Hudson Valley Food Hubs Initiative

This study occurs at a time when much of the national focus on local and regional food system development is turning to the need for infrastructure. After several generations of decline in the number of farms and farmland acres, along with increasing consolidation in the food system, there is now a strong and growing consumer demand for locally and sustainably produced food. Whether through farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, farm-to-institution initiatives, restaurants or grocery stores, the demand for local and sustainable food shows no signs of abating. Although there has been progress in recent years in building consumer awareness about food, expanding direct-to-consumer market venues, and enacting policies to support local and regional food systems, many researchers and practitioners have concluded additional focus must be made on scaling up these efforts. The dialog among these researchers and practitioners is now focused on the means for increasing the scale of local food systems and helping small and mid-sized farmers access larger volume, wholesale markets. Past research has concluded that doing so will require a greater focus on aggregation, processing, and distribution infrastructure to better connect farmers in the local food system to these new market outlets. Food hubs have arisen as one means for addressing the need for infrastructure to scale up local food distribution and assist small and mid- sized farms access new markets.