Organizing FFM in Rowan County

Creating a virtual farmers market

By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
Source

A new program looking to take root in Rowan County offers a way to help small farms flourish.

The Center for the Environment at Catawba College held a discussion Tuesday about the program, called FarmerFresh. This "virtual" farmers market uses the Internet to connect farmers and other small-scale specialty food producers to customers.

In attendance Tuesday were about 50 farmers, chefs, retailers, health care workers, cooperative extension officials and other interested residents. They came from Rowan, Montgomery, Stanley, Davidson, Davie, Iredell and Cabarrus counties.

Timothy Will, executive director of Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center, helped start FarmerFresh in Rutherford County.

He said it came to his attention several years ago that restaurants, especially in upscale dining, have a hard time finding fresh food.

Will asked his cousin, who works for a chef at the Marriott in Charlotte, to explain the problem. At that time, food products took two weeks to arrive at the hotel through a distribution center in refrigerated trucks. They then threw away between 15 and 25 percent of the produce because it was unpresentable to the customer.

"We said, 'How about if we made a Web site where we would get farmers to display their inventory and we'd sell it over a Web site?" Will said. "Farmers wouldn't even have to pick their food until it was ordered, and then we would arrange 'just in time' delivery."

For the past four years, that's what FarmersFreshMarket.org has done. Farmers who sign up run a "store front" through the Web site. Buyers - including individuals, restaurants and wholesalers - make purchases that are delivered either to their doors or to a central drop-off location.

Through the Web site, farmers receive 80 percent of the sale and FarmerFresh receives the other 20 percent. Will said the average farmer makes about 19 cents on the food dollar.

Amy Lynn Albertson, with the Davidson County Cooperative Extension, said restaurants may not be willing to pay a premium price for local produce.

"They will buy local if we can match the price given by their distributors, which is often not enough for small farms," Albertson said.

Will responded that the prices on the FarmerFresh Web site are fair, and they would be competitive with industrial prices without large farm subsidies.

When chefs balk at paying a higher price for the same product, Will said he tells them it's not actually the same product. With large distribution companies, chefs don't know where their products came from and how long its delivery time was. They do with FarmFresh.

"If chefs insist on feeding food that is two weeks old to customers, that's their business," Will said. "Your job, then, is to find another market."

Philip J. Lloyd, executive chef at Country Club of Salisbury, said that there is an interested market of local chefs in Rowan and surrounding counties.

"We want our menus to reflect a radius in North Carolina," Lloyd said.

He said he has bought products from Rutherford County, but he is limited by the difficulty of delivery. He also buys produce from Fisher Farms in Rowan, and he says customers can taste the difference when using local food.

"We don't want to be getting tomatoes from California, because frankly, they taste like apples," Lloyd said. "They're grown for shipment, not for consumption."

Mary Cridlebaugh, a Davidson County resident who lives on a family farm, asked how FarmerFresh helps producers get started.

"We help farmers any way we can," Will said. "We teach them how to get off their tractors, dig with a hoe and start growing specialty crops that people would buy."

Most of the demand from chefs is for specialty products that aren't readily available from distribution centers. These specialty crops, along with the high quality of food from participating farms, help small farms compete.

"If you educate people to buy fresh, buy local and buy environmentally sensitive," Will said, "the big guys cannot play in same stadium as you."

Most of those in attendance raised their hands in support of another meeting about FarmFresh, to be announced at a later date. For more information, visit FarmersFreshMarket.org.