1. Finding Food in Farm Country Ken Meter
Crossroads Resource Center (Minneapolis)
“From the Ground Up”
Springfield, Minnesota
April 8, 2004

2. Crossroads’ approach:
Better answers when local residents engaged
Professionals serve resident needs

3. Crossroads’ approach:
Start by measuring local assets
THEN ask what is missing
Build local capacities & assets

4. Crossroads’ approach:
Having good numbers matters
Negotiate with strength using solid data

5. What do we learn if we take the view of the whole community?
Usually, farm analysts measure:
Specific crops or commodity programs
Specific types of farm operations
What do we learn if we take the view of the whole community?

6. Partners: Community Design Center & University of Minnesota
“Finding Food in Farm Country”
Southeast Minnesota
Partners: Community Design Center & University of Minnesota

8. Southeast Minnesota’s Food & Farm Economy
303,000 residents
$10 billion purchasing power each year
8,436 farm families
1.4 million farm animals

9. Southeast Minnesota’s Food & Farm Economy
Stable farm community
Lasting social bonds
Leaders in conservation tillage
Many small farms
One of most diverse farm economies in U.S.

10. Southeast Minnesota’s Food & Farm Economy
However…
Houston, MN spent 2 years with no grocery store
Fragile, small food businesses are springing up all over
How to explain this?

11. Southeast Minnesota’s Food & Farm Economy
Region’s farmers produce $ million of food per year (1997)
Spend $947 million to raise it
Lose $80 million in production costs
Yet…

12. Southeast Minnesota’s Food & Farm Economy
Farm families require $129 million of other farm-related income to cover their costs
This includes $42 million in federal supports

15. Losses in 12 of last 21 years!

16. Finding Food in Farm Country
Moreover, as farmers struggle...
The region’s consumers spend $500 million buying food each year
Most bought from outside region

17. Finding Food in Farm Country
In fact…
The average food item in the U.S. travels 1,500 miles from farmer to consumer
Over 60% of the cost of food is an energy cost

18. Potential wealth lost each year
Finding Food in Farm Country
All told, Southeast Minnesota...
Loses $400 million raising food, &
Loses $400 million buying food
Potential wealth lost each year

19. Finding Food in Farm Country
Total loss is:
$800 million each year!
Totals 92% of the value of all food raised in the region

20. Finding Food in Farm Country
If local consumers bought only 15% of their food locally:
$45 million of new farm income earned each year

21. Southeast Minnesota Farm Network 50 farms & processors work together
Finding Food in Farm Country
Impact of the study...
Southeast Minnesota Farm Network
50 farms & processors work together
Goal: $250,000 sales in 2004

22. Southeast Minnesota is not alone...

23. IOWA

24. IOWA

25. Meanwhile, in Hawaii...

26. Farm production expenses outpace sales since 1992

27. for all farms is $171 million
Cumulative loss
for all farms is $171 million

28. Farms gain little income from tourism:

29. UNITED STATES

30. UNITED STATES

31. (Source: USDA/ERS)

32. (Source: USDA/ERS)

34. $505 billion deficit,

35. Two 2003 studies project the US will become a net food importer by 2007

36. Food sales are concentrated
40% of groceries sold by 5 chains
Wal-Mart & Sam’s Club are top 2
85% of food industries lack competitiveness

37. Consumption out of balance
50% of U.S. public school students qualify for free / reduced lunch
10% of households are “food insecure”

38. Consumption out of balance
Over half of all adults overweight
Half of elderly seeking medical care are undernourished

39. Supply & Demand out of balance
Farm prices low due to high production & foreign competition
Researchers focus on producing even more!

40. Health suffers
Diet-related diseases cause half of all deaths in industrial world
Change in diet could prevent 30% of cancer worldwide
5,000 deaths due to food poisoning each year in U.S.
30,000 coronary cases in US could be prevented by eating 1% less fat

41. Health suffers
76 million gastrointestinal illnesses treated each year in US (total population 281 million)
Medical costs of obesity amount to $118 billion per year—25% of what all US consumers pay for food each year

42. Key shifts
From consumers to co-investors
Farming that builds wealth in communities
Shared risk among clustered firms
Farm policy supports rural communities instead of commodities
Reduced energy use

43. Community-Based Food Systems:
Map courtesy of

44. Solid data matters! …Could Southwest Minnesota use a
“Finding Food in Farm Country” study?

45. “Finding Food in Farm Country” kmeter@crcworks.org (612) 869-8664
(612)

46. Food with the Farmers' Face on It
Media guide covering
community-based foods systems
W. K. Kellogg Foundation

48. Food service & lodging income rises as
farming & manufacturing income falls

49. Source: USDA in Willard Cochrane, The Development of American Agriculture

50. Source: ERS (Cochrane, p. 232)

51. Source: ERS (Cochrane, p. 232)

52. AERO
Southeast Minnesota Food Network
Food Alliance
Red Tomato
Six Iroquois Nations
Buffalo Commons
CISA
Sunflower Fields Farm
NYC
Food Trust
California Alliance with Family Farms
Food Circles
Oglala Aquifer
Community Food Alliance
ASAP
Federation of Southern Coops
Tohono O’odham