FARMERS PROSPER IN PANDEMIC AS AMERICANS SHOP LOCAL By Nellie Peyton
With restaurants shut and grocery stores posing a coronavirus risk, some Americans are ordering food directly from the farm - a trend small-scale producers hope will outlast the pandemic. It could be one of the few economic upsides to a crisis that has emptied high streets and felled business as Americans lock down against the fast-spreading novel coronavirus. In northern Wisconsin, a farmers' collective said they are making thousands of dollars a week in a season when sales are normally zero. By selling to people instead of restaurants, Illinois farmers said revenues are close to an all-time high. Many farmers are adopting online ordering and home delivery, transforming old-fashioned farms into consumer-friendly outlets. "In two or three weeks we accelerated like five to ten years of growth and change in the industry," said Simon Huntley, founder of Harvie, a company based in Pittsburgh that helps farmers market and sell their products online. "I think we are getting a lot of new people into local food that have never tried buying from their local farmer before." Eating local is lauded as a way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of transporting food long distances, although some studies have shown it is not always more climate-friendly. Shorter supply chains boost resilience in a crisis and help small-scale sustainable farms, said Jayce Hafner, co-founder of FarmRaise, which helps farmers get grants and loans. Growers across the country are vulnerable to economic shocks right now because of labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and fluctuating prices linked to the pandemic, she said.
Š Gregory Hayes
"The beauty of the direct-to-consumer app is it allows a farmer to capture the value of their product at a near-to-retail price, and so it's a really attractive option economically for a farmer," Hafner said.
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