MONROE - A new feasibility study of regional fruit and vegetable production concludes that the area can flourish and even compete against mega-producers like California and Mexico, if there is a coordinated effort to change agriculture policies and build up the right infrastructure.
It doesn't take an expert to notice the irony of Midwestern produce consumption. All it takes is a walk through any grocery store's produce section in July or August. Even when tomatoes are in season, we're still importing the fruit in from Canada and elsewhere - at a considerably higher cost for shipping, said Victoria Solomon.
Solomon was the project manager for "Local Food Prospectus for the Tri-State Region," an analysis released last month by the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and similar agencies in Iowa and Illinois. She and other researchers spent a year preparing the 151-page report, which was funded by a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Researchers examined data to determine the potential for produce production in a tri-state region that covers northeastern Iowa, northwestern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin, including Green and Lafayette counties. The market this region would serve extends in a 250-mile radius to Dubuque, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Chicago. More than 34.7 million people live in this radius.
Despite a rising interest in buying local, a yawning gap still exists between farmers' market stands and the produce shipped in from thousands of miles away to our grocery stores and institutional kitchens.
"We wanted to scale up to that sweet spot of the regional market," Solomon said.
The obstacles are many, as the study found. Most obvious of the challenges is the Midwest's relatively short growing season and unpredictable weather - even so, researchers were surprised to find this region has the potential to outproduce California.
"We've got great soils and great landscapes," said Troy Maggied, lead planning coordinator on the project. Particularly for produce like tomatoes and lettuce, he added, "we can do well."
The study also identified as challenges the federal policies that incentivize commodity crops like corn and soybeans, not produce; a lack of workers in the region who are willing or able to perform the labor necessary to harvest (in this aspect, California "retains a clear competitive advantage," the study concluded); an inefficient distribution system for local food; and an overall "lack of production and harvesting knowledge for the region's unique characteristics."
But researchers also concluded there are significant opportunities here for produce grown in large enough quantities for regional production. It would capitalize on the "Buy Local" movement and on increasing U.S. fruit and vegetable consumption, save money on rising transportation costs and may even pave a way to attract new, young farmers to an area that currently has an aging population of agriculture producers.
The payoff for produce farmers could be big. When the right infrastructure is in place, produce is a moneymaker, according to the study: "Scaling up production for wholesale markets is where a lot of the economic opportunity is."
The changes necessary to get to that point can't happen overnight. Besides policy changes, major shifts in wholesale food distribution are needed, Maggied and Solomon said. The current infrastructure for regional produce distribution is often too fragmented to reach some of the biggest wholesale buyers reliably.
"If I were a grocery store," Maggied said, "I wouldn't want to wonder" from week to week what produce is coming in and what quality it will be.
Education is also needed. Many institutions, like schools and hospitals, don't know how to effectively process fresh produce or work with a seasonal menu, despite the demand for it, the researchers said.
It isn't impossible, though, as some pioneering institutions have found. Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse is one hospital the researchers named as having successfully incorporated some local products into its menu.
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Not all are so enthusiastic about the study's conclusions. For at least one person on the study's steering committee, the study presents a farming model that is "impractical if not impossible" and "flies in the face" of local food.
Tom Nelson, an advocate in Green County for sustainable agriculture, praises the study for doing a "remarkably good job gathering data." But he doesn't see eye-to-eye with the researchers in the interpretation of that data.
Large-scale produce farms that feed into a regional market may cut down on transportation costs, but by virtue of being large-scale, they still rely on a conventional model of farming that includes pesticides, Nelson said: "What's the difference between a carrot soaked in herbicide there, or here?"
Nelson favors small-scale production and says the region should be building the foundation for existing produce farmers who sell locally, not striving for regional dominance.
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Given the right circumstances, Laura and Tony Jay are tentatively interested in increasing the size of fruit and vegetable production on their family farm just northeast of Monroe. The couple milks a herd of about 170 goats and gardens on a drip-irrigated, intensively planted 1.5 acres. They grow organic but aren't certified as such.
As the study confirmed, a lot would have to change for them to significantly increase that garden.
"It's feasible," Tony Jay said. A new infrastructure would have to be in place to incentivize produce production, like shared machinery and crop insurance, he said.
Right now, if a drought shrivels a crop, "we just have to take it," his wife said.
The majority of the rolling farmland surrounding the Jays, "it's all taken up with corn, soybeans," he said. To convert that acreage, "it would have to be irrigated, so it would have to be fairly flat."
One aspect of larger-scale production that appeals to the Jays is help with distribution.
As it is now, "you're kind of on your own," Laura Jay said. They sink a lot of time into hauling produce to farmers markets in Madison and Janesville. They enjoy the personal contact with their customers but admit it's an inefficient way to sell.
Distributing to restaurants and schools would be nice, she said, but she doesn't have the time "to go knocking on doors."
•••
Whatever the future holds for local and regional food production, one thing is clear from the inch-thick study Maggied and Solomon helped put together: the issues are complex and thorny and have implications beyond agricultural development and impact public health, economic growth and more.
