A Farm Grows in Brooklyn...on a Rooftop! from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.
The sun is blazing hot, but there’s a light breeze.The smell of compost thickens the air. And Annie Novak teaches a group of 20 or so Brooklynites some things about organic farming.(Farm to Table)
It’s a farm, a learning center, an example of what’s possible in the urban landscape. From up here, with a better vantage of all the naked rooftops the city has to offer, it’s easy to imagine more city dwellers growing food this way.Welcome to Rooftop Farms, a 6,000 square foot rooftop farm providing fresh produce to local residents and restaurants via bicycle. In fact, that’s the only way they’ll transport their bounty. Their produce supplies nearby restaurants like Marlow & Sons in Williamsburg and Anella in Greenpoint. They’ve even made a trip to Franny’s on Flatbush Avenue, about 5.5 miles away.
As I learn more about the financial crisis - I am drawn to what is happening in the worst hit cities. For if unemployment stays high, what happens in Detroit - Cleveland - Las Vegas could happen in many more cities.
What we are seeing in these baseline cities is both a breakdown of everything we might expect to find in a city and then the emergence of a response from a population that cannot descend any further - groups that know that the only way has to be up and the only people to do this are themselves.
Here are two related stories - the deal with the basics of food and work.
I knew things were bad in Detroit but THIS!
Detroit’s 138 square miles are home to “enough abandoned lots to fill the city of San Francisco,” reports Bloomberg. In an effort to make its unused land more productive, nearly six acres of vacant land out of an estimated 17,000 have been turned into 500 food-producing “mini-farms.”
The 11th-largest American city has been rapidly shrinking; the population decline has been brought about largely by the ailing auto industry, as people move out to find work. The city, which suffers from a $200 million deficit and some of the highest poverty, unemployment and foreclosure rates in the United States, doesn’t have a lot of options.
After decades of failed renewal efforts, the city’s leaders are starting to pay attention to the city’s dwindling size, and to its 55,000 empty lots. On Nov. 25, the city passed a Neighborhood Stabilization Plan that seeks $47 million from the federal government to knock down abandoned homes for development.
Urban Farming, a Detroit-based nonprofit that was started by former pop singer Taja Sevelle in 2005, is hoping that its work helping to clear land and providing topsoil and fertilizer to Detroit residents will catch on. The crops grown on its farms are sold in markets or end up in soup kitchens, and help to raise home values. But although urban farms are innovative, they may not be enough to save Detroit. “I hate to say it … but I wouldn’t put my money in Detroit,” says real estate broker Russ Ravary.
Buying food is a big problem in Detroit - the major supermarkets have all moved out.
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit is one of America's largest cities, but there isn't a single grocery chain store within the city limits. Spurned by national retailers, Detroit's nearly 1 million residents instead rely on independent stores run by local entrepreneurs for their most basic needs.
So Detroit is instead trying to nurture its home-grown grocery stores and help them grow. For example, the city is working on tax abatements for Honey Bee Market, which expanded in 2006 from 4,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet, and is now dealing with higher property taxes as a result.
Honey Bee Market has been in business on Detroit's southwest side since 1956. Co-owner Kenneth Koehler attributes his store's longevity to selling products that cater to the neighborhood's significant Latino community, as well as being involved in neighborhood events.
"We know the neighbors, we know the people," says Koehler, who has 40 employees. "We look out for them, and they look out for us. "
Koehler also takes care to keep up his store's image and physical maintenance. "It's got to shine, it's got to be clean," he says. "It just has to be very presentable, just like it would be at your home."
Customer service and presentation is key to staving off bigger rivals. While national retailers steer clear of inner Detroit, they're littered through nearby suburbs like Dearborn, Southfield and Warren. University Foods owner Norman Yaldoo sees his store's emphasis on service as critical to its survival.
"We've built a reputation here in Detroit that's really unsurpassed to other stores that have come and gone," says Yaldoo, who opened his store in 1979 and now employs 20 workers. "That's why we're still here. Customers trust us."
