Need for local food systems support examined -- Washington County Food Summit

Food will always draw a crowd, and the 2016 Washington County Food Summit held at Washington Academy on March 12 was no exception. With over 140 registered attendees, the full day of all things related to local foods was buzzing with panels, workshops and speakers.
The breakfast and lunch illustrated the point that local foods are delicious, varied and plentiful. The food line was long and featured quiche, haddock chowder, venison stew, roasted winter squash soup, salads of delicate greens sprinkled with local cheeses and a bevy of cookies, Bold Coast coffee and other delights. It garnered two rounds of applause for the caterer, Angie's Everything Nice of East Machias. It was a feast of foods that could sit on any Washington County table if life were easy. But of course, it's not, as anyone involved in local foods was able to point out in any number of ways during the day's discussions.
There are mismatches between production scale and regulation, said Amanda Beal of Maine Farmland Trust (MFT), the keynote speaker. As a research and policy fellow, she has been studying the land and sea connections in the state's food systems and supports the MFT belief that Maine has the potential to be New England's "bread basket" if the state as a whole thinks and plans beyond the model of straight resource extraction embedded in traditional agriculture. "Why not have other values embedded in the food system?" she asked, and pointed out a living wage, healthy and plentiful food for all and using practices that support a healthy environment and thus community. And key to thinking about new models of food production is including the fisheries, she said. "We can't have a truly sustainable food system unless we include all types of food resources."
Workshops during the morning fleshed out some of the ways for those involved in local foods to think about scale, sustainability, diversification and marketing. After lunch a number of leaders in the field gave two‑minute updates on projects ranging from shellfish aquaculture studies at the Downeast Institute to the Maine Food Atlas produced by Healthy Acadia. Additional resources were discussed by Jerry Ireland of the national organization Farmer Veteran Coalition, which he noted is just about to close on a 65‑acre organic farm that will be run by two veterans as an active training site for veterans interested in farming. "We hope the model will inspire an increase of veteran farmers." In addition, he pointed to the extraordinary resources associated with Maine's forests, including maple syrup production and wild and wild‑cultivated mushrooms. He advised, "We need to redirect the losses in the paper mills to new forest resource development."
How to think about new products, product reach and more was the subject of Tanya Rucosky's discussion about a report generated by Sunrise County Economic Council (SCEC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Local Food Promotion Program. "Sunrise Food Infrastructure Initiative: Local Markets Viability Project," available on the SCEC website, tapped the wealth of knowledge and experience embedded in the local foods community to understand the models that work well or need help, the challenges of geography, demographics and regulations and the types of support, whether financing, policy changes or business assistance, that would help develop a robust local foods system in the county and beyond.
One local food example in the SCEC report stood out in glaring relief. Mirroring the keynote theme of the need to include the fisheries in the discussion was the information provided by retail grocers north of the Princeton region who were "embarrassed" by the lack of local seafood available to their customers. A combination of supply, regulation and federal Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards that are too costly for many producers to utilize has caused a significant vacuum in local seafood for that region. Another top concern was the price point that could be charged for local foods, with many suppliers noting that the year‑round population is extremely price sensitive because of income and budget challenges, whereas the summer population seemed better able to absorb full retail prices.
Illustrating the demographic challenges associated with pricing was one young farmer in the Columbia region. He told of his work with the Maine Sea Coast Mission to provide food for schools during the autumn shoulder season when his summer population had left and he was in need of markets for his fall harvests. Grant programs pay for the produce, creating a steady stream of income when he needs it most, he said. Without that partnership, he doubted that he would have been able to sustain his small farming effort and would have been more likely to pursue his interest of farming in Waldo County, where he had first thought to set up shop because of the vibrant young farmer population and handier market access.
Those new to farming have many resources to tap into, including loans available through SCEC and MFT that are specific to Washington County. The SCEC website has a page dedicated to resources available to farmers including the Beginning Farmer Resource Network, links to financing, business assistance, education, marketing and more at <www.sunrisecounty.org> under the "Programs and Initiatives" and "Sunrise Food Initiative" links.