Regenerative Food Trucks and Hubs
by CRARS staff member Sheryl Karas. M.A.
At this year’s Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival(opens in new window) in Hertfordshire, UK, there will be an unusual attendee: the Jolly Trolly regenerative food truck(opens in new window), featuring foods for wellness that support gut health grown on regenerative farms in healthy microbe-rich soil. The Jolly Trolly is spreading the word about how delicious regenerative food can support health in people by cooking at festivals and events throughout the UK.
And they’re not the only regenerative farmers joining the food truck trend. According to Food Truck Operator.com(opens in new window), climate consciousness and regenerative agriculture topped the list of most popular food trends in 2020. In 2022, food service providers with a focus on social responsibility and low-carbon footprint(opens in new window) continued to be strong.
A quick search on the internet shows that organic farm-to-truck operations featuring locally-sourced food in northern California are not hard to find. The regenerative food truck concept, however, does not seem to have caught on yet. But they do, however, exist in various other parts of the country. In Burlington, VT (of course!) you can find Moon and Stars food truck(opens in new window) featuring handmade arepas (a staple dish in Colombia and Venezuela) made from regeneratively-grown corn raised on their farm. In Pomfret, CT, Unbound Glory Farm(opens in new window) brings their BBQ meat and seasonal vegetable dishes on the road and offers special homemade pizza events on their property. And, in North Little Rock, Arkansas, you can find the Redbud Market Bistro food truck(opens in new window) featuring regenerative ingredients sourced from multiple local producers.
This last food truck model leads to an idea that HAS caught on in California: the rise of food hubs specifically designed to support multiple regenerative producers in marketing their products. Smaller sellers are at a disadvantage when it comes to access to conventional markets such as large grocery stores and institutions because, in the current food chain structure, agricultural products are usually mixed together into larger groups to be sold, with no identification of the farms where they were grown. Promoting regenerative food in this system is especially difficult. Plus the margins are too low for small to medium scale farmers to compete.
Food Hubs are regional organizations that help aggregate, distribute and market source-identified foods to satisfy wholesale, retail and institutional demand for local food. There is a particular interest among consumers for food that is value-based, particularly those that are local, organic, and care about animal welfare. Food hubs provide mutual benefit for both food producers and individuals or institutions that are seeking to find these products. For example, chefs and cooks as well as larger institutions like schools, restaurants and stores often have an interest in sourcing high quality local food but often do not have the time to find and work with more than one supplier. A single farmer may not even be able to supply all their needs but a band of similar farmers would. Plus, by banding together, it is possible to reduce labor and transportation costs that would have to be passed on to the consumer or be too expensive for individual smaller growers to absorb. Furthermore, since the pandemic, there has been a real need identified for shorter food supply chains that are independent from global market forces. That means that both state and federal agencies are interested in supporting these hubs to succeed.
Locally, CRARS is helping to launch the North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture(opens in new window) with funds received in December 2022 by the USDA Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program. This project will provide marketing and sales support for climate-smart commodities (such as almonds, walnuts, rice, tomatoes, peaches, and prunes) by consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers, and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products. The project also plans to support producers in implementing a variety of climate-smart / regenerative practices with incentive payments for advanced practices.
And, who knows, could one of those buyers be a food truck found at a farmer’s market near you? Nothing is currently in the works, only time will tell.