The Northeast is becoming a breadbasket again as an increasing number of farmers in New York and New England are beginning to raise grain crops.
On April 26, June Russell and Amber Lambke presented a webinar, “Marketing Value-Added Grains for Local and Regional Food Systems,” via the eOrganics organization.
Russell directs regional food programs at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Cold Spring, New York, specializing in small grains and staple foods. She has promoted the revival of growing grains in the Northeast for the past two decades.
Lambke founded Maine Grains Inc., a specialty grain processor, in Skowhegan, Maine, in 2012. She has worked to promote the use of freshly milled organic grains and serves as the company’s CEO.
“Is there such a thing as local flour?” Russell asked. “The people working in this space were largely organic and looking to add value, as they’re in crop rotation.”
She values the merit of covers and rotation for soil health. Instead of growing a crop that they would kill off or feed to animals, Russell encouraged farmers to try growing a human-grade grain, so small grains production would return to Northeastern farms. This also builds a local food chain which is a more resilient means of sourcing food.
Growing small grains wasn’t enough. Farmers also needed places to mill them and markets for the end products.
They also had to learn how to market grains as did their wholesale customers — bakeries. Russell helped cultivate relationships among farmers, mills and end users but soon realized that wasn’t enough to sustain farmers raising small grains in the Northeast.
“We needed our local partners in the local food industry,” she added.
Creating marketing materials helped prompt people to consider not using only white flour. Many bakers had not even tried other grains and flours.
“By continuing to push people towards R&D, which is challenging, we’ve seen a large increase” in use, Russell said.
Her organization has also worked with farmers to consider what they can grow well, what market opportunities exist near them, and any byproduct they could also sell. As for grain pests, Northeastern farmers must deal with deoxynivalenol (a common mycotoxin in corn and small grains, according to Penn State Extension).
Beyond that challenge, grain grows well in the region.
“The Northeast has half a dozen good bread flours. That’s a massive achievement,” Russell said. “Twenty years ago, they said this could not be done.”
She wants to see economies of scale, greater efficiency, continuing biodiversity and broader product research and development. A few barriers to these goals include a lack of seeds adapted to Northeast growing conditions and market access for small farms.
“We still hear about a lot of issues about supply chain,” she said.
That was one reason that Lambke founded Maine Grains.
“We were interested in having food grade grains in this area again,” she said. “We were growing cover crops, but bakers were having trouble accessing food grade grains.”
Instead of a “value chain,” Lambke views the associations among farmers, professional bakers, home bakers and people who want straw and other residue for bedding and compost as being a “value cluster” because of their interrelationships.
Establishing a mill offers one way to facilitate these relationships, and that’s what Lambke did. A lack of milling knowledge represents an impediment to growing the industry in the Northeast. Lambke had to travel to Kansas City to learn about milling and the organization taught only about white flour milling.
She said that millers must decide whether to sell wholesale or retail, and whether to work with a distributor. At first, Maine Grains sold 90% wholesale and 10% retail.
During the pandemic, she pivoted to half and half to meet demand.
“We now work with a couple dozen distributors,” she said. “Think of your distributor (as) someone who has to add value to your product. They have to be able to deliver whether reach, sales force, customer service. Know what it is and how it helps your business. Some distributors want to be your only distributor. We steered away from this.”
She felt that kind of exclusivity could limit her business.
Lambke believes that consumers need to know more about grains before they will try something new. Learning about the mill and grower also help.
“Effective messaging needs to lead to why you’re doing what you’re doing,” she said. “The idea here is that the adoption of your product starts with the innovators and early adopters. They’re the first ones who will buy your product. They’re the ones who wish your product existed before you existed.”
Source: lancasterfarming.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-giovanni1232
Categories: Kansas, Crops