Essay #2 FINAL DRAFT

Spread of local produce to major retailers

Although Farmers Markets and Community Supported Agriculture Cooperatives (CSAs) provide locally grown produce to local people, local produce should be available through major retailers in the Fairbanks area because a wider audience would be exposed to local produce, a stable and more reliable marketplace would be available to local producers, and a stronger sense of community would be felt by consumers.

The issue of locally grown produce availability has long been one of convenience. While Farmers Markets provide a great resource for farmers and communities alike, they are limited in their hours and availability. CSAs work solely on a buy in system where you pay for the produce you get long before the crops are ever bearing any produce which is a very committed relationship between consumer and producer that most people end up uncomfortable with. If locally grown and raised produce became available through local grocery stores, not only would the stability of the sales for local farmers increase, but the availability of consumers to find these products would increase and a more sustainable, less shipping reliant network of food production and distribution would be created. Grocery chains like Fred Meyers, Safeway and Wal-Mart have already established wide ranging hours of operation and attract and supply the large majority of produce buyers in Fairbanks. With this in mind, many more consumers could have access and exposure to local produce. The increased exposure aspect of this proposition alone represents a huge "time released" consumer base that would respond to a localized food system over repeated exposure to its superior quality and availability. The increased sustainability of this increased exposure of local produce is significant. Considering that almost all of the produce sold by our local grocery chains is imported into the state, it is apparent that there could be some significant reduction of fuel use and infrastructure in supplying these markets.
The most effective method of supplying local grocery chains with local produce would be a farmer owned co-op distributor that could negotiate prices on behalf of the member farmers with the retail outlets to manage thier supply of produce. Farmers could have scheduled drop off times for selected crops that they opt to grow for market as contracted between them and the co-op. From this point the co-op employees would minimally package and further distribute the goods on to their retail market. Co-op employees would be paid from a percentage of the wholesale price paid by the grocery chain. While this style of distribution adds a middleman between farmer and retail outlet that is not present with a Farmers Market, it opens up a much larger market with a much higher demand for goods. This increase in demand would offset the decrease in profitability from the sale and commission setup.

This proposals aim is to push local agriculture into the mainstream mindset and to further expose our dependence on shipping for our produce, there are some limitations however to how much supply local farms could support for the Fairbanks community. The Fairbanks area has not used local agriculture as a primary food source since the 1950's and many studies would need to be conducted in order to find how feasible a local infrastructure of farmers and distributor would be. Fairbanks short growing season and exceptionally cold winters would also be a point of interest in feasibility of such a plan. These factors will surely play a role in what crops can effectively be grown and what supplies could be reliably attained locally. This proposal would not completely divert shipping of produce away from Fairbanks by any means, but spread some local supply into the mix as available seasonally.

In closing, Fairbanks Farmers Market has been a very productive and profitable retail center for farmers to sell their goods to the public with ever increasing presence. If these same goods could be reasonably marketed to a wider portion of the local consumer base, with an even longer window of availability, the benefits to local consumers and local farmers could be enormous.