Like Honey Bee Market, University Foods pays close attention to local preferences. Yaldoo stocks his 30,000-square-foot with a diverse product lineup catering to various cultural groups that live near University Foods.
That's one area where independent retailers have an advantage over major chains, says Jane Shallal, president and CEO of the Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers, a trade group that represents independent grocers throughout Michigan and Ohio. They can adjust to local conditions.
For example, food stamp distribution can result in a feast-or-famine retail atmosphere in Detroit, with shoppers buying most of their food at the beginning of each month and trickling into stores at the end. Small stores have more flexibility than chain retailers to reduce their hours during slow times.
Independently owned grocers have strong incentives to find ways to adapt and survive:
"This is their livelihood," Shallal says. "They're there for the long haul."
Development official Stella says Detroit is trying to provide additional assistance, such as by helping grocers find financing, secure the zoning they need, and organize focus groups to help fine-tune their product mix.
"You want to stabilize your base and help the strong stores make the changes that can serve the community," Stella says. "We have to be willing to think a little bit differently about urban neighborhood stores, and how you get the best quality and the best selection of products in a small space."
Detroit's citizens are waiting for more grocers to master that tricky formula. Beth Burrelsman, the store manager for Zaccaro's Market, says she still gets calls from people asking when Cindy Warner will be ready to tackle a new venture.
"The way the community tried to come together towards the end to try and 'save' this store reminded me of something you'd see in a movie," Burrelsman says. "The store had a vibrance and a spirit that I've never witnessed before in my 47 years. Working at this store was a gift."
I quote in Full CBC Report.
We can push here for the same!
Dale Kropf calls it Independence Day: On July 3, his five grocery stores in southwestern Ontario ceased to be Sobeys franchises.
Corporate policies prevented him from buying local products, he says, so he joined forces with four other former Sobeys franchisees and formed the independent Hometown Grocers Co-Op.
"We feel that local food, local presence is huge in our market and we wanted to take advantage of that," Kropf says.
Dale Kropf, an independent Ontario grocery store owner, says his customers want the ability to buy locally produced food. (Alison Crawford, CBC)Canadians are increasingly subscribing to the "buy local" and "100 mile diet"
philosophies due to concerns over imported food, Kropf adds. "The
pressure was always mounting — the more recalls, the more bad press
from China or wherever the product was coming from. I know that in our
case, our private label pickles are made in Indonesia. I couldn't
believe that."
As a franchisee for a large grocery chain, Kropf says, corporate policies stipulating that he only buy federally inspected meat prevented him from stocking local products. Most federally inspected meat in Canada comes from large corporations such as Maple Leaf, Cargill and Tyson.
"Most of our beef was Alberta beef. Chicken and pork could be U.S., so to me, that was a concern that, you know, we've got all these farmers in our back yard," Kropf says.
The nine stores have retained their wholesale relationship with Sobeys for items such as dog food, spices and breakfast cereals, but the chilled meat section of Kropf's store in Elora, Ont., is now stacked high with fresh pork, chicken and beef that comes from no farther than 60 kilometres away.
The stores are located in southern Ontario communities such as Arthur, Durham, Lucknow and Palmerston.
Co-op member Peter Knipfel owns The Chesley Grocery Store in Chesley, Ont., and is part-owner of a provincially inspected local beef processing facility 10 kilometres from his supermarket. Sobeys' corporate policy meant he couldn't stock his shelves with his own beef.
"We actually put it on our shelves because we felt it very necessary for it to be in our community, and that prompted that we get away from the franchise system, because it was not making them [Sobeys] happy," Knipfel says. "I didn't want to ruffle any more feathers, so we just decided to part company."
At L&M Markets in Elora, Ont., a store owned by Dale Kropf, the shelves are stocked with locally produced meat. (Alison Crawford, CBC)Officials from Sobeys were not available to comment on the company's purchasing policies.
The big grocery chains' insistence on buying federally inspected meat has long annoyed Ontario Independent Meat Processors, a group that represents Ontario's meat and poultry processors, retailers and wholesalers.
