from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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JAFSCD is the world’s only community-supported journal. JAFSCD content is open access (free) thanks to the generous support of our shareholders: the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, Library Shareholders, a growing number of Individual Shareholders, and our six JAFSCD Partners: |
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JAFSCD peer-reviewed article by Caroline Krejci (U of Texas at Arlington), Amy Marusak (KPI Solutions), Anuj Mittal (NinjaCart), Narjes Sadeghiamirshahidi (U of New Haven), and Sue Beckwith (Texas Center for Local Food)
Among the many challenges facing small-scale food producers, transportation is rarely at the top of mind – but it should be! Texas producers share their ideas on how to transform transportation from an insurmountable barrier into a competitive advantage and opportunity for business growth.
The decentralized structure of local and regional food supply chains inhibits transportation efficiencies, increases producers’ costs, and limits their market reach. Recommended strategies for producers to overcome transportation challenges include outsourcing transportation to commercial carriers and/or collaborating with other producers. However, examples of adoption and implementation of these strategies are relatively sparse and anecdotal, suggesting that producers may face significant barriers.
In a new JAFSCD article, Transportation barriers in local and regional food supply chains, authors Caroline Krejci, Amy Marusak, Anuj Mittal, Narjes Sadeghiamirshahidi, and Sue Beckwith present findings from a qualitative research study that aimed to understand the major transportation barriers that prevent small-scale food producers from efficiently reaching broader markets and how these barriers might be overcome. Corresponding author Caroline Krejci can be contacted at caroline.krejci@uta.edu.
KEY FINDINGS -
Small-scale Texas producers view transportation as a significant barrier to their businesses’ growth and financial success, limiting their distribution range, ability to reach large urban markets, and ability to focus on managing on-farm operations.
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Long distances and high temperatures, especially in summer, make transportation costly in terms of time, energy, and fuel, as well as required investment in temperature-controlled vehicles and storage.
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Small-scale producers could compete with grocery stores by offering a high level of service and responsiveness to customers (e.g., frequent or home deliveries), but they lack the transportation capacity to do so.
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Producers viewed outsourcing transportation to commercial carriers as a highly desirable alternative to self-delivery, but it was also considered to be expensive and insufficiently flexible.
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Producers were excited about the idea of collaborative transportation; however, concerns about the risks of cooperating with competitors, as well as difficulties in coordinating harvest schedules and long travel distances between farms, were viewed as major barriers.
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The idea of aggregating product in a shared storage location for pre-delivery staging held strong appeal among many producers.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH -
For producer transportation collaboration, a cooperative model could help to facilitate trust, to establish common objectives, to establish a fair cost/benefit sharing mechanism, and to ensure conformity in packaging and labeling.
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The creation of micro-aggregation nodes, where producers could independently drop off products and then collaboratively outsource the outbound transportation from the node to urban buyers, would reduce producers’ travel distances, coordination challenges, and concerns about competitors coming into direct contact with their customers.
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An online transportation platform (i.e., an app) tailored to the needs of specific regional food communities could help producers connect with trusted members of their communities (e.g., other producers, neighbors, friends) for efficient collaborative transportation.
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The criticality of transportation in regional food systems and, more broadly, food system resilience, suggests a rationale for public funding to improve regional food distribution systems, in which cities subsidize the costs or possibly set up their own secure and professionally run transportation systems for bringing perishable local and regional foods into the city.
