As part of the Food Justice at UF campaign to improve the University of Florida’s food buying practices, the Agricultural Justice Project surveyed smaller-scale farms and ranches from 2020 to 2022. These producers were predominantly located in Alachua County, Florida, and many of them are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers. The following list highlights the challenges that these producers faced selling to institutional and wholesale buyers and the specific forms of support and accommodation that they felt they needed from these buyers.
Small-scale farms need institutional buyers to…
Commit to sourcing specific products, with enough advance notice to plan the season’s production (prior to farmer buying seeds, seedlings, inputs, etc.);
Be flexible in timing for deliveries when weather, labor shortages, etc. impact harvest for farmers;
Provide some sort of gap insurance to support smaller scale farmers who cannot afford the level of insurance normally required;
Reduce administrative and bureaucratic burden (e.g., paperwork, legalese) required to sell to institutions (technical assistance/admin support could be provided by institution);
Pay promptly, since payment delays hurt vendors with limited cash flow;
Eliminate expectation that small scale suppliers compete with industrial scale/conventional market bidders (i.e., eliminate lowest bidder / lowest price as criteria / market basket comparisons to ensure same or lower prices as conventional retail or national brands). Recognize both the externalized costs of conventional foods and the historical economic, social and political advantages that have contributed to the success of big food companies and avoid putting historically underserved food suppliers in competition with big food prices;
Consider the actual costs of production, and costs associated with adding specific values, when negotiating prices;
Prioritize purchasing (and encourage consumption) of produce and products that are best adapted to the local climate and ecosystem and more profitable and less resource intensive for local suppliers to produce;
Avoid substantial last-minute changes to orders;
Set prices before harvest of a crop, with flexibility to negotiate for a higher price if cost of production increases and farm gate market price rises by harvest/delivery time; Buyer should not set prices after harvest in an attempt to corner suppliers;
Invest in building distribution and processing systems that serve and cater to smaller scale operations (e.g., providing pick up service to farms that cannot deliver, aggregation hubs for smaller scale operations, cold storage equipment, certified humane slaughter and butchery facilities, etc.);
Ensure suppliers approve any marketing or promotional materials that uses their name, farm name, picture, etc.;
Purchase a significant share of their purchasing volume from local, small-scale producers; avoid token gestures claiming to support local producers;
Focus on supporting authentically local, smaller-scale and community oriented suppliers; Do not make claims about local purchasing when buying from 1) aggregators that source from far away or 2) local farms that are large- or industrial-scale.
See also the AJP standards on fair relationships between buyers and farm operators, developed and continuously updated with extensive input from farmers across North America. Available as a 2-page summary or the complete unabridged standards.