Aggregation and Distribution 101
When we think of food, we don’t often consider all the steps required to get it from the farm to our table. Meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables must be transported and processed from raw ingredients, then bottled, canned, packaged, or labeled before being shipped to stores.
Since the pandemic, empty grocery shelves, supply chain disruptions, and job losses have highlighted the fragility of our food system. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8, “Promote Sustained, Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All,” underscores the challenges to global economic recovery, including rising inflation, labor shortages, global conflicts, and climate-driven droughts and storms.
The food system includes farmers, processors, aggregators, distributors, and consumers. Middlemen—including aggregators, processors, and distributors—collect, clean, package, sell, and deliver food in bulk. Producers rely on them because they often can’t supply large buyers directly, while retailers and institutions rely on them to efficiently source a diverse range of products. When one link fails, the whole supply chain becomes vulnerable.
Processing, Aggregation, and Distribution of food in the United States has many components and challenges that impact both human health and environmental health and can also be easily disrupted when one link in the chain is disturbed.
Challenges include:
- Distance to Market – Dense urban areas and northern climates often require long-distance sourcing and year-round imports.
- Environmental Impact – Food processing and packaging use about 20% of U.S. fossil fuels. Packaging makes up roughly two-thirds of U.S. packaging waste by volume, while landfilling and incineration can contribute to air and water pollution.
- Health Risks from Animal Transportation and Antibiotics – Poultry transportation can spread antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while heavy antibiotic use in animals can complicate the treatment of disease.
- Working Conditions – Farm and processing workers may lack adequate protective equipment and decontamination facilities, increasing their exposure to chemical and bacterial hazards.
- Nutrition – Industrial food processing often prioritizes taste and convenience, but many products are high in salt, sugar, and unhealthy additives.
The 2021 Southcoast Food System Assessment shows a strong need for more local food, and thus we require more processors, aggregators, and distributors in this region.
Building local supply chains reduces reliance on national systems, delivers fresher food, supports local jobs and economies, enables access to culturally relevant and more nutritious crop varieties, and reduces transportation impacts. While the region has large commercial processors and broadline distributors tied to the seafood industry, it lacks small- to mid-sized facilities that serve small and mid-sized farmers, aquaculture producers, and fishing communities.
In September 2018, Meatworks opened an 11,000-square-foot USDA-inspected multi-species slaughterhouse and meat processing facility for cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats in Westport, Massachusetts.
The facility serves more than 400 regional producers and processes approximately 5,000 cattle equivalents per year. During COVID-19, 18-month booking windows highlighted the need for additional processing capacity.
Dartmouth Grange Kitchen in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Hope & Main in Warren, Rhode Island, continue to serve as important commercial kitchens and food incubators, providing vital processing capacity to the Southcoast region. Since 2014, Hope & Main has launched almost 300 businesses and opened a second location in Providence, Rhode Island. Producers continue to seek commercial kitchen space for value-added products.
In 2017, local aggregator and distributor Coastal Foodshed (CFS) spun off from Mass in Motion New Bedford is focused on filling Southcoast food access and distribution gaps.
CFS sources locally grown and manufactured products from 80 farmers and food makers and sells them through its retail and online stores, farmers markets, delivery programs, institutional sales, and food relief partnerships. Since opening, CFS has sold and distributed $4 million worth of local food to residents. Of that total, more than $1 million in local food has been purchased with SNAP benefits, and more than $1 million has been distributed through local food relief efforts.
Our region has promising assets, but more mid-sized aggregators, processors, and distributors are needed to help buffer against climate risks and meet rising demand. “New England Feeding New England” scenarios project population shifts into the region due to fires and droughts in the West and Southwest and flooding in the Southeast, further highlighting the need to expand local food production and the infrastructure that connects it to consumers.
Help us to improve regional capacity and infrastructure through your engagement as a Southcoast Food Policy Council (SFPC) member and receive legislative advocacy action by joining our email alert system at sfpc@marioninstitute.org, or donating to the SFPC to keep this community-driven work alive at https://www.marioninstitute.org/donatetosfpc
Resources
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
- Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s online food system educational tool
- The 2021 Southcoast Food System Assessment
- “Introduction to the Food System” certificate from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Keeve Nachman, Ph. D. Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Neff, Roni (editor). “Introduction to the US Food System: Public Health, Environment, and Equity” Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. 2015 Published by Jossey-Bass.
