The following article was printed in the Greenfield Recorder on December 2, 2011.

Greenfield Food Hub

Local food is the latest rage. Consumers buy it, restaurants want it, schools and institutions want to serve it. It offers solutions to societal needs for sustainability, food security and a means of survival when oil runs out. Local food has many secondary attributes beyond sustenance. It protects area farms, maintains a working landscape, creates a holistic economy and can be a place for job growth in years to come. Local food is beyond the restaurant table and farm gate. It is in people’s back yard gardens, in their windowsill pots and in the flower beds of elementary schools.  Anyone growing something to consume is part of the local food system, and in this area many are proving that this is more than just the latest rage.

There is a problem with all this good. For local food to be viable and actually perform its intention, some of the food needs to be processed, and preserved for use. Items grown in the garden and products fresh from the farm that don’t make it directly to a dinner table require processing for them to have any purpose to human beings. Milk, livestock, grains, wool, and vegetables are raw goods that need a form of processing to be used. Much of the processing to transform these raw goods require specialty equipment, a hygienic facility for processing and storage, large scale waste management, three phase power, and a location on an adequate transportation route. Franklin County grows a great amount of produce and there are many agricultural products in the area, much of which head south on I-91 then to processors and markets in Hartford, Boston and New York. These farm products then come back and end up on our grocery shelves, in school cafeterias and restaurants, all with reference to being local.

 The lack of local processing and storage is only a part of the problem with eating local. Another problem is the consumer. As a society, we are now many generations removed from the farm. Even those who still farm are devoid of farm diversification. Most of the areas farms are specialty, producing one or two crops or commodities. Farms before World War two were diverse homesteads. Farmers grew everything they ate and knew how to process and store their food for survival. Today, not only are we ignorant of where our lunch comes from, but also how to prepare it. Home economics in middle- and high-school was a mandatory class a mere 25 years ago; it taught young people to be self-reliant. If town leaders, school administrators and the public desire local food we need to embrace the entire system for it to be truly effective and sustainable.

 How do we make local food work for our community?

We create the Greenfield Food Hub.

We obtain the former Lunt building on Federal St. This is the ideal, in town location with town water, sewer, provisions for a commercial kitchen and plentiful parking. This former factory offers adequate space to be remodeled for specialty processing, refrigeration, freezer space, dry storage, c.a's, cheese caves and root cellars. Each commodity group could have their own processing area; a micro dairy, a retail exempt meat cutting room, a grain milling facility and packaging area for each product. In addition, a fruit and vegetable washing, sorting, peeling, cubing, slicing, dicing, packing, canning, and flash freezing center could be included. A spinnery for carding, spinning, cleaning and dying animal fiber would also fit in nicely.  All these micro, specialty processing facilities could be used by farmers, growers and homestead gardeners. Farmers with extra crops could group products together, creating a "Grown in Franklin County" branded product that could be marketed locally or elsewhere. The old Lunt storefront could easily be converted to a retail area for these local goods and would be a draw for not only residents but also summer vacationers and winter skiers. A bakery and restaurant serving only Food Hub items could also be a way to sustain this endeavor. Backyard garden growers and community garden growers could clean, process and store their crops in individual food lockers in the root cellars and have their own walk-in coolers and dry storage space for rent. The commercial kitchen could be utilized to educate K-12 on not only where their food comes from but how to make it delicious. In addition, the kitchen could be used for adult education, to teach folks the art of food preparation and preservation. This would create opportunities for job skills for adults looking for work. In addition, it creates life skills for people to create their own healthy meals rather than eat out of a box or drive through window.

Local food is more than going to the farmers market on Saturday mornings. For this movement to be more than just a fad, for it to be truly sustainable, a local food system needs to be complete. Grown here, processed here, stored here and consumed here.

Thanks,

Kyle Bostrom

Biography: Kyle is a Greenfield farmer and member of the town agricultural commission.  Bostrom Farm and Hatches Patch are his combined small scale farming operations producing milk, beef, pork, compost, mulch, and annual plants for the home garden.  He also has a full time job managing the University of Massachusetts Farming Facilities in South Deerfield and Hadley. Kyle lives in Greenfield with his wife and twin boys.