Apr 6, 2020
Agritecture has responded to COVID-19 by creating a way to continue discussions about CEA, urban agriculture, and local food systems through a series of digital interviews with industry experts from around the globe. The Travel-Free Digital Conference Series brings entrepreneurs, farmers, and experts together to share knowledge with viewers at home.
During the first week, we heard from 5 individuals across different backgrounds in agriculture. Aurora Dawn Benton from Astrapto LLC, Cullen Naumoff from FarmFare, Don Davidson from 3M, Andrew Carter from Smallhold, and Khaled Majouji from In.Genius Farms. In this article, we’ll share 4 main takeaways from their presentations.
Innovation in Supply Chain Solutions
In this week’s videos, we learned a lot about the value of innovative supply chain solutions in building stronger local food systems. Cullen Naumoff discusses that in order for companies and societies to gain a better supply chain infrastructure, food hubs, farms and distributors need to “strategically collaborate“ instead of competing against one another. “When they work as a team they can specialize in services in the value chain and they can share that inventory giving better consistency and pricing to those institutional customers.”
Aurora Benton suggested that distributing local produce from the area establishes a social enterprise and leads to a higher employment rate for local food producers, “buying a brownie helps employ those who have barriers to employment, or other social enterprise initiatives.”
Is Purchasing and Distributing Locally Grown Produce A More Viable Solution?
There was an underlying theme this week that suggested purchasing and distributing locally grown produce is a more viable solution. Andrew Carter mentioned that there is an abundance of food wastage due to the excessive and unnecessary importation of fresh produce around the globe. Andrew explains, “having food that goes bad before it even gets to the consumer, that makes you lose quality, makes you lose nutrition and general enjoyment decreases by every mile food travels. We are creating a lot of waste with this process, as food goes bad on the shelf or food goes bad in distribution.” Smallhold distributing their mushroom farms around the globe will allow them to be the largest farm in the world, without owning a single acre.
Availability of Local, Organic Produce
Another key takeaway is that local and organic produce is less available to the population due to a series of factors. Khaled Majouji describes the various ways that farmers can lower the price of organic produce through reducing the cost of production, thus making it available to a larger market.
Cullen Naumoff mentioned that many distributors will not sell local produce due to multiple factors. Local food is expensive and local farmers can be inconsistent in producing a reliable amount of produce, therefore a partnership can be inconvenient compared to larger brands.
“Grocery stores, hospitals, public schools, universities, these are large volume markets that can really support the financial viability of family farms.”
Scaling Alternative Proteins
A final takeaway is that there are multiple ways of scaling alternative proteins for the future of our planet. Don Davidson discusses how our current food system may not be able to sustain the growing population in a couple of decades and we will need to source a new, sustainable alternative. Don explains the benefits of sourcing a new alternative protein involves new career paths, better food safety, and can sustain a larger population.