Two projects for the future

LOOKING FORWARD - - TWO PROJECTS FOR THE FUTURE

NEW FARMER TRAINING CENTER (Incubator)
What is an Incubator?

According to a Kitsap County Report, the average age of Kitsap farmers is 56. This means that many Kitsap farmers are near retirement. Without a trained new generation of young farmers standing behind them, Kitsap County could see a lot of farmland go fallow. We would like to encourage a very different outcome.

We would like to establish a farmer incubator program, or as some people call it, "a way to grow new farmers." Through an incubator program (read this article to gain information about a similar project in Oregon), young farmers gain agricultural experience and knowledge before having to invest in land and tools on their own. They learn their trade in an encouraging environment that promotes support as well as success.

Who Does the Training?

In an incubator program, experienced farmers mentor those who are dedicated to becoming new farmers. The professional farmers teach through doing as they demonstrate how to cultivate produce, how to amend the soil, and how to market the finished product. Those in the incubator program are typically given 1/4-acre plots alongside the larger acreage that the experienced farmers are cultivating. The 1/4-acre lots give the freshmen farmers a size big enough to gain a sense of success and yet small enough so as not to be discouraged or overwhelmed. On these smaller lots, the teacher/farmers suggest which crops to grow as well as how to protect them, using an organic perspective, from weeds and insects without resorting to chemicals. The new farmers are taught all the most efficient and productive practices of their trade.

What are the Benefits?

The benefits are numerous and widespread. Not only do new farmers learn without costly and time consuming mistakes but consumers reap the rewards as freshmen farmers move quickly and more efficiently into the agricultural business. Farmland also becomes more productive as a new generation of farmers is born, thus building a larger, renewed population of people dedicated to building a sustainable supply of locally grown food.

KITSAP FOOD HUB
What is a Food Hub?

According to the USDA, a food hub is a centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.

More simply, a food hub is a place to which farmers bring their produce and at which the managers of the food hub then distribute that produce to buyers. The main focus of a food hub is therefore to collect and distribute food. Another key factor is that the food hub is located in a permanent facility that is operated all year round.

What Types of Food Hub Models Are There?

There are several examples of food hubs. The overall business plan might be created by a nonprofit organization, an entrepreneur, a business, a group of consumers, or a combination of any of the above.

The hub might be accessible physically and as simple as a store front (see Chimicum's Food From Here). Or in other forms, food can be ordered from online Websites (see Food Hub by ecotrust). Some food hubs sell to individual consumers, some others only to wholesale food businesses. There also are hybrid model food hubs that sell to both (see Raleigh Farmers Market).

Which Model Works Best for Kitsap?

The answer to this question will only come with experiment, experience, and time. So at this point, the landscape is wide open. But we can dream.

Here are some facts. Consumers and farmers who want to buy or produce fresh, local produce spend a lot of time in marketing. On the consumer side, visiting farms can be fun, as are the "in-season" trips to farmers markets. However, sometimes the weather and busy schedules make this task a bit daunting. Farmers markets are only open for a few hours, usually on one day per week. Many close for the winter, though there is still produce available from local farmers. For farmers, marketing their products means time spent away from their fields, their studies and research, and in some cases, their families. Even farm stands and CSA programs demand time that might be better spent in cultivating their crops and amending their soils.

Another fact is that large food stores often do not work with small farms. The big grocery stores want volume and prefer to get that volume from large farms. This is because they do not want to deal with so many different people/businesses and they need a steady and consistent product to sell. Unfortunately, this usually means that the big grocery stores import food from out-of-state or out-of-country farms.

An incubator combined with a food hub can alleviate some challenges.
Let's envision a viable plan in Kitsap.

We start with a network of local, experienced farmers and support as well as supplement them with a farmer training program. We then add a storefront. For simplicity's sake, let's focus on North Kitsap and say that the first storefront is located in Kingston so as to have access to the ferry system, thus connecting with farmers on the "other side" of Puget Sound. This broader scope provides a supply of fruits and organic meat that might not be available in Kitsap. The storefront could be run as either a nonprofit or a co-op, whichever offers the best prices to farmers and consumers. Farmers bring their produce to the store, year round, and the food is distributed directly to individual customers. The centralized location makes nutritious local food supplies more accessible and more reliable for consumers and alleviates some of the time-consuming marketing tasks for farmers.

We could then add a commercial food hub. This could be a permanent building, such as the buildings on the Hansville Farm. A large cold-storage building already exists on this property. Attached to this building is a space that could be converted into a commercial kitchen, which would facilitate the making of value-added products that could be sold. Outside this cold-storage building is a loading dock, which makes the packing and delivery system more convenient. It would be to this location that farmers would deliver their produce that would then be collected together with other farmers' goods and distributed to local businesses and organizations such as restaurants, hospitals, and schools.

By the time the food hub is up and running, the land of Hansville Farm could be supporting several farmers, both those experienced in agriculture and those in training. Between the commercial hub and the storefront, the produce from the Hansville Farm, as well as from other local farmers, would have immediate access to markets.

LOOKING FORWARD - - TWO PROJECTS FOR THE FUTURE

NEW FARMER TRAINING CENTER (Incubator) What is an Incubator?