June 2015 — Over the past four years, NC State Horticulture Science PhD student Drew Marticorena has been studying the “Local Multiplier Effect”, the economic ripple effect that occurs within a community when consumers spend their money at independent, locally-owned businesses.  While there are databases that contain standard multipliers used by economic developers across that nation, there are strong reasons to believe they are not accurate for the “local food” economy.

NC Growing Together works with small and mid-scale agricultural businesses, linking them together and into larger supply chains.  One benefit of having independent, small and mid-scale businesses in a community is that revenue from consumer purchases recirculates in the area, supporting local wealth and jobs.  Drew has been researching whether farms and agriculture-related businesses that buy their inputs and sell their products locally create a larger multiplier effect than those businesses that do not.

Drew will present his results at an upcoming seminar on June 18 at 8 am in Kilgore Hall, room 121, on the NC State campus. This part of Drew’s research has been partially funded by the NCGT project. All are invited to attend!

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2015 NC Growing Together Newsletter.

March 2015 – On March 2 at the Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, approximately 20 North Carolina growers and buyers sat across tables from each other, in a kind of business development speed-dating.  They had eight minutes to decide if they were potentially a good fit for each others’ business.  Attendees included produce farmers from all over the state and buyers including Lowes Foods and Sysco/Fresh Point.

Farmer Jeff Bender of Bender Farms in Norlina, NC, explained why he made time to attend the event.  “We’re not set up to be huge growers.  I’d rather raise a smaller acreage and sell it to someone I know.  So much of it is relationships — something like this gives you the chance to sit down face-to-face  and make a deal.”

Based on both farmer and buyer evaluations of the event, everyone agreed that their time was well spent, and the event would likely lead to new business partnerships. Kevin O’Connell of  The Produce Box said, “The initial conversation is the hardest one to have.  The opportunity to be face-to-face is key: you may not be able to finish

February 2015 – This spring NC Growing Together, NC State University, and the Cooperative Extension Service are partnering to offer Post-Harvest Handling for Enhanced Shelf Life workshops for small and mid-sized growers.

Half-day workshops will be held April 14 in Duplin County and May 21 in Catawba County. An advanced, full-day workshop will be held June 2 in Forsyth County.

Attendees will learn about post-harvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables best online casino including respiration, ethelyne production, transpiration, and other physiological characteristics, as well as short and long-term storage recommendations. The advanced workshop will also include hands-on grading of vegetables and valuable information on what it takes to compete in wholesale markets.

More information can be found on the Event Details page.

This article originally appeared in the February 2015 NC Growing Together Newsletter.

February 2015 – Food distributor Cornucopia Cheese & Specialty Foods Company was founded in 1980 in the back of a community grocery store in rural Alamance County. It is now one of the leading cheese and specialty food suppliers in the Southeast, providing over 1,000 products to customers in North Carolina, Virginia and surrounding states. Working with NCGT, Cornucopia is opening markets for North Carolina cheese producers, selling local cheeses to US Foods, one of the country”s largest food distributors.

“US Foods operates at a massive scale, and its vendor setup requirements are really time- and cost-prohibitive for local creameries. Smaller specialty distributors, like Cornucopia, fill a vital role in the supply chain between small/mid-scale and massive. Cornucopia can open markets for local  producers by becoming the conduit to US Foods and creating a way for creameries to cost-effectively sell their products to US Foods and its customers,” explains John Day, NCGT Development Lead for Dairy and Proteins, who connected Cornucopia with US Foods.

“We”ve been buying [and distributing] local cheeses for a long time”, says John McHugh, Cornucopia”s Vice President. “Originally, we wanted local cheeses because our competitors didn”t have them. It started with selling a few pieces of cheese to white-tablecloth-type chefs who were ahead of the curve. Then, as the local food movement grew, producers grew, and as there was more demand, the supply came on line. And it took off from there”, he explains.

In addition to their long-standing cheese accounts, Cornucopia now sells about best online casino one thousand pounds of cheese monthly from Goat Lady Dairy in Climax, Ashe County Cheese in West Jefferson, and The Cultured Cow Creamery in Durham to US Foods, which in turn sells them to restaurants and institutional food buyers.

As demand for local foods increases across the country, McHugh is happy to be based here in North Carolina. “North Carolina is really, really special because there”s such a wealth of great local products here”, he says.

NCGT is looking for small and mid-sized distributors that could act as links between smaller producers and very large scale buyers, such as NCGT partner US Foods. For more information please contact John Day, NCGT Development Lead for Dairy and Proteins, or Trish Tripp, NCGT Development Lead for Produce.

This article originally appeared in the February 2015 NC Growing Together Newsletter.