Scaling Up Local, Sustainable Food Production

Jared Green reports on an ambitious effort in Portland that is working toward developing new systems of support for local farmers committed to sustainable practices in bringing their products to institutional food buyers.

The non-profit Ecotrust runs the Redd on Salmon Street project, which recently won SXSW’s Place by Design resilience competition and is expected to open in 2016. Here's how Ecotrust pitches Redd on Salmon Street's ambition for local food industries: "The Redd will serve 'ag in the middle,' mid-size rural farmers, ranchers, and fishers who have outgrown direct-to-consumer channels, such as CSAs and farmers’ markets, and are looking to scale their business. The Redd will increase access to value-added producers, markets, and infrastructure (like warehousing, aggregation and distribution), a lack of which inhibits growth."

The project will rehabilitate two existing buildings to create an "80,000-square-foot food production and distribution facility in the Central Eastside neighborhood of Portland," according to Green. The article provides more detail about the project as well as a shout out to the other Place by Design finalists.

Kaplan Prize - The Redd on Salmon Street from Ecotrust on Vimeo.