To: The NYC Office of Food Policy
NYC local food demand study
To Barbara Turk and the NYC Office of Food Policy,
In 2004, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets retained Karp Resources and Market Ventures, Inc. to conduct a feasibility study on building a wholesale farmers market in New York City. The first phase of research, a supply and demand study, found more than $866 million in unmet demand for local food among NYC’s distributors, restaurants, retailers and caterers.
That was ten years ago. Since then, “local food” has established a place for itself at the tip of the nation’s tongue and has become widely understood to be a crucible: the critical intersection between food security and farmland viability, food access and watershed protection, affordable fresh food and haute cuisine, improved public health and economic development, natural resource preservation and entrepreneurship, urban and rural planning and policy. In those ten years, artisanal and locally farmed foods became NYC neighborhoods’ and upstate towns’ greatest tourism lures, the city legislated that 10% of city agencies’ food purchases come from local vendors, SchoolFood developed a local food objective, EDC grew its Food Retail and Manufacturing focus area, city bodegas began featuring more fresh and local foods, emergency food providers like City Harvest grew local food’s presence in emergency food supply chains, and FoodWorks defined a vision for improving our city’s food system. A leading specialty food distributor estimated that the real demand now must be ten times higher than it was in 2004, or more than $10 billion.
With an agriculture sector comprised of 36,000 farms and valued at over $5.7 billion, our state’s farms are poised to meet that demand, if the support businesses and infrastructures they need are provided. However, for the supply side to plant and grow to meet demand for local food, that demand must be proved and it must be detailed (for example, how much of which specific products in what form in what pack at what price at what time of year from what kinds of vendors under what circumstances).
But the questions remain: How hungry is NYC for local food now? And what do our state’s (and region’s) farm and food businesses need in order to feed that appetite and to grow it?
We the undersigned are writing to urge you to invest in answering those questions. Public and private sector players need detailed information on demand for local food—including institutions and manufacturing, key sectors of local food demand that were not included in the 2004 study— in order to invest strategically in the infrastructure and resources that will make New York City and New York state innovators and models in nourishing a vibrant and healthy food sector.
In 2004, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets retained Karp Resources and Market Ventures, Inc. to conduct a feasibility study on building a wholesale farmers market in New York City. The first phase of research, a supply and demand study, found more than $866 million in unmet demand for local food among NYC’s distributors, restaurants, retailers and caterers.
That was ten years ago. Since then, “local food” has established a place for itself at the tip of the nation’s tongue and has become widely understood to be a crucible: the critical intersection between food security and farmland viability, food access and watershed protection, affordable fresh food and haute cuisine, improved public health and economic development, natural resource preservation and entrepreneurship, urban and rural planning and policy. In those ten years, artisanal and locally farmed foods became NYC neighborhoods’ and upstate towns’ greatest tourism lures, the city legislated that 10% of city agencies’ food purchases come from local vendors, SchoolFood developed a local food objective, EDC grew its Food Retail and Manufacturing focus area, city bodegas began featuring more fresh and local foods, emergency food providers like City Harvest grew local food’s presence in emergency food supply chains, and FoodWorks defined a vision for improving our city’s food system. A leading specialty food distributor estimated that the real demand now must be ten times higher than it was in 2004, or more than $10 billion.
With an agriculture sector comprised of 36,000 farms and valued at over $5.7 billion, our state’s farms are poised to meet that demand, if the support businesses and infrastructures they need are provided. However, for the supply side to plant and grow to meet demand for local food, that demand must be proved and it must be detailed (for example, how much of which specific products in what form in what pack at what price at what time of year from what kinds of vendors under what circumstances).
But the questions remain: How hungry is NYC for local food now? And what do our state’s (and region’s) farm and food businesses need in order to feed that appetite and to grow it?
We the undersigned are writing to urge you to invest in answering those questions. Public and private sector players need detailed information on demand for local food—including institutions and manufacturing, key sectors of local food demand that were not included in the 2004 study— in order to invest strategically in the infrastructure and resources that will make New York City and New York state innovators and models in nourishing a vibrant and healthy food sector.
Why is this important?
Goal of this letter: To urge policymakers to invest strategically in the infrastructure and resources that will make New York City and New York state innovators and models in nourishing a vibrant and healthy food sector