Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Minnesota food system study -- building trust is good business

 

I just published a new study of the Minnesota food system.  The main take-home message is that building trust is good for business.  Close relationships with suppliers and customers are exactly what allow food firms to respond to changing conditions.

 

The report, "Mapping the Minnesota Food Industry," was commissioned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota's Center for Prevention, which has launched a Healthy Eating Minnesota initiative.  The full study is available for free download at http://www.crcworks.org/mnfood.pdf.

 

My… Read More

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago As I prepare for five days of announcements next week, when USDA plans to unveil its new "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative, the buzz across my desk is about the potential for urban agriculture. Read More

Posted 3 months ago If you care about eating healthy food, you are probably already hard at work to build a better food supply for yourself.  You already know that raising food in our cities will be increasingly important.  Yet getting political support for this requires making a convincing case, and this means having compelling numbers. How can you encourage the government to collect more data that will help the cause? Read More

Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago Direct sales from farmers rose 49 percent, and organic farm sales more than tripled from 2002 to 2007, new USDA farm census data show.

USDA released the 2007 Agriculture Census data today, giving Americans a far more detailed understanding of agricultural trends -- just as interest in local foods expands dramatically.

For me, one of the key indicators of the growth of interest in community-based foods is the rapidly rising sales of food direct from farmers to consumers. Direct food sales rose a whopping 49 percent to $1.2 billion in 2007, up from $812 million in 2002. This includes farmstand,… Read More

Posted 3 years, 6 months ago Although a recent Wall Street Journal report properly touts the impressive upward trend of organic-food sales, data cited in the story show that the actual rate of growth in organic sales is falling slightly, just as mega-retailers poise themselves to enter the organics market. Read More

Posted 3 years, 8 months ago America is scheduled to write a new farm bill in 2007. With the World Trade Organization ruling that our farm subsidies distort trade, and public expenses for flood relief and the war effort taxing the treasury, this could be a time of interesting shifts in how we view farm policy.

Moreover, both farmer and consumer groups say subsidies are harming Americans and developing nations (see Tom Philpott's fine story "I'm Hatin' It").

On the other hand, there are also signs that the same coalition of grain traders and producer groups will persuade Congress to… Read More

Posted 3 years, 9 months ago A little over a year ago The Wall Street Journal (31 Jan 2005) reported that the U.S. would become a net food importer on a more or less permanent basis by the end of 2005. To me, this is an immense challenge to our food security, but also marks a great opportunity for the U.S. to rebuild its food markets. I'm interested in how others see it. Read More