Food Buying Clubs: Increasing Our Access to Local Food

You may have decided that high-quality local food has health and environmental benefits you value. You may also think that it would be interesting to get to know your farmer and see where your food comes from. This may sound great, but how do you actually go about buying local sustainable food? It sure wouldn’t make sense for you to drive two hours to a farm when a grocery store is much closer. And it doesn’t make any more sense that a farmer would make a trip to the city just to deliver you four steaks. The Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative seeks to make local food practical through the model of Food Buying Clubs. After a brainstorming session at the Harvest Moon Festival, Food Buying Clubs may just be bringing local food even closer to you!

So, how does it work? A Food Buying Club is a network that involves a group of customers, an organizer, and one or more farmers who direct markets meat, poultry, eggs, flour, and other products. Customers make their own order and on a pre-set date (usually once a month) the farmer delivers the group’s order to the organizer’s home or workplace. The customers can pick up their order that day and pay the farmer directly at that time. This means that the farmer can make one trip to the city to deliver to a whole group of customers. The pick-up day is also a great time to get to know the other members of the group – pick-up day party, anyone?

As a form of direct marketing, food buying clubs are an alternative to the industrial food system. Farmers have control over decisions affecting their farm and the money earned for the product goes directly to the farmer who produced it. Consumers know exactly where the food they purchased came from and are assured of its high quality. The products are without use of chemicals or fertilizer and are not transported thousands of kilometers to their destination. In addition to the benefits that accrue to the environment, the eater and the farmer, the food buying club network model allows food producers and food eaters to share in the responsibility of building a sustainable and just food system.

In Winnipeg, there are currently five food buying clubs, two in the South end, two Central, and one in Maples. The Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative hopes to eventually have buying clubs in all of the regions of Winnipeg so that people who are interested can find a club that is close to where they live. The Local Food Initiative also hopes to offer other products seasonally, such as produce or berries. Through word of mouth, the network will continue to expand to adapt to the demand for local food, to the needs of farmers and by doing so will strengthen rural-urban connections.

On September 18th, the farmers and organizers involved in the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative Buying Clubs were able to get together in the same room for the first time! The goal of our time together was to work toward an improved model for a network of food buying clubs. As you can imagine, there was a lot to discuss!

From the perspective of the farmers who are involved in direct marketing, food buying clubs are a great way to use their limited time effectively. One of the reasons they got involved in direct marketing was to have face-to-face interactions with the people who are purchasing the meat, poultry and eggs that they raised. At the same time, food buying clubs allow farmers to more effectively manage the time it takes to nurture these relationships with hundreds of eaters. The organizers want to be involved in the food buying clubs because they have a passion for food justice and believe that this is a practical way to bringing local food to their friends and family. The next steps include making information about food buying clubs centralized and accessible to those interested, through means such as FAQs about food buying clubs and a web-based forum to ask and answer questions about the products, the farms, and food justice. Working on the logistical details of delivering food and coordination amongst the farmers is also high on the priority list.

The conversation that began at the Harvest Moon Festival is one that will continue in the coming months as the food buying clubs organize the next pick- up date and invite their neighbours and colleagues to get involved. If you’ve been thinking about local food, why not give it a try? Who knows, you might just find Harvest Moon hot dogs are the tastiest you’ve ever tried – never mind the fact that you know exactly what’s in them!

If you are interested in learning more about Food Buying Clubs, ordering from a local farmer, organizing a food buying club in your area, or just want some more information, you can visit the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative website at www.harvestmoonfood.ca

Laura Husak is a research assistant working on the Farm to Fork Research Project