) for suppliers. The discount gets billed back to suppliers once an item is rung up at the retailers checkout & does not reduce cost of inventory.
But this means that a supplier that already has an annual 20% promotional trade spend rate, another 6% will mean a 30% increase in spending. And because it is “internal”, or not meant to reduce the shelf price proportionately, it will have no real ROI (return on investment) or quid pro quo other than not getting on the retailer’s vendor sh***t list. Fear is currency.
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New England Feeding
New England
It takes a region to build sales. To get products to accounts, a sales & marketing plan makes sense for farm-based & CPG businesses. That can be a real challenge as sales do not always come easily. Starting incrementally with local distributors can work well, as can attending tradeshows & meet- ups commensurate with your scale of operations, capitalization, & aspirations.
Reorders are the lifeline of any brand. It's all grand to get into a distributor or a store, but the cream rises with repeat sales. For the Boston Post Dairy, way up near the Canadian border, they have built a business that gets their cheese to a wide number of points in New England (& even goat feta to Saxelby in NYC)
Through Provisions International they have accessed retail accounts outside of Vermont & where cheese mongers really know their stuff. Their cheeses have a huge fan club with strong repeat sales in New Hampshire at Nature's Green Grocer, Peterborough; Spring Ledge Farm, New London; Hanover and Lebonon Co-ops. They have made inroads into Massachusetts at Verrill Farm, Concord; & in Boston at Bacco's Wine & Cheese.
Reaching Vermont stores, through direct to store delivery (DSD) or BOL freight services, they use Vermont Roots, Pumpkin Village Foods & Provisions International.
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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: Abby @ Maple Wind Farm, Vermont Farmers Food Center, Green Mountain Farm Direct, Lesser Distribution, Olga @ Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership
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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