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Region’s food system steps up to the plate adapting to changes due to pandemic (Guest viewpoint)

Massachusetts farmers stepped up to meet the challenges of 2020 with flexibility, hard work and a serious commitment to feeding our communities – and they were met with meaningful consumer support. As we look forward into 2021 and the ever-changing circumstances of the pandemic, our regional farms face consequential questions about what changing consumer demand will mean for the investments they have made in adapting to this tough year and for future growth.

COVID-19 hit our region just as the main growing season was beginning. The farms that were selling products through winter farmers’ markets or to schools and restaurants had to make swift and costly changes to their operations. Some farmers, including maple syrup producers who operate seasonal sugar shack restaurants and wedding florists, suffered major income losses that reverberated through the year.

Still, the timing insulated many area farms from the earliest economic shocks of the pandemic, while also undermining their wintertime planning and demanding that new plans be developed on shaky ground.

As we moved into the spring, two things happened: farms took enormous and brave leaps to meet the needs of the moment; and demand for local food and farm products erupted. Two farm-run, home-delivery services, the Sunderland Farm Collaborative and Mass Food Delivery, were launched within weeks of the shutdown.

COVID-19 hit our region just as the main growing season was beginning. The farms that were selling products through winter farmers’ markets or to schools and restaurants had to make swift and costly changes to their operations. Some farmers, including maple syrup producers who operate seasonal sugar shack restaurants and wedding florists, suffered major income losses that reverberated through the year.

Still, the timing insulated many area farms from the earliest economic shocks of the pandemic, while also undermining their wintertime planning and demanding that new plans be developed on shaky ground.

As we moved into the spring, two things happened: farms took enormous and brave leaps to meet the needs of the moment; and demand for local food and farm products erupted. Two farm-run, home-delivery services, the Sunderland Farm Collaborative and Mass Food Delivery, were launched within weeks of the shutdown.

Meanwhile, the local meat supply was uninterrupted, and farmers met this new demand with enthusiasm. Still, our region isn’t immune to some of the same bottlenecks that stressed the national system. It takes time for farms to increase production, and the already limited number of federally-inspected slaughterhouses in our region had to slow production in order to implement necessary safety measures. We are in a moment that could provide a boost to local meat production, but local farms and processing plants need to be able to count on sustained demand in order to make the investments in livestock, equipment, and staff training required to maintain an increase.

For meat farmers and slaughterhouses, building out infrastructure enough to really expand local meat production would be a long-term, expensive project. For the farmers who have already invested in online ordering platforms or delivery vehicles, the scale may be different but the questions are the same: will consumer demand for local products, and for COVID-specific outlets like online ordering and home delivery, continue beyond the immediate needs of this pandemic period?

The full financial reckoning of 2020 for our region’s agriculture won’t be clear for months – although sales were up on many farms, the costs of new systems and protocols were also high. Pandemic uncertainty will continue at least through most of 2021.

So local farms continue to do what they have always done: grow food and figure out how to get it to people. They have taken risks, stretched to the edges of their capacity and proven not only their own resilience but the inherent strength of our local food system.

You can help ensure that their efforts are rewarded, and they are able to keep going long past this crisis point, by choosing local!

Claire Morenon is communications manager at Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). Visit the CISA website, buylocalfood.org, to learn more or to find local farms, winter farmers markets, and more near you.