Final Project Thoughts- Personal and Community Food Sustainability

At the beginning of the semester, I set out to learn more about the role of local food sustainability through the study of food distribution networks and supply chains. This led me to the IU Campus Garden, where I spent a few hours on most Tuesdays working and harvesting vegetables for the campus dorm cafeterias (and also for my own personal consumption). I had conversations with several players in the local food community, and learned about the difficulties  in getting a distribution center off the ground. I regret that I did not have more time to research this more closely, as I do think there are great opportunities for a city like Bloomington for such an initiative. In the future I would like to visit functioning local food distribution centers, and definitely plan to do this when I make the move to a larger city after graduation.

For me, even more important than learning about the organizational side of food sustainability was learning about the personal impact of working in a garden on a regular basis. Other than helping my Mom out with her tomatoes and cucumbers as a child, until this year I had basically zero experience with gardening. Working at the community garden this semester taught me about the discipline needed for basic tasks such as watering, trimming, weeding on a regular basis. But it also gave me an appreciation for truly fresh food, such as salads with spinach and arugula, sauteed chard, or the fried green tomatoes that often graced my plate.

The project led me to believe that if our food system is going to change, major organizational changes to the distribution network are of course necessary. But before that, it is crucial to give people the opportunity to experience gardening in their own lives, whether at home or in a community or school garden. This is not only a great source of food, but it is a great educational experience that gives awareness of how important (and delicious) local food is. I am not totally sold on the important of certified organic or other labels, but I do believe local food is important to both the social and economic sustainability of communities.

Thanks to my experience in the project, I  now will work to keep gardening in my own life, as well as working to make it a part of whatever community I end up in. This class has been a wonderful way to see how all the dots connect on the journey towards sustainable communities, and I am forever indebted.

Sincerely,

Errol Packard

Project Update #3

What dead basil looks like

Last week was the first frost of the year. While covering with a blanket was enough to save most of the plants, basil in particular was a hard hit casualty of the early cold. I learned that basil is very sensitive to frost, so we had to pull up all the plants and try to salvage what green leaves we could for drying and handing off to RPS. Unfortunately, most of the basil leaves had turned a purplish grey color, and had to be thrown in the compost.

Michael Simmons

In other garden news, we recently had a visit from local garden guru Michael Simmons, who taught our Garden Corps group about how to install a drip irrigation system. Currently the corps member take shifts to garden by host or bucket, but the plan is to install a comprehensive drip system by early spring to save both water and labor and still meet all the watering needs of the plants in the garden. In addition to being a patient and effective teacher, Mr. Simmons inspired us all with his cowboy-aesthetic fashion.

Lastly, this week I sat down to speak with Steve Swihart, president of the Bloomington Independent Restaurant Association (BIRA). Following up on my discussion with the Local Growers' Guild, I wanted to get an understanding of how local restaurants view local food, and their attitude to a potential local food hub and distribution network.

According to Steve, the most important thing to restauranteurs is a steady and reliable supply of food, and that would be the most important element of a local food hub. So,  if there were a product that for some reason couldn't be fully supplied on a given week from a local farmer, it would be up to the food hub to source that product, even if from conventional wholesalers. Currently 50-75% of BIRA members are interested in local food sourcing, but without the guarantee of a steady supply it just would not be practical economically for them. Right now Steve is working to get accurate forecasts of the type of demand the food hub could anticipate for local restaurants, but otherwise it is 'wait-and-see' until the food hub is up and operational. BIRA is optimistic about the benefits more local sourcing, both for the boost to restaurant quality and branding through fresher ingredients, and for the contribution to the local economy. Steve cited a study that 82 cents of each dollar go back to the community when a local product is bought, as compared to 51 cents from a national outlet. So although there is slightly more cost upfront, a local food hub could certainly have benefits for many stakeholders in the region.

Project Update #2

Radish greens: underrated

Is late September the official rainy season in Bloomington? I spent a few hours at the IU Campus Garden weeding in the rain this past Tuesday, until lightning reared its head and I was forced to head inside and spend my time sanitizing equipment (not as fun). Once the thunder subsided I headed back out into the drizzle with some other volunteers to help harvest vegetables for the RPS cafeterias. We had quite a nice haul: 5 large tubs worth of tomatoes, spinach, arugula, kale, chard, leeks, and radishes. After meeting the RPS required quota, we were allowed to head back out in the rain and sample some for ourselves. I don't normally like arugula, but right out of the ground it is delicious- very mild yet spicy. That night I prepared some fresh radishes using a new recipe- did you know radish greens are edible and oh so tasty!?

