‘AT A TURNING POINT’
Capital Roots provides summary report on Greater Capital Region Food System Assessment
TROY, N.Y. » The Capital Roots Assessment team at Capital Roots, held a press event where the team of Chief Executive Officer Amy Klein, Assessment Coordinator Marissa Peck and Assessment Writer Amy Halloran, presented and discussed a summary of their findings on the Greater Capital Region Food System Assessment (GCRFSA).
The trio helped guide the process by coordinating with a vast network of agencies, farms, businesses, and educational institutions in forging the assessment. “This work was the culmination of thousands of hours of community-based research,” Klein remarked.
“The goal of this project was to guide future discussion and inform policymakers, funders, and stakeholders so that together we can build a more equitable and economically sound food system for all,” Klein explained.
“But most specifically for low-income consumers and small farms and food businesses in our region,” Klein added.
Chief among the key needs the assessment hopes to improve upon with actionable results are:
"The goal of this project was to guide future discussion and inform policymakers, funders, and stakeholders so that together we can build a more equitable and economically sound food system for all."
— Capital Roots Assessment Chief Executive Officer Amy Klein
• Low-income residents will have consistent access to healthy and culturally important food and incomes that ensure food security.
• All farmers will have a viable place in directto-consumer and regional wholesale markets, regardless of size, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers will have access to land and farm financing.
• Food-based businesses will easily be able to process their products to addvalue and find steady regional markets while sourcing from local farmers.
• Local food will be distributed throughout the region in an equitable manner, and regional distributors will have investment
and support as they are critical to the local food economy and community food security.
The assessment also laid out the vital role in which each sector can play in improving the current food system.
Processing:
• Strengthen business supports for small foodbased businesses in the region to include business plan development, financing opportunities, and access to production and storage infrastructure for direct-to-consumer and regional wholesale market channels.
• Invest in Processor Supported Agriculture to increase the amount of food purchased from local farms by the region’s processing businesses, which, in addition to large commercial companies, include small food vendors, caterers, and restaurants.
• Develop a regional strategic plan for each local food processing sector: dairy, grain, meat, and produce.
Production:
• Develop regional wholesale market channels for local food to build resilience for small producers and grow the local food economy.
This is accomplished by the following actions:
• Use the Agriculture of the Middle concept as a framework to support farms to decide when, if, and how to scale up.
• Increase the number of GAP-certified farms.
• Help small and new meat producers better access regional meat processing facilities with technical training.
• Support the transition of commodity dairy farms to other types of agriculture and strengthen fluid milk processing in the region to support existing commodity dairy farms.
• Develop local food aggregation to serve regional distributors and food hubs in the Capital District.
• Support the connection between direct-to-consumer farmers market producers and regional wholesale markets.
• Coordinate agricultural economic development through regional planning, including an annual 11-county food system planning meeting and a food system track at regional planning trainings.
Multi-sector: GENERAL:
• Form a regional food policy council to carry out the recommendations of this assessment and continue to engage in food system development at a regional level.
FARM TO INSTITUTION:
• Invest in improving regional distributors’ capacity to source local food, through Distributor Supported Agriculture, developing Agriculture of the Middle, and increasing the number of GAP certified farms in the region.
• Support the re-establishment of full kitchens inside institutions to better handle and prepare local food and healthy meals.
• Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)
• Develop a strategic plan to increase FMNP redemption rates in the region, especially for WIC families.
PRODUCE RECOVERY:
• Fund produce recovery efforts that prioritize regional coordination, reducing costs for farmers, and improving quality of donated produce.
Commissioner of Agriculture for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball also joined the press event and spoke to some of the challenges and needs the assessment hopes to address.
“Now more than ever after this particularly unprecedented year we just had and all the challenges that consumers and agriculture faced together,” Ball remarked.
“I think we all saw the dramatic shifts agriculture went through when the pandemic first hit. Markets got disrupted, consumer demand changed, and needs changed,” Ball continued.
“We also saw and I think we’re still seeing the increased need from our communities in assessing fresh food,” Ball added.
Echoing the sentiments on the need for more equitable fresh food access on the press event call was Executive Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Barbara Guinn.
“Any efforts that are put forth to expand and equalize access to healthy food is really important to our communities and absolutely critical to OTDA to improve our ability to serve those in need,” Guinn explained.
Klein concluded the presentation and noted where the food system presently stands and the direction it needs to move in for the future.
“The current state of our regional food system is really at a turning point,” Klein said.
“Direct-to-consumer market channels are at a climax and are even starting to decline in some regards. Wholesale market channels in the region are really starting to open up for regional farmers. But we need to look at making investments over the next 10 years, especially in response to Covid, so that we can have the impact on our regional food system that will have an impact over the next 50 years,” Klein continued.
“It’s critical that this investment approaches funding the food system holistically for production and distribution and processing and that direct-to-consumer and wholesale market channel development are funded equitably,” Klein explained.
Klein added the importance of having healthy retail food access as a primary method to increase food security.