"We've just tapped into one tiny piece," he said.
It doesn't take an expert to notice the irony of Midwestern produce consumption. All it takes is a walk through any grocery store's produce section in July or August. Even when tomatoes are in season, we're still importing the fruit in from Canada and elsewhere - at a considerably higher cost for shipping, said Victoria Solomon.
Solomon was the project manager for "Local Food Prospectus for the Tri-State Region," an analysis released last month by the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and similar agencies in Iowa and Illinois. She and other researchers spent a year preparing the 151-page report, which was funded by a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Researchers examined data to determine the potential for produce production in a tri-state region that covers northeastern Iowa, northwestern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin, including Green and Lafayette counties. The market this region would serve extends in a 250-mile radius to Dubuque, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Chicago. More than 34.7 million people live in this radius.
Despite a rising interest in buying local, a yawning gap still exists between farmers' market stands and the produce shipped in from thousands of miles away to our grocery stores and institutional kitchens.
"We wanted to scale up to that sweet spot of the regional market," Solomon said.
The obstacles are many, as the study found. Most obvious of the challenges is the Midwest's relatively short growing season and unpredictable weather - even so, researchers were surprised to find this region has the potential to outproduce California.
"We've got great soils and great landscapes," said Troy Maggied, lead planning coordinator on the project. Particularly for produce like tomatoes and lettuce, he added, "we can do well."
The study also identified as challenges the federal policies that incentivize commodity crops like corn and soybeans, not produce; a lack of workers in the region who are willing or able to perform the labor necessary to harvest (in this aspect, California "retains a clear competitive advantage," the study concluded); an inefficient distribution system for local food; and an overall "lack of production and harvesting knowledge for the region's unique characteristics."
But researchers also concluded there are significant opportunities here for produce grown in large enough quantities for regional production. It would capitalize on the "Buy Local" movement and on increasing U.S. fruit and vegetable consumption, save money on rising transportation costs and may even pave a way to attract new, young farmers to an area that currently has an aging population of agriculture producers.
The payoff for produce farmers could be big. When the right infrastructure is in place, produce is a moneymaker, according to the study: "Scaling up production for wholesale markets is where a lot of the economic opportunity is."
The changes necessary to get to that point can't happen overnight. Besides policy changes, major shifts in wholesale food distribution are needed, Maggied and Solomon said. The current infrastructure for regional produce distribution is often too fragmented to reach some of the biggest wholesale buyers reliably.
"If I were a grocery store," Maggied said, "I wouldn't want to wonder" from week to week what produce is coming in and what quality it will be.
Education is also needed. Many institutions, like schools and hospitals, don't know how to effectively process fresh produce or work with a seasonal menu, despite the demand for it, the researchers said.
It isn't impossible, though, as some pioneering institutions have found. Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse is one hospital the researchers named as having successfully incorporated some local products into its menu.
•••
Not all are so enthusiastic about the study's conclusions. For at least one person on the study's steering committee, the study presents a farming model that is "impractical if not impossible" and "flies in the face" of local food.
Tom Nelson, an advocate in Green County for sustainable agriculture, praises the study for doing a "remarkably good job gathering data." But he doesn't see eye-to-eye with the researchers in the interpretation of that data.
Large-scale produce farms that feed into a regional market may cut down on transportation costs, but by virtue of being large-scale, they still rely on a conventional model of farming that includes pesticides, Nelson said: "What's the difference between a carrot soaked in herbicide there, or here?"
Nelson favors small-scale production and says the region should be building the foundation for existing produce farmers who sell locally, not striving for regional dominance.
•••
Given the right circumstances, Laura and Tony Jay are tentatively interested in increasing the size of fruit and vegetable production on their family farm just northeast of Monroe. The couple milks a herd of about 170 goats and gardens on a drip-irrigated, intensively planted 1.5 acres. They grow organic but aren't certified as such.
As the study confirmed, a lot would have to change for them to significantly increase that garden.
"It's feasible," Tony Jay said. A new infrastructure would have to be in place to incentivize produce production, like shared machinery and crop insurance, he said.
Right now, if a drought shrivels a crop, "we just have to take it," his wife said.
The majority of the rolling farmland surrounding the Jays, "it's all taken up with corn, soybeans," he said. To convert that acreage, "it would have to be irrigated, so it would have to be fairly flat."
One aspect of larger-scale production that appeals to the Jays is help with distribution.
As it is now, "you're kind of on your own," Laura Jay said. They sink a lot of time into hauling produce to farmers markets in Madison and Janesville. They enjoy the personal contact with their customers but admit it's an inefficient way to sell.
Distributing to restaurants and schools would be nice, she said, but she doesn't have the time "to go knocking on doors."
•••
Whatever the future holds for local and regional food production, one thing is clear from the inch-thick study Maggied and Solomon helped put together: the issues are complex and thorny and have implications beyond agricultural development and impact public health, economic growth and more.
"We've just tapped into one tiny piece," he said.