Here is an idea on how to drive jobs, revenue, sustainability, healthy eating while utilizing our vacant lot and buildings. Not a win win but a win win win win win.
To many people Farm to table may seem like an old concept that applies only to white table cloth restaurants with limited market appeal. Take a look at the below link from Entrepreneur magazine on how Farm To Table is Growing the Economy. The numbers are staggering! Below are some highlights of the article as it relates to a fellow rust belt town:
“Consider Cleveland, which nobody would confuse with Berkeley, Burlington or Boulder. Set in the heart of the Rust Belt, the city turns out heavy, Eastern European food--the goulashes, paprikashes and schnitzels favored by immigrants from either side of the Danube. Clevelanders aren't particularly healthy--in 2007, Men's Fitness magazine dubbed the city the "junk food capital" of America--and their income falls below the national average. Whole Foods Market didn't put a store there until it had 183 others positioned around the country.
Yet you'll find farm-to-table dining thrives there, too, often hiding in plain sight. At the popular Fire Food & Drink in Cleveland's Shaker Square suburb, chef-owner Douglas Katz has filled his menu with local products in stealth-like fashion: a squash blossom here, a pork loin there, the eggs, honey and butter in the popovers. By August, when the growing season is in full swing, he'll be spending half his food budget on locally sourced items.
That's where we were when the locavore movement began in earnest a decade or so ago. These days, the average metropolitan area in America still grows or raises less than 2 percent of the food it consumes--and it consumes a lot of food, some $15 billion of it in northeast Ohio alone each year, including the breakfast cereals, fast-food burgers, bottled condiments, frozen pizzas and soft drinks that are the staples of many diets. That makes the economic arguments for farm-to-table food compelling. Moving the needle just 5 percent in Greater Cleveland would mean $750 million more in revenue for local purveyors.
The last time a $750 million business relocated to Cleveland was ... well, probably never. So it's easy to see why politicians and policymakers are excited about the possibilities. Recently, five entities combined resources to commission a study by local-business-development analyst Michael Shuman and his two partners on what would happen if northeast Ohio managed to produce 25 percent more of the food it consumed. The report calculated that such a shift would create more than 27,000 new jobs, increase annual regional output by $4.2 billion and grow tax revenue by more than $125 million. "Local food is fast becoming a powerful economic development strategy," it concludes.
Think of it this way….Over the last 30 years, we lost touch with where our food came from...shipping tomatoes from Argentina, buying bread made in California and never thinking twice about the location. Like many sustainability movements across the world, with food we are moving back in time to make progress. Bring back the local milk man, the chicken farm etc.
So….Why not Buffalo?
· Let’s assume Buffalo is a 3rd the size of Cleveland...assume we can grab 5% of the local food purchases across and we have a $250 million business opportunity!
· Convert the Central Terminal into a local food exchange where farmers can bring their food and sell to restaurants, retailers and consumers.
· Furthermore for our long winters we can convert part of the Central Terminal into Hydroponic gardens growing tomato, lettuce, and fruit all winter long.
· Lastly, we put a concerted effort against building community gardens across the city. Converting vacant lots into productive green space that provides local food options.
The local economy increases its tax revenue, vacant Central Terminal becomes utilized, vacant lots get converted into green space and we all get to eat local fresh food all year long.
Ok, it’s one idea. Not the end all to turn things around. But it is a concept that is Real.
