Lucknow Farms

Jamie Oliver Takes on America's Unhealthy Diet in Huntington, West Virginia

Jamie Oliver, a celebrity television chef in the UK, is filming his "Naked Chef" cooking show in Huntington, West Virginia. For some time, he has been producing shows in England that address healthful cooking, changing institutional cooking, as in school cafeterias, and healthy lifestyles. He has chosen Huntington, because he wants to address the issues of food and obesity in the US. The Huntington metro region has a reputation for the high rate of overweight and obesity in its population. Despite the unhappy prospect that such attention will give the region a hard-to-shake negative labor of "Fat City", Oliver's show could do much good by focusing on healthy food and diet. The show is in production, but I am optimistic that it will include local, organic produce and local, clean, lean meats in its repertoire of recipes. If this attention helps West Virginia's governmental food buying bureaucracies, as in schools, welfare programs, and institutional living, to shift from the cheap federal commodities, which encourage over-eating of fatty, unhealthy comfort foods, to local, healthy produce and clean meats, Oliver will have done the region an enormous service.

Organic Food Sales Hit by Recession and New Consumption Behavior

Sales of organic foods, which are generally more expensive than commodity foods, have been impacted by the recession. Over the past decade, sales had increased strongly until the recession. In the past year, sales growth has declined. Stonyfield Farm, a natural yoghurt producer, saw 24% percent growth annually, until the recession; now sales growth will come in at 16 percent or so. All retailers have also experienced a decline in organic and natural food sales. Whole Foods Market's decline in sales have been so severe as to compel a reorientation of its retail philosophy. The company saw only a 2 percent increase in sales. The chief exec, John Mackey, has decided to return to the store chain's emphasis on healthy natural foods, moving away from expensive value added food products, such as baked goods, which are contrary to that philosophy. Mackey now sees Trader Joe's and Costco as its competitors. (Kathy McLaughlin and Timothy W. Martin, "As Sales Slip, Whole Foods Tries Health Push," The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, August 5, 2009, B1; see also, here.) Price resistance by consumers is widespread.

Small organic and natural farmers indicate that another phenomenon, besides price resistance, is churning consumer habits. The Stockman Grass Farmer interviewed seven small producers for its August 2009 issue (Allan Nation, "Grassfed Meat Producers And Marketers Say Recession Has Only Slightly Chilled Their Markets," vol 9, no. 8, p. 1). These meat producers have lost restaurant customers for their beef. In some cases, it is because the restaurants have gone out of business; in other cases, it is because the restaurants shifted to cheaper beef. A few producers report strong restaurant sales. In the San Francisco Bay area, restaurant for local, organic, premium beef remains strong; in other areas, low end restaurants are doing well and buying local hamburg. Some producers have shifted product lines, as from dairy (national dairy prices have plummeted) to livestock, and are doing better.  

Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farm, believes that consumers are doing more food preparation at home. The demand for local, organic beef has shifted from restaurants to grocery store meat markets. This opinion is seconded by another producer, who has discovered that its food tasting stalls for its products in grocery stores are popular and have taken up much of the slack from diminished restaurant sales.

Conclusion--consumers are resistant to high prices and to increasing food prices generally. They are adapting by purchasing less expensive foods and by preparing meals at home with foods purchased in retail markets. Producers survive by making their food products and produce attractive to consumers within this new consumption framework.

Artisanal Cheese To Save Massachusetts Farms

The Wall Street Journal has a well produced video report on a project in Massachusetts to conserve farm land by saving the farms themselves. A couple of conservation advocates helped sponsor a project with local farmers to make cow's milk artisanal cheese for the local food market.

3.45 minutes long.

Will the Obama Administration Support Expansion of Federal Support for Organic, Local Food?

At the national organic food show in Anaheim, California, national celebrities in the local food and organic food movements hope that Michelle Obama's support for them will lead to an increase in federal support for local, organic food, as, for instance, by increasing the federal lunch subsidy to pay for more expensive local, organic foods for school children.

Michelle Obama Supports Local, Organic Food in White House

President Obama's wife supports the use of locally grown, organic food in the White House, continuing President Bush and Laura Bush's policy in the White House kitchen. (Rachel L. Swarns, "Michelle Obama's Agenda Includes Healthy Eating", The New York Times, Wednesday, March 11, 2009.)