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Among the many challenges facing small-scale farmers and ranchers, transportation is rarely at the top of mind — but it should be! In a new study, Texas producers share ideas on how to transform transportation from an insurmountable barrier into a competitive advantage and opportunity for business growth. #transportation #localfood #foodmiles #collaborativetransportation #logistics Read the full @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.141.018
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Photo above: Becca Knutson, owner of Hollow Trace Farm in Azle, Texas, preparing to unload products for market from the farm’s custom trailer. Photo provided by Carolyn Krejci. |
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JAFSCD article by Cherish K. Duerst (Texas A&M-Commerce), Robert Williams (Texas A&M-Commerce), Jose Lopez (Texas A&M-Commerce) and Douglas LaVergne (Lincoln U Missouri) A questionnaire-based study in a small town food pantry reveals many people facing food-insecurity want to garden and know how to garden, but do not have a place to garden. Gardening can be an important source of fresh food for people experiencing food insecurity in the U.S. However, lower-income households have lower gardening rates when compared to their higher-income counterparts. What creates this disparity?
The newly published article Garden access and barriers for low-income community members investigates the garden-related experiences of food pantry customers in the Bemidji area of rural northern Minnesota. This questionnaire-based study addresses gardening in its many forms, including residential, container, community, and other types of gardening.
Although it may be easy to assume that low-income individuals do not want to garden, the study found specific factors that prevent motivated individuals from gardening. Participants offered suggestions to relieve these barriers, some of which are within the control of local policymakers. The findings showcase the motivation, knowledge, and experience of rural, low-income individuals and encourage policymakers to take this into consideration when designing programs. Corresponding author Cherish Duerst can be contacted at cduerst@leomail.tamuc.edu
KEY FINDINGS - Many food pantry customers want to garden but are unable to garden due to certain barriers.
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The most common barrier was lack of a place to garden, often due to their landlord’s restrictions (when renting a house) or the realities of apartment life.
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Participants expressed a fair amount of experience with gardening, although they expressed interest in specific areas of education, such as container gardening, and how to improve soil.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY, PRACTICE, AND RESEARCH - Participants wanted to see changes to the restrictions on gardening in standard leases.
- Improved access to community gardens, education on container gardening, and access to tools and seeds were also frequently requested.
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Public library-based garden tool rental and seed library programs could improve garden access for lower-income households.
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Transportation to available community garden space can be physically and financially challenging for individuals, and additionally difficult to schedule. Therefore, home gardening was the assumed option for many study participants. Any initiative designed to boost gardening rates should highly consider the role of home gardening.
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Future research should strongly consider home gardening and household access to any of the many forms of gardening for food security (beyond community gardening alone).
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What prevents gardening for food security? A new questionnaire-based study reveals the garden-related challenges faced by food pantry customers in rural northern Minnesota. Read the full @JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2024.141.008
Photo above: Gardening produces food and promotes well-being, but it can be challenging to find the proper space to garden. Photo provided by the authors. |
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POSITION OPENINGS FROM JAFSCD SHAREHOLDERS |
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The Food Connection at the University of Kentucky (TFC) is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to conduct applied research on value chain coordination (VCC) in local and regional food systems. This is a unique and high-impact postdoctoral researcher position, created in partnership with TFC, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Local and Regional Foods Division (LRFD), and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD). The postdoctoral researcher will lead a novel multi-institution research initiative that results in scholarly publications, stakeholder-facing technical assistance resources, and policy recommendations at local, regional, and national scales.
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CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS OR TO APPLY |
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The successful candidate will develop and lead externally funded research and extension programs that support and strengthen the viability of the New Jersey agricultural sector and individual farms. Through active engagement with the agricultural community, the Specialist will identify existing and emerging opportunities and needs, conduct applied research to assess what technical assistance and policies would help farmers take advantage of these opportunities, and provide educational outreach in the agricultural community across different scales of operation, commodities, and production systems.
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| The Department of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education (AESE) Extension Program Specialist |
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The Department of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education (AESE) at The Pennsylvania State University is seeking candidates for an Extension Program Specialist who will conduct Extension programs, develop enterprise budgets, and create and update publications for the Penn State “Ag Alternative” series. The role includes supporting research projects and offering expert advice on risk management. The candidate will effectively build solid connections with stakeholders and their organizations. This position requires a master’s degree plus three years of relevant experience or equivalent work experience.
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