1.
Feed & Seed
Reconnecting Farms, Markets, and Tables

2.
An interdisciplinary group of farmers, health experts,
educators, policy makers, marketing experts and
architects have put together a coalition to explore the
creation, building, and managing of a food hub and
education center in Greenville, SC. The project is
unique in its holistic approach— reconnecting farms,
markets, and tables.

3.
What is a food hub?
A local or regional food hub is a business or
organization that actively manages the aggregation,
distribution, and marketing of source identified food
products primarily from local and regional producers
to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail,
and institutional demand.
Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June 2013

4.
How do we know it will be a
success…Research
Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter
and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013
Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study;
South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June
2013
ALL RESEARCH SAYS IT CAN BE DONE SUCCESSFULLY!

5.
SC Unique Assets
 Land is plentiful
 Farmers have multiple growing seasons each year
 Water is often adequate
 Excellent local restaurants are emerging across the state
 Urban populations are large enough and close to farmland that
farmer and consumer do not have to travel far to meet
 Key leaders know each other and the state is small enough to
coordinate effectively
 South Carolinians seek connection and authenticity
Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

6.
Recommended Strategies
 The State must adopt a formal commitment to creating a solid
economy focused on local food production for local markets
 Emerging ‘food production nodes’ should be strengthened by
offering funding through a competitive grant proposal
 Expansion of the Clemson’s New and Beginning Farmer
Program as well as Lowcountry Local First’s Incubator Farm
will enhance the food production node development
 Food Hubs are essential to larger regions
 Supportive state policy
Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

7.
Food Hub and Nodes
Making Small Farms into Big Business; Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg; September 2013

8.
Upstate Food System
 Regional, statewide, neighborhood
 Our focus: ten county Upstate region
 Greenville Area Food System Assessment, 2012
 Food Hub Feasibility Study, in process
 Farms in Rural Counties
 Markets in Urbanized Cities
 Distribution at multiple scales

9.
Significant findings of the
Feasibility Study
 Failing food distribution system
 Obesity
 Small and local farms are disappearing
 Available land
 Produce and livestock is feasible
 Producer support
 Local Food is in demand
Upstate Region Local Food Hub Feasibility Study; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League; June 2013

10.
Vision
Leveraging Upstate South Carolina’s Research Universities,
strong private foundations and invested business interests,
Feed & Seed will serve as the nexus for improving our
current farm capacity; train our next generations of farmers,
food professionals and light manufacturers in sustainable
business; and use our local products as the vehicle.
Invigorating the economy, providing it with trained
workers, and supplying local, fresh, healthy foods to all
socio-economic sectors of our populace, Feed & Seed will
serve as a model to communities across our state, region
and nation, leading the way to create a consorted effort to
propel our community toward physical and economic
vitality.

11.
Goals
 Improve public health by increasing the variety, quality and
quantity of fresh foods
 Use existing systems to get the locally produced products into
mainstream diets
 Secure local farms for future food security
 Re-orient institutional buying patterns in order to bolster the
economic growth of farms
 Work with farms to create market-driven specialty crop plans
which will encourage economic growth of farms.
 Reduce the cost of food by eliminating long-haul trucking and
transport
 Keep more money spent on food in the local system

12.
Challenges on the Farm
 Labor Costs and Availability
 Land Costs and Availability
 Access to Processing
 Certifications
 Access to Markets
 Liability
 Business planning
 Communication

13.
Challenges of the Consumer
 What is it?
 Higher costs for local foods
 Where do I get it?
 They’re all out!
 I live in a food desert
 I may be among the 67% of obese adults

14.
the Farmer and Product

15.
the Process

16.
the Outreach

17.
the Benefit…
farm to market to table

18.
Why Greenville?
 Over the past 50 years, industrial food has displaced local food infrastructure
 About 300 farmers and farmers’ markets exist within 150 miles of Greenville.
 Greenville County food/bev tab $1.1B, 2010
 “Good” tourists also request authentic SC food
 Abundant educational systems from technical colleges, private and state research
universities
 Proven record of innovation, collaboration and investment across the political
spectrum.
 An excellent health system, tied to long term research programs
 A diverse population with high demand for culturally appropriate fresh foods.