Farm To School Program

Reference: FarmToSchool.Org / National Farm To School Network

The Press-Enterprise prints a story about a local school nutrition director, Rodney Taylor, who has gone to the national capital to advocate the Farm To School Program (Ben Goad, "Advocates brief Congress on food program," The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, California, Friday, February 27, 2009, D1).

The Farm to School Program promotes and implements bringing local farm produce and products to schools. Rodney Taylor pioneered the program in 1997 by bringing local farm food to Santa Monica-Malibu schools. In 2005, he first implemented the program in Riverside by introducing local farm produce to the salad bar at Jefferson Elementary School. Now, he is testifying before a Congressional committee, advocating for federal funds to expand the program nationally. The Farm To School Network is recommending $4 billion a year for the next five years. In his recent budget proposal, President Obama is requesting $1 billion. Taylor says that, among other reasons to implement the program, the program will help save small farms.

A Local Food High Cuisine Restaurant Deals With Fresh Food Seasonality

A high cuisine restaurant in Peoria, Illinois, preserves food in traditional ways for serving off season, principally by salting, pickling, and smoking. The restaurant, "June", serves certified organic food raised for it on a local farm. (Raymond Sokolov, "Farm-Fresh Gastronomy," The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2009, online.) 

Lessons in Marketing at Earthbound Farm Stand

Earthbound Farm is an organic vegetable and fruit producer in the Monterey Valley, California, that has been in business successfully since the 1980s. It's farm stand provides lessons in marketing of organic produce (see my photo album of the food stand here, or click on album on left sidebar). The farm provides fresh organic produce for local chefs, for institutions, and for shipment. The food is carefully designed to exemplify the product quality. Some of the lessons it offers are illustrated in the photographs:

The farm must have a mission.

• Local, organic food is a lifestyle choice first, a dietary choice second

• Clean

• Healthy

• Changing life for the better, uplifting

Local, organic food is a political choice

• Environmentally friendly

• Respectful of diversity

• The buyer of its produce is doing something good for the world

The customer must see the products in a familiar setting

• Though referencing the dirt and labor of farming, the store sanitizes the produce and provides distance from the actual growing and harvesting process

• The "farm stand" is designed as a small grocery store, referencing a rural, friendly world

• The store design references the natural setting of Monterey

The products and the sales setting must be identified with the farm brand

• Well designed logo

• Clear producer slogan

• Mission statement prominently displayed

• Product selection in the store is consistent--all organic

The store must have different opportunities for casual customers to purchase something

• Fresh produce

• Fresh meats

• Preserved foods

• Books and gifts

• Restaurant--a salad or soup for lunch, a fruit smoothie with the kids after school, a sandwich for the road

Inland Empire Organic Produce Buying Club (IEOP)

IEOP is a volunteer organized buyers cooperative, specializing in organic produce, based in Redlands, California. (The website has information, videos, and photographs.) Membership requires a $10 annual fee. Members can buy shares. Each share costs $22 and purchases one basket of certified organic produce (vegetables and fruits) grown mostly in Southern California. Volunteers purchase the produce in bulk, then divide it between baskets, based on general preferences--all veggie, all fruit, mixed veggie and fruit. The baskets are not weighed; it is not clear that individual items are weighed. A basket full of produce is, well, um, a basket full. What particular vegetables and fruits are in the basket depends upon the harvest schedule. Distribution is Saturday weekly.

Most subscribers do not know what they will be getting on any particular week. This week: Kiwis, pears, apples, celery, parsley, cilantro, kale, cabbage, spinach, mustard greens, leeks, carrots, spring onions, brocolli, red cabbage.

Some items were unfamiliar to buyers.

(Click on photos for large images in pop-ups.)

Produce baskets ready for members

 

Form two lines. One line for cash buyers. One line for share holders.

 

Where lines meet distribution.

 

What is it? A fuzzy potato?

 

They've already decided that kale is probably not celery. Now, what's next?

Local Food Necessary For National Security

John Robb at Global Guerrillas continues his discussion of local food production and consumption. He argues that centralized commodity agriculture is likely to be a favorite target of fourth generation warfare. Failure to provide food or ensure the food supply, causing famine or mass malnutrition or privation, would quickly undermine the legitimacy of a national government. It is likely that decentralized, guerrilla warfare would involve attacks on distribution modes, processing plants, and storage facilities. The only alternative to such vulnerability is economically viable local food production.

I have previously addressed the national security issue in my series of articles on local organic food.