The local organic food movement needs support just as crops need rain. Though farmers can’t control the weather, Jim Slama and a small band of “local food” activists will be performing their own version of a rain dance March 3.
That’s when the first Local Organic Trade Show-Chicago will be held at Kendall College’s newly opened Goose Island campus. Forty to 60 exhibitors–farmers, cheesemakers, a vintner–will be setting up booths to mingle with grocery store buyers, restaurant chefs and other food-purchasing agents. The show is not open to the public.
Goodness Greeness, the nation’s largest privately held distributor of organic produce, will be a key sponsor and exhibitor, as will Chicago-area Whole Foods Markets.
More than 300 business people are expected during the daylong event at the new Chicago home of the Kendall culinary school. Popular local chefs such as Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill, Gale Gand of Tru and Paul Kahan of Blackbird will attend a special pre-event morning reception to be recognized for taking a leadership role in promoting locally grown organic food.
Farmers and other producers figure to benefit most from the business exchange.
“These farmers don’t have time to knock on doors or go out and make sales calls,” explained Slama, president of Sustain, a consumer advocacy organization devoted to a healthy environment and a just society. “With this trade show, we can take out a major hurdle for the farmers. We help them make a connection and find a market.”
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Organic food is a fast-growing market locally and nationally. A conservative estimate is that consumers in the Chicago area will buy about $80 million in organic produce this year. Adding other organic categories (meat, poultry, dairy, grains) quadruples the sales to between $300 million and $400 million. Trouble is, only 3 percent of the organic food we buy in the Chicago area is locally grown or produced. The other 97 percent, mostly from California and other points west, requires what Slama and colleagues call “food miles.”
This first trade fair–Slama wants it to be an annual event–will afford some farmers enough time to buy seeds and plot out crops to meet newly discovered market demands this year. Everyone benefits, especially consumers, because we get chemical-free food and more flavor. Chefs are creative, of course, so this trade show figures to open new markets for exhibitors.
The supply side is not without its innovative thinkers. Will Allen, a former basketball star who played in Europe, represents a group of Wisconsin Amish farmers who raise organic cows and pigs, plus a rotation of vegetables.
Joel Rissman has so successfully marketed his organic beef that he is not able to take any more orders for 2004. Chefs are fond of his beef in part because it is all natural and in part because he “finishes” with super-healthful flaxseed, which fattens the cows with more flavor.
Clearly, organic is not only for vegetarians. For his part, Slama is holding firm on the farmers, growers, producers and cheesemakers using only organic methods or those “transitioning” to a fully organic operation.
“I’m hoping the exhibitors who aren’t totally organic will have such a positive experience and that demand for organic will be reinforced,” Slama said the other day, taking a few minutes away from planning the event.
This year’s show is titled “Building Markets for Family Farmers.” The focus is on “relationship building,” Slama said. Good business connections will be the first step to reach Sustain’s lofty goal for market share of locally grown organic food: It hopes for 6 percent of the total organic food expenditures in five years, then double that by 2014.
A support system will have to be part of any success story. The City of Chicago is another sponsor and supports the local food movement. Government participation at all levels will be crucial because food suppliers are only part of the prosperous local food system. Processors, for instance, are sorely missed.
“The local food support system that was so solidly in place 75 years ago has all been torn down,” Slama said.
For example, Slama said one Kankakee farm group is raising organic poultry but has to ship the chickens to southern Illinois for organic processing. Then the chickens have to be shipped all the way back to the Chicago area.
All of us can do our part by asking our grocers about the origins of the food in our shopping carts. If we keep asking for locally grown organic food, the store managers will get the hint. The new Local Organic Trade Show is a step in the right direction. We consumers can collectively take one too.
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e-mail Bob Condor at [email protected]. Send health and fitness news to [email protected].