Originally published on GoLocalProv.com
Nessa Richman and Michael G. Henry
The COVID-19 pandemic is laying bare an alarming problem with our food system. The market channels linking farms and fisheries to our communities are more fragile than most of us imagined. The need for greater resilience in our food system has never been more clear.
Corporate farms, national food distributors, and international food conglomerates have brought us the benefits of scale and efficiency. That efficiency has lowered the cost of grain, meat, produce, and dairy and helped millions of Americans — despite stagnant wages — afford the food they need. But we have learned in the current crisis that highly consolidated and efficient systems that emphasize benefits like low cost and convenience over resilience and equity can fail in the face of adversity.
Our public and nonprofit sectors are struggling to ensure at-risk populations are fed, with a bright spot being that many local businesses are joining the effort. For example, here in Rhode Island the CARES Act has funded an innovative partnership between Farm Fresh RI and the RI Community Food Bank. Hundreds of ”Farmers to Families Food Boxes” brimming with healthy local food are being distributed to families in need. These boxes provide fresh produce, milk, and meat to Rhode Islanders who lack consistent access to adequate food. They also support numerous local farms and bolster the state economy. Efforts like these are critically important right now, but they are only a band-aid.
We are going to need a bigger band-aid. According to Feeding America, due to the economic shocks from the pandemic food insecurity in Rhode Island is projected to increase by 45 percent in 2020. This means that more than 175,000 Rhode Islanders, including 27 percent of children in the state, will lack consistent access to enough food. They will be depending on an emergency food network stretched to its limits. At the same time, the shuttering of most of our restaurants and events has brought many of the food producers and processors that serve the hospitality trade to a standstill, leading to bottlenecks of wasted food. How can our food system fail us like this — and what can be done about it?
Whether you get food by going to a food bank or a supermarket, your access depends on a complex global system of production, aggregation, storage, and distribution. As we consider the fault lines in this system that have become clearer as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, how can we develop policies and plans to improve our food system’s ability to respond to emergency situations?
Another complex system can offer us lessons in this pivotal moment: electric energy. A core tenet of emergency preparedness is to protect the assets that create and distribute electric energy. In our electric grid, “contingency planning” and “redundancy” have become important components of a comprehensive energy planning process that forecasts electric energy demand and usage over a multi-year horizon. It’s something we all pay for in our electric rates, and we benefit every time we make toast.
Over the last few years, the electric planning process has shifted its focus toward investments that support decentralized electric energy — think of local rooftop solar dispersed across Rhode Island instead of centralized oil and coal plants located out-of-state. Local electric energy production is included in the electric planning process. This will hopefully lead to appropriate local investments that help ensure better service for all customers when the system experiences strain or disruption. If we plan for resilience and reliability in our food system like we do for electric energy, we will make better decisions about how Rhode Island invests in and uses its food system resources. Including food system issues in plans and investments for rebuilding the state’s economy will ensure that solutions contribute to food security for all Rhode Island residents. Increasing the capacity and resilience of Rhode Island’s food system will support local businesses that inject dollars into our state economy at this crucial time.
What would that planning and investment entail? Public and private interests must convene to identify the most promising opportunities for development. Job corps efforts must be deployed to support food system initiatives. Workforce development programs must support retraining unemployed foodservice and hospitality workers. Interrupted supply chains, like those serving shuttered restaurants, must be redirected to bring food to people in need and build stronger local food distribution networks.
As for developing increased food system resilience, we need to address both financing and regulatory barriers. Allocation of public dollars to boost local food production, processing, storage and distribution of food can encourage private investment. Changes in the policy and regulatory environment can spur innovation among local food sector businesses while preserving health and safety.
We are still tallying the economic and human devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has uncovered uncomfortable truths about hidden weaknesses in our global food system. Now is the time to get smart about how we respond. As the emergency response gives way to rebuilding, wise investments can allocate resources to build a stronger food system.
The right investments can put Rhode Islanders back to work and help our local economy not just recover but withstand future shocks. Let’s work together to ensure that this crisis results in a stronger, more resilient food system in Rhode Island.
Nessa Richman is Network Director of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council and Michael G. Henry is an energy policy expert.
