State sows new seeds to link farms, buyers

100 gather at Arkansas Grown forum

Cynthia Edwards, Arkansas’ deputy agriculture secretary, helps serve a lunch of Arkansas-grown food Monday after a gathering for farmers and retailers at the Governor’s Mansion.
Cynthia Edwards, Arkansas’ deputy agriculture secretary, helps serve a lunch of Arkansas-grown food Monday after a gathering for farmers and retailers at the Governor’s Mansion.

Microphone in hand, P. Allen Smith kept the conversation moving between growers, restaurateurs, processors and marketers.

Smith, a celebrity gardener and horticulturalist, was moderating a discussion Monday at the Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock aimed at getting the people who produce, buy and sell locally grown foods more information about what’s available in Arkansas, from fruits and vegetables to meat cutting and heritage chickens.

“The idea here is to help connect consumers with producers,” Smith said, noting that as he travels the country, he’s finding a commitment to locally grown foods, a trend amplified by celebrity chefs and cooking shows.

Last week, the Arkansas Agriculture Department took steps toward promoting a revamped “Arkansas Grown” program aimed at helping consumers, including restaurants and grocery stores, locate Arkansas based producers of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and specialty meats.

Smith moderated a gathering Monday of more than100 people billed as “Local Conversations” aimed at connecting producers with groceries, restaurants and others to increase the amount of locally produced food they use. And, the Agriculture Department is in the process of revamping its Arkansas Grown website, arkansasgrown.org, to make it easier for users to register what they produce and what they need.

State Deputy Agriculture Secretary Cynthia Edwards said the department is also working with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and the Arkansas Farm Bureau to increase public awareness of Arkansas producers and products.

At Monday’s gathering, participants frequently said they lacked information about Arkansas-produced agricultural products.

Solving that problem is behind the department’s latest push, said state Agriculture Secretary Butch Calhoun, who added after the gathering that he wasn’t surprised to hear comments such as “I didn’t know that,” or “How do I get that information?”

“They’re all small farmers. They don’t have the ways and the means of some of the big producers and that’s what we’re going to help them with,” Calhoun said. “I think there is a market out there for them where people can make a good living doing that - growing good food.”

The Arkansas Grown program defines eligible products “to mean raw or finished goods consisting of, or made substantially, from farm, forest and nursery products produced in Arkansas,” according to its website. Those selling such products are allowed to display a green and black “Arkansas Grown” label at points of sale or on the products themselves.

Smith, whose Moss Mountain Farm is west of Little Rock, said the issue boils down to how to produce local foods and make a good living. He said growers deal with issues such as where to take the sheep, goats and chickens for processing. And, if people want to sell the meat, what inspection requirements need to be met?

He said the state Agriculture Department is acting as an advocate for growers, something producers haven’t had in the past. It is also working on improving ways to let potential customers know what producers are growing or raising.

Zach Taylor, the department’s marketing director, said the Arkansas Grown program has been in existence in one form or another since 2002. Beginning in 2010, the department began revamping the program with limited funding, he said. This year, the department has budgeted about $60,000 for promotion.

Smith said just as individual consumers want to know where their vegetables come from, producers want to build relationships with those who might buy in larger quantities, such as a restaurant or grocery store. That requires trust, he said.

“Restaurateurs have to commit to [buying] something and the grower has to produce it,” he said.

Much of the discussion at the Governor’s Mansion focused on making connections.

Capi Peck, co-owner of Trio’s Restaurant in Little Rock, wasn’t surprised by the questions raised at the gathering, which she called a good step toward building relationships and something she hopes the department continues.

“I found out about that meeting on the Friday before it happened through a grower, a man who I buy tomatoes and strawberries from,” Peck said.

She said small growers and producers don’t spend much on marketing, which makes the Arkansas Grown effort even more important.

Andy Shaw of the Cypress Valley Meat Co. custom processes animals at facilities in Romance and Hot Springs to give customers the cuts they want. He has U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors on site to certify meats are properly handled.

“A lot of people want to be producers. They don’t want to be marketers,” Shaw said. He said he occasionally helps connect producers with a buyer looking for a specific item.

But finding access to locally sourced items isn’t the only hurdle.

A lack of infrastructure for small production runs, such as packaging hummus or bean dips, was a concern aired at the meeting. Others, including Smith, agreed, and said there are few places available to process small lots of poultry. Smith said he has to send his flocks out of state for butchering.

Taylor said his department studied the feasibility of finding a portable processing facility in the state a few years ago but determined there wasn’t enough demand.

After the Governor’s Mansion event, Jack Sundell of the Root Cafe in Little Rock, said that offering locally sourced foods requires specialization among growers.

However, growers considering expanding their operations also deal with huge differences in the needs of buyers, ranging from smaller businesses such as his restaurant to larger institutional buyers such as schools and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

“All of these people are very busy,” Sundell said. “There’s not a lot of time for idea sharing.”

While some of the hundred or so people attending the one-day conference were familiar, many were new faces, Sundell said.

It’s not always easy for growers, butchers and retailers to deal with regulations, Sundell observed. He said that when the Root Cafe tried to find out what the rules might be if it wanted to sell vegetables it canned, it got shunted among several agencies that didn’t know which had responsibility.

Grocery stores are also interested in marketing “locally produced” products. Representatives of The Kroger Co. and The Fresh Market were among those attending Monday’s session.

Danny Hulslander, a field category manager for local produce for The Fresh Market, said the key issue isn’t finding local producers but products that meet store specifications. Other issues include packaging, universal product codes and logistics - the costs of which strain small producers.

“Quantity isn’t the issue. Food safety is,” Hulslander said, adding that The Fresh Market is willing to favor local growers over national suppliers.

Some small growers are willing bear the cost of obtaining food safety certification, state Deputy Agriculture Secretary Edwards said. The department had some federal funding available to help with such certification, but it has been spent.

Josh Hardin, owner of the certified organic Laughing Stock Farm in Sheridan, said people want locally grown food and growth will depend on how local producers do financially, since on a retail basis, larger produce-sellers can easily out price small operations.

Hardin said many of the topics being raised all add to production costs.

“I’m not going to scale up and change the way I live just to sell in these markets,” Hardin said.

Peck agreed that cost is a factor, both for producers and the businesses that buy the produce.

“It’s just not the cheapest way to go,” Peck said. “It’s going to cost more if it’s organic or if it’s local. It just is.”

She said buyers have to make a decision to support the local economy and figure out other ways to avoid taking a hit to their bottom line.

“I want to support the local economy,” she said. “I want to know where my food comes from and most of my customers also do.”

Business, Pages 67 on 02/16/2014

Upcoming Events