Report calls for investment in ‘Ag of the Middle’
Oregon’s medium-sized ag producers churn out high-quality meat, grain and greens, but gaps in the aggregation, processing and distribution infrastructure make it difficult to put on consumers’ plates at an affordable price.
A new report from Ecotrust, a Portland non-profit, calls for investment in “Ag of the Middle” producers and the network that can sustain a strong regional food economy.
The report, “Oregon Food Infrastructure Gap Analysis,” defines “Ag of the Middle” producers as too big to survive by selling only at farmers’ markets or to CSAs, but too small compete in commodity markets.
“It’s absolutely the most painful place to be as a producer,” said Amanda Oborne, one of the report’s authors and Ecotrust’s food and farms vice president.
The 250-page study describes a haphazard system in which growers and other food producers spend too much time on the supply chain instead of developing their product. They must cobble together outlets, pick, pack and store things themselves and deliver small amounts to multiple buyers.
Neighborhood grocery stores in Portland, especially those catering to consumers willing to pay more for local, organic or sustainably produced food, are besieged by clusters of delivery vehicles. Some of them amount to a cooler in the trunk of a grower’s car. In Portland’s increasingly busy streets, getting from store to store isn’t easy.
The founder of Portland’s Bowery Bagels, which uses Northwest grains, told the report writers he delivers to 114 outlets on weekdays. “I can make more bagels,” CEO Michael Madigan is quoted as saying, “but I can’t deliver any more.”
The report says Ag of the Middle producers often lack branding or marketing strategy and do without communications and strategic planning.
The result is a system that is “highly fragmented, lacking consistent data and information, and dependent on personal relationships,” according to the study.
Ecotrust is investing in the solution. The organization is retrofitting a former ironworks building in Portland’s eastside industrial area to be a food development, storage and distribution hub.
The building on Southeast Salmon Street — called “The Redd” after the egg nests salmon make in streams — will have 16,000 square feet of development, incubator or processing space for meat, grain and greens. A mezzanine will contain 8,000 square feet of offices and educational space.
A building next door will have cold storage and warehousing space, and a delivery company that uses electric cargo bicycles capable of hauling up to 800 pounds of product to restaurants or other customers. Bowery Bagels is moving into the building as well.
Portland has a reputation as a “foodie” city, but Oborne said Ecotrust and its partners are intent on developing a “food system, not a food scene.”