Giving Compass' Take:

• The New Food Economy examines the market around local breads as it relates to the agriculture system as a whole and finds that there needs to be more support for small-scale enterprises.

• Are we doing enough to support small farmers around the country? In general, government subsidies are skewed heavily toward large-scale operations, making it more difficult to build capacity for those who sell their goods at the regional level. NGOs involved in the food sector should look at initiatives that trend the other way.

• Another way to support local growers? An organization referred to as eFarmony.


One of the clearest indicators that regional grain-sheds are starting to thrive is the rise of local bakeries. From Skowhegan, Maine to Spokane, Washington, cities large and small have seen a renaissance of whole-grain bakers using freshly milled flour. And though local grains and can be more expensive than commodity counterparts — it’s not uncommon to find a loaf of bread priced at $10 or more — their customers are apparently willing to pay for it. At least some Americans seem to accept that bread that costs more to produce, and is baked by skilled bakers who make sustainable livings, will also cost more to buy.

But, wait. This escalated pricing raises an important question about who gets to access these products, and in turn, reveals a critical inflection point in the regional grains revival. While we wait for capacity to be built, which will eventually decrease costs and raise the efficiencies of distribution for regional grains, who is the customer for $10-a-loaf, whole-grain bread?

Washington Post columnist and oyster farmer Tamar Haspel has said the local foods movement is a niche for rich folks, and there are plenty of others who support that particular read. The issue of comparative cost has, for some time now, dogged the movement: Accusations of posh, arugula-eating liberalism are used to frame good-food advocates as feudalist-romanticists or worse, out-of-touch elitists ...

The difficulty in reaching lower-income communities and communities of color is real, one that many in the local foods movement and the grain movement in general acknowledge, and are attempting to work on. But as tempting as it is to view this as a weakness of the movement, if there is one takeaway, it would be this: It may not necessarily be the domain of bakeries to resolve the issue of affordability and access to their products.

Read the full article about why farmer's market bread is so expensive by Stephen S. Wade at The New Food Economy.