ACoRN's 10-year plan seeks to expand local market

The Addison County Relocalization Network (ACoRN), an organization started in 2005 in response to growing concerns about peak oil and environmental challenges, recently released “The 2010 Strategic Plan for the Addison County Local Foods Collaborative.” The study addresses the ways in which Addison County’s local food market, and its farmers, processors and consumers, can expand. The plan’s 10-year goal is to increase the local food market from 5 percent to 15 percent of the county’s economy.
“Addison County is the epicenter of the local food movement,” said Jonathan Corcoran, president of ACoRN. The county posts the highest direct sales of food (food sold straight from the farmer to the consumer, either a household, store or restaurant) on a per capita basis in all of Vermont. This statistic is measured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Furthermore, the state of Vermont is the leader in direct sales per capita in the nation.
“Vermont is well suited to this [the plan] because there’s a strong agricultural base,” said Schumann Distinguished Scholar at the College Bill McKibben. “There’s probably more experimentation going on in Vermont with agriculture than any other state.”
According to ACoRN’s report, the county makes up 24 percent of all agricultural sales in the state. In 2007, agriculture represented 18 percent, or $161 million, of the county’s revenues. The result of such high food activity, according to Corcoran, is “a very vital food enterprise sector” in the county.
The local food, or “localvore,” movement began to gain momentum in 2006, just a year after ACoRN was founded. The organization quickly started many projects, seeking to strengthen the local food market. These initiatives included the online Addison County Farmer’s Directory, the Middlebury winter farmer’s market and the Tour de Farms community bike ride. The “localvore” movement continued and eventually led to a summit meeting, organized primarily by the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-operative, in March of 2009.
“This was the first time that a lot of people around the county came together in one room and started talking about the local food system — about the barriers, challenges and obstacles, and on the other side, opportunities,” said Corcoran.
After the summit, ACoRN sought and received help, in the form of a grant, from the Addison County Economic Development Corporation. ACoRN then invested even more time into learning about the soils, crops, growers, processors and slaughterhouses in the county. From their research, the group gleaned a better sense of the local food economy and realized the extent of the diversity in the county’s agriculture.
“[We have] everything from farmer’s markets and farm stands all the way to Agri-Mark,” said Corcoran. “We have orchards, artisanal cheeses, commodity cheeses and wheat processing . . . Part of the plan is to take stock in that and look at where the opportunities are.”
The study identifies three main objectives to help the county capitalize on the local food sector’s strengths and to improve its weaknesses. The first aim is the development of the ACoRN Wholesale Collaborative (AWC) that will link growers to local businesses. The plan is to create an online market platform where growers can connect with buyers and together they can enter into productive contracts. To oversee the project, ACoRN has created an advisory board; Matthew Biette, director of dining services at the College, is a member.
The second initiative outlined by the plan is the “Farm to School” program, which provides opportunities for students in each of Addison County’s three school districts to learn about local food and to experiment with activities, such as gardening, cooking and composting. The goal, according to Corcoran, is to reintroduce these ideals into the school system and to “shift some of our habits back in the direction of local food.” In April 2010, ACoRN organized a conference, called Stone Soup, which brought schools together, facilitating the sharing of ideas and stories of success. The group is currently planning another conference for this April. ACoRN hired a coordinator to pull the efforts together, a position it hopes it will be able to continue funding.
“A lot of it depends on resources,” said Corcoran. “People forget this is a non-profit.”
The last major goal identified by the study is to create a local food index to measure the county’s local food sales. ACoRN hopes to measure the sales of approximately five different organizations quarterly to gauge growth in the market. According to the study, potential participants include the Co-op, the Middlebury Farmer’s Market, Greg’s Meat Market and Mountain Greens.
“Addison County is ready for this. I just know it,” said Corcoran. “We are just missing the infrastructure and by infrastructure I mean the people with the financial background to be able to organize funds.”
For the projects to reach their potential, they must receive more capital. Corcoran stresses the importance of connecting investors with slow money and not looking for a fast or high return.
“This is the kind of patient money that we need to grow the local food system,” he said. “It is a concept whose time has really come.”
Biette agrees that securing more capital could strengthen the plan.
“We need to get it on an economically sound foundation,” he said.
Yet Biette, who met Corcoran at the March 2009 summit meeting, is pleased with how the plan is coming to life and understands the significance of the College’s role in the local foods market. Of the 10,000 institutional meals served daily in Addison County, the College serves 7,000. For the 34 weeks of the academic year, the College serves each student for just $3.60 per day, or $1.20 per meal. Given an annual food budget of $2,101,404 (a figure that does not include expenses for the College’s Language Schools or Grille), Biette still makes every attempt to buy as much local food as possible. Syrup, apples and dairy products in particular are bought almost entirely locally. Still, the rising prices of food and fuel caused a five percent drop in the local foods the College serves from 25 percent last year to 20 percent this year.
Despite these challenges, many are optimistic about the future of the local food market.
“This is just people’s growing realization that stuff from close to home tastes better and is better for you and can be eaten with pride,” said McKibben. “They [the College’s dining services] have really written the book so far, and it will be great fun to see them write the next chapter.”
Corcoran also senses the progress.
“This is becoming more real by the day,” said Corcoran. “These are conversations that were not happening two years ago.”
At the heart of ACoRN’s efforts is the notion that strong relationships between growers and buyers will foster a strong community.
“Everybody sees themselves as an individual player and what we are really trying to do is to encourage people to see themselves as part of something bigger,” said Corcoran. “The local food system is an organism. It has a life of its own. You cannot have the same expectations as you have as an individual operator. There is more give and take.”
The group is hopeful that its 10-year plan will re-invigorate the local food market, primarily because eating what is grown locally is good for all players involved.
“The beauty of a local food system is it’s where we live, it’s the people we know, it’s the land all around us . . . It’s all about, really, relationships,” said Corcoran.