USDA feeds $1M to agriculture products programs
Courtesy / Maine Federation of Farmers Markets
Food programs like Maine Federation of Farmers Markets received nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support local agricultural products.
Three programs aiming to support use of locally sourced foods have been awarded a total of $948,019 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets in Belfast, and the Sustainability Lab in Yarmouth and will receive funding from the USDA's Local Food Promotion Program and the Farmers Market Promotion Program, according to a news release.
The funds are intended to increase consumption of and access to local and regional agricultural products, and were authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Fish
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute was awarded $487,791 to implement a project titled “A Regional Effort to Improve Quality and Market Opportunities for New England Finfish.
The program will implement a suite of region-wide quality handling improvements designed to improve the market demand and value for seafood harvested by New England fishermen, Kyle Foley, the institute’s sustainable seafood program manager, said in the release.
“These improvements are critical for our region’s seafood industry to grow and to compete with high quality imported seafood, which is currently the largest barrier to market access for much of the finfish harvested in New England’s waters,” he said.
The goal of the project is to improve food safety, quality handling and waste reduction across the supply chain. The institute will partner with an aggregator in the region to improve handling and develop best practices for processing. Also planned are improvements to the availability of ice for fishing vessels in four New England ports, a critical and basic issue that impacts quality and safety.
In addition, workshops to increase awareness and understanding of a range of quality, food safety and waste reduction issues, in order to collaborate on region-wide standards, will bring together fishermen, processors and buyers.
The improvements aim to allow the region’s seafood industry to grow and compete with high-quality imported seafood, which is currently the largest barrier to market access for much of the fin fish harvested in New England’s waters.
Farmers markets
The Maine Federation of Farmers Markets received $160,111 for its project, “Workplace to Market.”
The collaborative project aims to spur consumer demand through targeted incentives to working-age adults at their workplace.
“This grant project is rooted in community and place, by facilitating partnerships between farmers' markets and local employers that will help introduce more Mainers to the amazing benefits of shopping at farmers' markets,” the federation’s director of programs, Jimmy DeBiasi, said in the release. “We've seen positive results from a recent pilot with the City of Bangor, and we're excited to bring this marketing model to more Maine communities from Portland to Presque Isle.”
Project partners will trial and monitor the impact of shopping incentive models that drive new customers to farmers’ markets. The findings will be shared through online and print resources, serving as a new marketing strategy for farmers’ markets across the country to use.
The goals are to:
• Increase the number of new shoppers patronizing farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer outlets across Maine through workplace incentives with local employer-partners;
• Create a tool kit resource in print and online for farmers markets to utilize in cultivating new business partners; and
• Conduct a promotional campaign to educate consumers and cultivate new partnerships among employers and farmers markets.
Outcomes are expected to include an increase in farm sales and an increase in the number of new and returning customers at farmers’ markets over the long haul. A tool kit, based on the piloted models and the findings of various partnerships across Maine, will be developed and distributed as a resource for farmers to develop their own partnerships with employers in their communities
Food incubator
The Sustainability Lab received $99,997 for its project, which seeks to develop the “Fork Food Lab 2.0 Plan.”
Home to 45 enterprises, Fork Food Lab, a commercial kitchen incubator in Portland, is nearing full capacity. As a result, the plan will be a road map for a physical expansion designed to:
• Enable exploration of new food sectors, such as meat, fish, dairy, fermented products, and craft beer, wine and spirits;
• Help manufacturers access specialized equipment necessary to scale production; and
• Provide scaling businesses with dedicated space for manufacturing.
Expanding the capacity of Fork Food Lab is expected to facilitate the development of value-added products from $1 million in Maine fish, meat, dairy, eggs, grains and produce to the creation of 246 jobs and $15 million in economic impact by 2025.
"This grant is the cornerstone for allowing Fork Food Lab to move to a new location with more space and equipment to better serve our 45 current and future food entrepreneurs,” Bill Seretta, president of the Sustainability Lab, said in the release. "This will allow members to grow, hire more workers and in turn source more local products and help grow the local food economy.”
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