Farm to Fork: Delivering Another Piece of a Sustainable Local Food System

June 23, 2008
By Leah Smith, Marin Farmers Market Association

Marin County is home to a progressive community of farmers, educators, and advocates who are currently collaborating in the creation of a regional food system. Working together to keep local and sustainable family farmers in business, we re-create the way the public relates to the food they eat. Through this hard work, Marin County is now the home of its own organic certification program called Marin Organic Certified Agriculture (MOCA). In 2007, Marin County approved a new countywide plan that acknowledges not only the importance of agriculture but also the value of local food systems for social, health and ecological reasons. Marin County’s UC Cooperative Extension office has a committed Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Advisor who trains farmers in how to diversify their businesses and grow food using sustainable practices. These are just a few of Marin’s innovative programs that are shifting our food system towards sustainability.

The Roots of Change Campaign Strategy articulates three levers: Leadership, Production and Distribution Systems, and Public Perception, along with several corresponding objectives, all as a strategy to transform California’s food system. In Marin County we are currently working on all three of these fronts in our collaborative, dynamic countywide effort. One innovative piece of Marin’s work toward a sustainable food system is a new distribution program called Farm to Fork - a local food-based delivery system offering healthy, seasonal, local food to Marin’s institutions. This system, in turn, offers new economic opportunities for regional farmers.

The county’s newest agricultural organization, the Marin Agricultural Institute, currently operates this evolving Farm to Fork local distribution program. This program works in partnership with the Marin Farmers Markets to deliver produce and locally processed foods throughout the region. Local products are brought to a single location, consolidated, organized and delivered directly to local institutional customers the same day, mostly from farms within a 150 mile radius. During 2007, Farm to Fork, in its first year delivering one day a week to a small number of customers, brought a combined $100,000 in additional income to participating growers.

The Marin Agricultural Institute was formed over four years ago to create a permanent home for the Marin Farmers Markets. This original project idea has evolved into a vision of a multi-use community landmark dedicated to growing a healthy local food system. This landmark, called the Pavilion, will be more than a building; it will be an enduring tangible symbol of Marin County’s vibrant local agriculture. The facility will offer a permanent home for Marin Farmers Markets, inspiring educational and demonstration programs, and a community hub for a diverse network of local farmers, ranchers, specialty food purveyors, processors, agricultural organizations and the public to come together.

Farm to Fork, a program of the Marin Agricultural Institute, and the Pavilion are two infrastructure projects underway in Marin that are filling in gaps that exist for linking eaters with farmers. So far we have received some great positive feedback for the program, for example:

From a farmer…
“The logistics work out really well for us because we are already harvesting
for the Thursday Farmers Market at the same time as for Farm to Fork.
It’s great because we already know we’ve sold product before we get to the
market. Distribution of our product wholesale is key to our business model.
Beyond benefiting us directly, Farm to Fork is a way to decrease our carbon
footprint by adding more product to the trucks that are already heading to
the market,”
-- David Redsky, farmer, County Line Harvest

From a chef…
"Previously when I wanted fresh local products to serve for our lunch
program or a special event, I would have to take my wagon and a stack of
cash to the farmer's market. Now it comes to our back door via the Farm to
Fork program, which enables us to better support local farmers and offer
their wonderful products to our students daily.”
-- Richard Bartlett, chef, Branson School

Other customers include Bioneers, Autodesk/Guckenheimer, Bon Appetit/Dominican University, Comforts Café, Headlands Institute, Katie Powers Catering, Marin Country Day School, Marin Academy, Acre Gourmet, Tamalpais High School District, and Epicurean/San Domenico, and many others. While our institutional customers' clients dine on locally produced foods, we are educating them, through signs, brochures and presentations about the value of local food and farms.

Education is critical and infrastructure solutions are essential. Farm to Fork combines these two components. In order to get local foods to market, new systems must be created to link local producers with local consumers. Thus far, larger scale distribution systems and wholesale businesses have fallen short of creating smaller circles that use less energy to bring local
growers and local eaters closer together. To stimulate new ways of thinking about local food distribution, Farm to Fork has demonstrated that there is a demand and a valuable supply relationship that can happen within a 150 mile average radius.

The Marin Agricultural Institute Pavilion and Farm to Fork are promising solutions working to resolve multiple issues. In the spirit of Wendell Barry’s “solving for pattern,” a good solution is one that solves multiple issues at the same time while not creating additional problems.

In order to regain its status as critical in our society, we believe agriculture must be more visible to those who benefit from the hard work and efforts of food producers, particularly those on the spectrum working to be more sustainable. Given the large scale nature of food distribution that is predominant in our country - disconnecting us and placing us further from our food sources - Farm to Fork is playing a critical role to bring dinner, and those who have grown a bounty of food near by, closer to our dinning tables.

For more information on Leah Smith, the Farm to Fork Distribution Program, or the Marin Agricultural Institute just click here .

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