Lanterna Rally

Author: Katie Walker

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

"Consumer demand for local foods, including local meat, has increased over the past two decades (Martinez 2010, Low and Vogel 2011, Johnson, Marti et al. 2012, Gwin, Thiboumery et al. 2013, Sand 2013, Rushing and Goldblatt 2014). For the past four years, the −́£What's Hot Culinary Forecast' published by the National Restaurant Association, based on surveys of about 1,300 professional chefs across the country, has listed "Locally Sourced Meat and Seafood" as the number one food trend (National Restaurant Association 2015). As the demand for local meat has increased, it has increased pressure throughout the supply chain to fulfill this demand. Many farmers are interested in this rising demand, as selling their products locally has many potential benefits for them, such as developing long-term relationships with their consumers, earning a premium price for their products, and earning more direct profit (Martinez 2010, Gwin, Thiboumery et al. 2013). Between the farmer and the consumer, though, are many important steps in the supply chain, particularly in the case of meat. Processing, distribution, and regulation are three areas that matter, particularly in a meat supply chain, for getting the product from farmer to consumer, and the broader network involved in bringing meat to market involves a variety of actors and relationships between them. A well-established conventional meat supply chain exists, but local products often are unable to move through that supply chain or cannot do so in a way that is economically sustainable for the local producer. The conventional meat supply chains operates on large volumes of consistent size, quality, and type of animals, processed extremely efficiently and quickly, and distributed via complex national and international distribution systems. Small processors and producers cannot easily participate in this conventional meat supply chain, and generally operate within a local or regional supply chain that operates on smaller volumes, and can accommodate some variation in size and type of animal (Bloom and Hinrichs 2011, Johnson, Marti et al. 2012, Matthews and Johnonson 2013). Strengthening the local or regional meat supply chain strengthens the small processors and producers, which move their products through that supply chain. Other than adding to the economic viability of these businesses, developing a strong regional supply chain can have other positive impacts which will be further explored later in this paper, include potential for more environmentally sustainable animal production and processing, and potential for business decisions that value social justice. ..." -- from introduction.