| Upcoming Events | |
November 6-8: NCGT-sponsored sessions and events at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Durham NC
November - December: Fresh Produce Good Agricultural Practices Workshop Series, Burnsville, Lumberton, Louisburg, and Mills River NC
In 2016:
Enhancing Farm Profitability Workshops for NC Cooperative Extension Agents
|
| About NCGT | | |
GOAL | Bring more locally-grown foods - produce, meat, dairy, and seafood - into mainstream retail and food service supply chains, thus enhancing food security by increasing access to local foods and by strengthening the economics of small to mid-sized farm and fishing operations.
STRATEGY | Identify the most promising solutions by which local production and associated value-added activities can enter local retail and food service markets, pilot these solutions in North Carolina, and evaluate and report the results for the benefit of other states and regions.
|
|
|
|
Greetings all,
Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think!
Sincerely,
The NCGT Management Team
|
|
Collaboration Key to Building Local Meat Industry
| |
A panel discussion at this month's Carolina Meat Conference brought together farmers and processors to discuss how collaboration is key to advancing one another's businesses. The NCGT-sponsored panel featured Joe Cloud from T&E Meats, Cathy Cavender from Monrovia Farm, Abdul Chaudry from Chaudry Halal Meats, and Jennifer Curtis from Firsthand Foods. "Collaboration" can be as simple as agreeing on a set weekly schedule for Firsthand Foods' producers to deliver cattle to Chaudry's processing plant, says Curtis. "By having a fixed schedule each week it helps the growers, Firsthand Foods, and the processor to plan, which makes it more efficient for everyone." In other cases, it can mean that the processor goes the extra mile to connect producers with information that can help build their businesses. Cathy Cavender of Monrovia Farm in Westmoreland County, Virginia processes her cattle with Joe Cloud at T&E Meats. She says, "I was looking for a relationship [with my processor], not just a place to drop off my cattle." "I talk with new customers about what their goals are, whereas other processors just say 'here's our price,'" confirms Cloud. He works with producers to guide them to new markets and helps them fully utilize all of the cuts of the animal. Cloud also works with chefs so he and his clients understand how the chefs want the product. "Education is part of our mission," he says. Collaboration can also mean extra care and communication to improve the quality of the final product. Firsthand Foods works with Acre Station Meat Farm to process their pork. According to Curtis, Acre Station's Richard Huettman will go an extra step so that Firsthand Foods and the hog producer get valuable quality-improvement feedback. "Richard will take the average hog and measure the back fat, and pack the loin, and cut a pork chop sample and set aside. I get back a little bundle to evaluate the quality of the pork, and then I can pass that information back to the producer." Better quality meat will then yield a better price for the producer. In the interdependent local meat supply chain, collaboration is a win-win-win for all involved. For more information about North Carolina's local niche meat industry, please visit ncchoices.com.
|
|
NCGT Supports Carolina Meat Conference Sessions
| |
 NC Growing Together supported the NC Choices Carolina Meat Conference, October 12-13 in Winston-Salem, NC. The conference brought together over 400 local meat supply chain professionals including livestock producers, James Beard Award-winning chefs, master butchers, commercial meat processors, allied non-profit organizations and government agencies. NCGT sponsored ten sessions focused on enhancing farmer capacity to produce profitably and building value chain connections to retail and wholesale markets. Here are some highlights:
In Market-Sizing and Tracking Revenue on a Whole Animal Basis: A Tutorial Plus Take-Home Tool to Strategically Build Your Meat Business, Tina Prevatte of Firsthand Foods and Jessica Moore of Philly CowShare shared valuable business tools for meat producers and retailers. Firsthand Foods' Carcass Estimator Tool (will be available on NC Choices' website soon) is an Excel spreadsheet that allows a producer to track revenue per animal and for specific cuts, and determine how to adjust production and sales for maximum profitability. Philly CowShare's Market Sizing Presentation outlines a method for determining the market demand for local pastured beef and pork in NC.
In Reducing Risk: Legal Agreements for your Business and Across the Supply Chain, Jason Foscolo of The Food Law Firm shared practical information about the unique legal risks faced by producers and processors, and the business interdependency within the niche meat sector. See his presentation here.
NCGT and NC Choices collaborated on a Niche Meat Producers Survey in 2013. A follow-up survey will be conducted this winter to track the growth and changes of the niche meat industry in North Carolina.
|
| Foster-Caviness Opens Local Food Aggregation Center in Raleigh | | |
|
| |
Foster-Caviness is sourcing local Korean pears from Riverbirch Farm in Reidsville, NC.
|
North Carolina-based produce distributor Foster-Caviness recently opened an aggregation center for local food in Raleigh. The cross-dock facility on Glenwood Avenue will be used to aggregate and distribute local produce and locally made value-added products. (See previous NCGT research on cross-docking as a logistics strategy for local foods.)
Benjamin Filippo, Foster-Caviness' Director of Sustainability, is tasked with developing the center and growing its product inventory. To find local producers interested in accessing Foster-Caviness' distribution network, he has been reaching out through NC Cooperative Extension's Local Foods Flagship Program and NCDA's Got to Be NC Marketing Initiative, engaging with incubator kitchens such as Blue Ridge Food Ventures, and attending events such as the statewide Farm to School Conference. Over the next few months, Filippo will be attending more events, including the upcoming NC Growing Together/NC 10% Campaign's Grower-Buyer Mixer at Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture Conference, and more regional Grower-Buyer meetings next spring.
 One of the first local products that Foster-Caviness began distributing was Firsthand Foods meat, a connection which was made as a result of the NCGT partnership with both businesses. "We [have] had success with that," says Filippo, "and now we want to build a full North Carolina product catalog." So far, Foster-Caviness has signed on several new local produce growers as well as a handful of artisanal value-added producers, including Big Spoon Roasters (Durham, NC), Slingshot Coffee (Raleigh, NC), Nello's Sauce (Raleigh, NC), and Goat Lady Dairy (Climax, NC). "A lot of these craft producers don't have a distributor, and this gives them access to cold storage and distribution through Foster-Caviness' network," says Filippo. If the products do well in a pilot run, Foster-Caviness will offer them to all of their customers.
Filippo added, "Foster-Caviness is locally owned and family operated. We're trying to position ourselves in a way that people understand what we're doing and what we're all about, and we're trying to get that message out." In addition to supplying fresh produce to restaurants, Foster-Caviness provides the majority of North Carolina public schools with fresh produce, as well as all of the North Carolina military bases.
For more information about Foster-Caviness' local sourcing, please contact Benjamin Filippo at [email protected].
|
|
|
|
Project Contact Information
Rebecca Dunning, NCGT Project and Research Coordinator, [email protected], 919-389-2220
Nancy Creamer, Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together, [email protected], 919-515-9447
Noah Ranells, NCGT Principal Investigator at NC A&T State University, Cooperative Extension Program, [email protected], 336-285-4658
Laura Lauffer, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, NC A & T State University Cooperative Extension Program, [email protected], 336-285-4690
Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, NCGT Academic Coordinator, [email protected], 919-513-0085
Joanna Lelekacs, NCGT Extension and Training Coordinator, [email protected], 919-244-5269
Patricia Tripp, NCGT Produce Supply Chain Development Liaison, [email protected], 336-458-6980
JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator, [email protected], 919-889-8219
This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2013-68004-20363 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
� 2013-2015 NC Growing Together
www.ncgrowingtogether.org
|
|
|
|
|
