From farm to fork? An empirical investigation of the challenges faced by North Carolina's small meatpackers

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  • February 28, 2019
Creator
  • Prevatte, Tina
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of City and Regional Planning
Abstract
  • Rising concerns about the effects of industrialization and concentration within our globalized food economy have resulted in increased consumer demand for locally, sustainably produced foods. There is a vocal and growing subset of consumers who are taking a hard look at the food they consume, its origins, and how their food choices reflect their personal values. Food safety scares and environmental and health concerns have many Americans thinking critically about the sources of their food and how it is produced and processed. In fact, according to recent market research 70% of U.S. consumers want to know where their food comes from and would pay more for local food if they could find it (Packaged Facts, 2007). Developing alternative local food systems to meet this growing demand is a potential economic development strategy. Local food is now an estimated $5 billion industry, and expected to grow to $7 billion by 2011 (Packaged Facts, 2007). Communities that promote and develop markets for sustainable local foods not only have the potential to benefit from improved nutrition and environmental practices, but also to generate additional jobs through value-added product development. Knowing this, planners and sustainable agriculture activists throughout the U.S. are seeking ways to tap into and support the economic development potential of their local food system. However, as this work is undertaken, a number of challenges arise. North Carolina is better off than many states in terms of the access that small to mid-size farmers have to small meatpackers. Staff of North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) maintain a directory of the small meatpackers in the state who have expressed a willingness to serve small to mid-size farmers seeking access to local markets. There are currently twenty small meatpackers listed in this directory. However, in spite of the existence of these willing small meatpackers, small-scale meatpacking is still viewed as a bottleneck by those working to rebuild the state's local food economy. This paper provides a critical examination of the current barriers and challenges to integrating this set of small meatpackers who are willing and able to work with small to midsize farmers as more viable links in North Carolina's local meats value chain. It serves as a regionally specific test of conventional wisdom regarding the challenges faced by small meatpackers, and sheds light on how these challenges can cause even the most committed small meatpackers to function as bottlenecks within their local food system.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Lowe, Nichola
Degree
  • Master of City and Regional Planning
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Location
  • North Carolina, North Carolina, United States
Extent
  • 66 p.
Access right
  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • December 10, 2010

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