This morning I sat down and spoke with Jodee Ellett of the Bloomington Local Growers Guild  to talk about her efforts to build a distribution network for local food in the region. Right now, the best ways that local farmers can get their products to market is through farmers' markets, or by connections to individual restauranteurs- generally higher class operations such as FARM or Tallent who can pay the higher prices for local food at smaller volumes.

The other option for local growers is to sell to a conventional wholesaler such as Troyers, Piazza, or US Foods, who pay very low prices. The idea of a local distribution hub would be to act as a wholesaler for local farmers who might not be able to meet mass orders of a product by themselves, but combined with others could provide local restaurants and institutions with the fresh, healthy produce they are looking for.

And they are, in fact, looking for it. According to Jodee, many members of BIRA (the Bloomington Independent Restaurants Association)  would love to source more local food as a way to support the community as well as differentiate themselves from chain restaurants. Using local food improves your quality, and also your brand. However, aside from the upscale restaurants, most either cannot afford local food or cannot deal with the uncertainty of supply availability.

The distribution hub, planned to go online in spring of 2013, would hopefully solve some of these problems by pooling supply in order to reduce variability, and decreasing operating costs per order because higher volumes and economies of scale. Even though costs to the buyer would decrease, Jodee is confident that the farmers will still be getting paid the same or better prices compared to conventional wholesalers, in part because of the use of volunteer labor to begin with. But, if volumes became large enough there is even potential to someday turn a profit.

I have reached out to two other local food distribution organizations that have served as models for the Local Growers Guild: Green Bean Delivery in Indianapolis and Grasshoppers Distribution in Louisville KY. Hopefully I will get a chance to visit one of these sites and write about it in a future blog post!

Project Update #1

The Campus Garden on a beautiful misty Friday morning.

I have decided to focus the scope of my personal project, and concentrate on learning about the local food supply chain in a hands-on way. At the Big Red Eats Green Festival I had the chance to speak with some representatives from the IU Campus Garden initiative and wanted to get involved, so I went to my first workday last Friday. I spent the morning weeding, watering trees, and picking a lot of tomatoes of several varieties!

Just a small sample of the yellow cherry tomatoes I picked. Sweet like candy!

In addition to the tomatoes, I also harvested basil, kale, lemon cucumbers, bell peppers, and a whole watermelon to take home with me. There was also swiss chard, but I didn't take that as my wife hates swiss chard (she claims it tastes like beets.

Freshly picked watermelon! 

After the harvest, I sat down with Sara, the Campus Garden coordinator, to talk about ways to get involved with the garden outside of the regular workdays. The garden as a good relationship with  the IU RPS (residential programs & services), and contributes the bulk of its produce to be used in the dining halls. The biggest challenge in this program is making sure all food goes through correct sanitation procedures before delivery. We talked about possibly formalizing a process to make this easier for volunteers and increase the efficiency of food coming from the garden to the dining halls. 

In addition to food from the campus garden, there is a push to source more local food to the dining halls and student union in general. It is one thing when the food is free, but another when the campus has to purchase local food from outside farms. Sara said this can get tricky and there are sometimes complications and disagreements regarding pricing and regulations (for example, what level of organic certification is required?), but offered to put me in touch with one of the people managing this program. With my particular interest in supply chain and vendor management, I am very curious to see what the specific issues are involved in sustainable sourcing on the local level. 

So, it was a successful visit, and I look forward to not only getting more involved with the campus garden this semester, but also doing some research into the food supply chain of the IU RPS. Stay tuned for more!

Introduction

Hello! I am an MBA student at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, majoring in supply chain management. My interest in sustainability & 'green business' has led me to take some courses at IU's School of Public Environmental Affairs (SPEA)  to learn more about how to integrate the concepts of sustainability into my career and personal life. One of these classes is SPEA V515 Sustainable Communities, which looks at the micro-economic and philosophical aspects of sustainability for cities, communities, and in one's own life.

One of the reasons I chose to study supply chain in business school is that I am continually fascinated by where stuff comes from, and love to attempt to unravel puzzles of figuring out our globalized world. This is by no means groundbreaking work, but for my SPEA V515 personal project I would like to look at the foods I eat on a weekly basis and try to break down where they come from!

A little about my current eating habits: I am no locavore, and I do not eat strictly organic food. I have a tendency towards organic produce from the farmers' market or local co-op, but more out of a appreciation for the taste/freshness than out of ethical leanings (I suppose the ethics are a fringe benefit?). I love meat as one piece of the entire food pyramid, but currently my wife & I are taking a break from it and trying to eat vegetarian for the fall, mostly for health reasons.

Because my diet consists of local, non-local organic, and industrial foods, I thought this blog might serve as a way to compare and contrast the different supply chains. Who knows, some industrial foods might not be so bad for the environment. Some 'organic' products may be not so great. I am interested to see what comes up, and perhaps it will serve a a catalyst for a diet transformation in my own life.