Food Hubs: A Source for Food Distribution and Economic Opprotunity

In the Gilespie article for this week there was mention of farmers markets being able to support local business incubation. It mentions how business incubation, can be used to identify and provide market opportunities for business.

From the other reading it led me to inquire, on how farmers markets and local food distribution coincide breakdown the barriers associated with Farm-to-School programs. Local and regional food hubs are continuing to grow. There is a degree to which food hubs can make farmers more profitable in comparable to farmers markets, which usually operates on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. With, the increase of food hubs, farmers can enabled to achieve a better price and also hire workers. The distribution aspect of food hubs can also provide jobs at the local and regional level, providing the service of delivery of fresh foods to schools and other local business. In the Valianatos article, there was the mention of not having steady logistics to serve the needs of fresh foods, comparable to large commercial farms. Having a coalition with a number of farms in a particular region can help reduce the risk of having a shortage of a particular food product. With that being said, I believe that food hubs can be integrated into local food networks as a way to provide economic opportunity and act as a primary provider for fresh food in regional/local areas.