In response to the 12/14 Civil Eats article “Can Large, Corporate Urban Farms Grow ‘Local Food’?”
This letter is in response to the 12/14 Civil Eats article “Can Large, Corporate Urban Farms Grow ‘Local Food’?”
Dear Civil Eats Readers,
I’m Paul Lightfoot, CEO of BrightFarms. I am an enthusiastic reader of Civil Eats and applaud their stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities. Similarly, BrightFarms is a mission-driven organization dedicated to improving the health of Americans and the environment. I am a cheerful and relentless promoter of local, sustainable, plant-based and delicious food.
The Civil Eats article raises an important question: “What is the definition of “local food”? I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my response. Wikipedia defines "Local food" as a movement that connects food producers and consumers in the same geographic region. This definition also mentions “self-reliant and resilient food networks”, “local economies”, and “health, environmental, community, and social impact in a particular place”. BrightFarms squarely fits in that definition.
In addition, BrightFarms’ farms do not match the headline of the article (“Large, Corporate Urban”). BrightFarms farms are not urban and they certainly aren’t large. They are in fact small farms that are local to (but not in) urban populations. If being a “corporate” farm means that a family does not own our farms, and you believe that “local food” can only be “family-farmed food”, well then I guess we don’t meet your definition.
But here are a few other ways in which BrightFarms supports what I love most about the local food movement, no matter how you define it:
Local Farmers. BrightFarms is creating exciting jobs for young farmers. Witness Jason Jackson, the 24-year-old head grower at our Pennsylvania farm. Or Mark Benoit, the 29-year-old Army veteran who is now the head grower at our Virginia farm. With the average age of farmers in the U.S. approaching 60 years old, it seems we should do everything we can to help more young farmers get the chance to farm. At BrightFarms, we’re creating farms for them to grow at, and career opportunities for them to grow into. In addition, we pay all of our employees a living wage and provide health care benefits – not standard in agriculture.
Local Food into Midwest & Northeast Supermarkets. National supermarkets have struggled to consistently source local food in the Northeast and Midwest, since supermarkets rely on high volumes, food safety certifications and year-round availability. BrightFarms is one of only a few sources of local food that meets this need. We are not replacing or competing with locally grown products, rather we are creating a scalable alternative to produce categories that rely almost entirely on long and complex supply chains. With our supermarket partners, we are able to provide consumers with year-round access to produce that is fresher, healthier, tastier, safer and more sustainable than long-distance produce. And, we are expanding the local category in a way that is certain in the long run to provide more opportunities for other local farmers to get into the large and important supermarket industry.
The Environment. 95% of food in the US travels over 1000 miles from farm to grocery store and nearly all US supermarket salad greens take a week to get from the West Coast to supermarket shelves in the Northeast and Midwest. Modern agriculture is the largest consumer of land and water, the cause of the most pollution, and the source of 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to the long-distance produce we replace on stores shelves in the Northeast and Midwest, BrightFarms local greenhouse farms use 80% less water, 90% less land and 95% less shipping fuel, as well as less overall energy and zero agricultural runoff, no pesticides and no GMOs.
Local Economies. BrightFarms supports the local communities in which our greenhouse farms operate. We have used the majority of our capital raised to build farms that employ local people and that will be a part of their respective communities for decades to come.
America’s broken food system needs more fixing than ever, and sustainably producing food in the same communities in which it will be consumed strikes me as a worthy goal, whether or not a family owns our farms.
As a mission driven organization, the people of BrightFarms, like Jason and Mark, are focused on bettering the health of our people and the planet. We are working tirelessly to improve the food system. While the definition of ‘Local Food’ might still be up for debate, let’s stand together in the larger movement to improve our environment, our health and the food we eat.
Sincerely and respectfully yours,