19.
What’s in it for Greenville?
 Grow Jobs and Economy
 Long term support to Manufacturing, Headquarters
 Grow a resilient food system
 Provide better access to healthy food
 Access to fresh, culturally appropriate foods will support
a healthier population, which means happier people.
 Robust and diverse food helps attract outside investment
by improving professional recruitment qualities

20.
How to make it happen
First…a catalyst…

21.
Transparency and Trust
This project is the result of years of work across a wide
swath of people across many professions and trades.
Listening. Communities, farmers and markets know
what they want and need; our job is to keep Feed &
Seed informed, listening closely and behaving as a
partner, and adapting as we grow, filling niches, and
encouraging the growth of new businesses to take on
the increasing productivity through private initiative.

22.
Stakeholders
 Farmers
 Distributors
 Processors
 Labor
 Consumers
 Retail (restaurants, grocery, farm stores)
 Wholesale (schools, hospitals, jails, etc.)
 Recycling and Composting

23.
Partners
 AdvantageWest
 AgSouth
 ACOG, Appalachian Regional
Commission
 Ballentine Equipment
 Bon Secours St. Francis
Hospital
 Carolina Farm Stewardship
Association
 Clemson University -
Extension, SBDC
 Coastal Conservation League
 Community Foundation
of Greenville
 Community Loan Fund
 Culinary Partners
 Daniel Mickel Foundation
 DHEC
 Edible Upcountry
 Erwin Penland
 Farm Bureau
 Furman University
 Gardening for Good
 Graham Foundation
 Greenville County & City
 Greenville County Schools
 Greenville Forward
 Greenville Health
System
 Greenville Technical
College
 LiveWell Greenville
 Loaves and Fishes
 Marvin’s Produce
 Nexen Pruett
 Palmetto Agribusiness Council
 Partners for Active Living
 Rhino Concessions
 Slow Food Upstate
 Spinx
 SCDA
 SC Commerce
 TATT
 USC, The George
 USDA/ Rural Development &
FSA

24.
Interconnected group

25.
Why such a diverse group?
• The power of community, when focused on a goal is
amazing.
• We all eat food. And our food system is broken.
• Leaders in education, business, governance, private
foundations, farming and health all have important roles
to play in the work.
• We don’t need a “new” project, we need to re-orient our
existing institutions towards a collaborative food system
engagement. Learn from the past and apply that
knowledge to a well informed present, with serious
planning for the future of our public health, food
security, and personal engagement.

26.
Universities and Learning
Institutions
• Orient coursework and research on the Feed &
Seed food hub model
• Real World Training across the spectrum
• Working knowledge of the whole food system –
dirt to mouth
• Certified in aspects of DHEC, HACCP, etc…
The research will empower the Feed & Seed with real data to measure its effectiveness

27.
Community Organizations
 Offer access to people and engagement
 Inform the Feed & Seed about product needs
 Experts in the people of the community

28.
Government Organizations
 Facilitate Institutional Cooperation, i.e. schools,
prisons and other large consumers of foods that
will benefit from greater access to fresh products.
 Help find efficiency when implementing the
program
 Knowledgeable of existing structures and
programs that can be accessed or leveraged.

29.
Private Companies
• Support via direct donations
• Diverse private sector
• Diverse work force in the region wants specialty
farm products

30.
Renaissance through food
The Feed & Seed is evidence of the rebirth and
revival of interest in food that is authentic. The
project focuses on building from the culture of
Greenville and teaching all members of the
community. The project hopes to address a broad
range of challenges with a holistic approach to
reconnecting farms, markets and tables.