"We've strived to harmonize to a standard food safety level," executive director Laurie Nicol says. "We've implemented HACCP [hazard analysis and critical control points] programs to meet the needs of the retailers to ensure the integrity and safety of the product. It doesn't seem to be enough."
Lee-Ann Walker, general manager of the Ontario government's meat inspection program, says she can't comment on why the big-three grocery chains — Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys — don't buy provincial meat. "But certainly we feel that we have a system that is equivalent to the federal system."
Keith Warriner, who teaches in the department of food science at the University of Guelph's Ontario Agricultural College, says large grocery chains have good reason for insisting on federally inspected meat. Warriner says federally inspected meat processors, "can produce the volumes, the consistency, the price and the level of safety."
He adds the federal system is backed by reams of paperwork. "So when an outbreak occurs and the CFIA comes knocking on their door, they can say, 'Yes I got this product from this plant at this time,' and they can trace it [all the] way back.'"
Keith
Warriner, a teacher in the department of food science at the University
of Guelph's Ontario Agricultural College, says several studies show
provincially inspected meat is as safe as meat inspected by the feds. (Alison Crawford, CBC)That said, Warriner adds that several studies show provincially inspected meat is just as safe as meat inspected by the feds.
Kropf and Knipfel say they have full confidence in the quality of the provincial meat inspection system, and they take comfort in knowing exactly where their meat is coming from.
Leaving the franchise nest hasn't been easy, though. The Chesley Grocery Store's Knipfel says putting together and publishing weekly flyers, for example, has been a challenge.
"[Sobeys] has a complete advertising department that assists you in building your advertising and your weekly flyers, so that all is the growing pains. It's a lot of work, and we're learning every day," Knifel says.
Kropf agrees that the franchisor provided a lot of expertise in promotion and human resources.
"You wake up, the prices are in your system. If there is a problem, you pick up the phone and they fix it. Now if there's a problem, we fix it. Now that comfort level has gone away and we're truly back to being an independent business again."
However, he says there are benefits to his newfound independence in the produce aisles. Kropf says Sobeys did permit franchisees to buy local fruit and vegetables, but items that don't grow in Canada or were out-of-season came in big boxes from a centralized distribution point. He says co-op members can now control the quality of their produce, and the group has hired a buyer to hand-pick fresh fruit and vegetables at the food terminal in Toronto.
"He actually looks at the quality. If the quality isn't good, we don't have it [in our store]. So before we would just get it. We'd put it out and it would either sell or it wouldn't sell," says Kropf. "Green beans is a prime example where we're now selling more green beans than we've ever sold before because they are No. 1 quality."
For his part, Peter Knipfel says he's discovering more about what's growing locally. At his store, he says grape tomato sales have tripled since the switch to a local producer.
Ontario
independent grocery store owner Peter Knipfel says some types of local
produce can be pricey, but on average locally produced goods are
competitive with those sourced from outside the community. (Alison Crawford, CBC)"We
are now a group of nine stores that probably have a little bit of
buying power to buy larger quantities of local tomatoes, larger
quantities of cucumbers from, say, some of the Mennonite farmers that
are producing it at Elmira market, for example," he says.
Mary Copp has shopped at Kropf's store in Elora for 30 years. She says she noticed the changes immediately. "I think it's great because we look for local, and you can get it here. You can't get it at [chain-store rival] Zehrs … well, sometimes you can, but not as much."
Shopper Linda Tompkins of Chesley agrees, "I don't want food from some place else when we've got food right here. Support our farmers."
Still, Warriner predicts that while that more consumers are asking for local produce, they will always be the minority. The University of Guelph professor says like organic produce, local will always be a niche market because mass production generally leads to cheaper prices.
Co-op members concede some of their wares are more expensive than those of the competition, but add that on average they are competitive. "We're not saying we're the cheapest but we're certainly not the most expensive either," says Knipfel.
Kropf adds that the ability to offer locally produced food is ultimately about quality first, price second.
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