Collaborative supply-chain effort gives Arizona food producers new links to consumers

A truckload of vegetables brought from northern Arizona to the City of South Tucson at the end of the fall growing season could be a bellwether of change in statewide food distribution. 

The vegetables, picked in November at Blooming Reed and Reyes Farms in Paulden, Arizona, and transported by small farmers to University of Arizona Cooperative Extension’s PLAZA Mobile Market, were part of an emerging statewide effort to address middle supply chain gaps that leave many small and rural producers struggling to get their food to consumers. 

“We’ve been working on how a north-south local food pipeline could be strengthened. It’s a great example of how collaboration bolsters the whole system,” said Jenn Parlin, interim director of Pima County Extension and director of The Garden Kitchen, a food-centric education center that facilitates PLAZA Mobile Market. 

Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program 

A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant paid for the refrigerated vehicle that brought the vegetables to South Tucson. The Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program, administered by the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA), made $3.2 million available to strengthen capacity and economic viability of a resilient food system to producers, aggregators, and other food systems partners. 

The program came after years of discussions about Arizona’s local food distribution system. The middle of the supply chain, all the actions post-harvest between producers and consumers, isn’t currently conducive for small-scale farmers, especially in rural areas, Parlin said. 

Last fall, after a roundtable discussion including producers, AZDA and non-profits, stakeholders put in writing the many barriers facing Arizona’s food systems and potential solutions, said Rebecca Serratos, of the Yavapai Food Systems Network. 

“That way we can have a firm foundation to have lots of other players and groups help us move the problem-solving along,” Serratos said.

Two food distribution systems 

Food systems can be split into two basic categories, she said. 

One is the global system that allows widespread distribution of the exact same products to consumers around the world.

“So you can go to a Costco or Walmart or Fry's anywhere in Arizona and get almost the exact same products at any time of year for almost the exact same price,” Serratos said. 

The other, local system connects small to mid-sized food producers and consumers. The products from the state-level system varies from grower to grower and community to community, which means the system is less self-sustaining and driven more by relationships and middle supply chain supports. 

Yavapai College served as a pilot for the work. The college had been using a third-party food vendor in the dining hall, which wasn’t providing the quality of nutrition school athletes needed, said Aimee Novak, executive director of The Eatery dining hall on the Prescott campus. 

College leadership approached Novak about boosting food quality, and she took on the challenge after asking that she be allowed to use in-state vendors. Even with administrators at Yavapai College on board, it took her nine months to get Arizona-milled Hayden Mills flour into The Eatery dining hall and a year for local beef, she said. 

Barriers to Local Food Sourcing 

Institutional level difficulties included a procurement requirement for three bids on identical orders, which is difficult to achieve with an array of small vendors. Novak also got pushback about the higher cost of local products. 

But the math shows that every dollar invested in local products returns $2.16 to the economy. 

“I had to prove to them that while this may be more expensive, in the long run we're doing better for our local economy,” Novak said. 

"Further up the supply chain, closer to distributors, there is a lack of infrastructure. While food giant General Mills has access to a network of trains and trucks, small producers don’t," Novak said. 

“Yavapai College doesn't have a fleet of trucks to send to Hayden Mills in Tempe. Hayden Mills doesn't have a fleet of trucks to send Yavapai College's order up I-17 all year long, right? So you're stuck with two entities that want to engage with one another, but have no way to make that connection,” she said.

Questions remain

How do we effectively work to bridge the identified gaps without reinventing the wheel? Convincing a global shipping company to haul flour from a Tempe producer is an example of how smaller producers can fit into existing systems. 

“It would take us decades to rebuild the infrastructure system that major corporations use. We’re not suggesting we’re going to build our own system separate from corporate entities,” Serratos said. 

Institutions like Yavapai College can help bring together smaller producers and major corporations, Parlin said. 

“If the bigger players, the institutions, prioritize using local foods, that incentivizes corporate entities to invest more in that. The institutions are the ones that get to say, ‘You know, we really want this,’ and then they're going to look at who the buyer is and try to stock those things,” she said.