Farm Gate Receipts and Local Food
Kentucky’s farm gate receipts jumped to $5 billion in 2012 after a decade of being under $4 billion. They are on track to exceed $6 billion in 2013 and should remain around $6 billion in 2014. Farm gate receipts are the traditional method of valuing the agriculture economy and include corn, soybeans, cattle, horses, and horticulture. If you include value-added processing operations, services, supplies, forestry and fiber, those receipts are estimated to be at least $34 billion. You can read more about the receipts here and here.
Increasing local food consumption is one way to increase farm gate receipts. What we spend on local food is currently an extremely small percentage of our total expenditures for the food we eat. State estimates range from a high of 14% in Iowa to a low of 2.5% in Vermont. Many jurisdictions have started campaigns to encourage buying local food – North Carolina, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Kentucky recently announced its campaign, stating that $500 million in overall revenue would be generated if Kentucky family’s would spend 10% of their food dollar on Kentucky Proud products.
Nurturing a local food economy produces the classic win-win scenario. It creates institutional, small business and consumer-level markets for local farmers while providing fresh food for local consumption. A thriving food economy creates jobs beyond the farm; hospitality, food processing and manufacturing all benefit. The environment benefits, too. Reducing the distance between production and consumption lessens greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the last two years I have led an effort to secure the majority of initial funding from outside sources for a pilot program to create a Local Food Coordinator position within the LFUCG Office of Economic Development. With that funding in place, Urban County Council approved the initiative at its January 29, 2014 meeting. The search is now underway for a qualified candidate.
Lexington is making a modest up-front investment to create economic opportunity and improve quality of life for many through developing Lexington’s local food economy. I look forward to accelerating this important work with the help of our new local food coordinator.
