madison county community development food and food hubs

Madison County Community

DevelopmentThe role of food in our economy

Madison County Community Development

60 percent of Madison County is agriculturally based with over 283,000 acres of land in agricultural use with cropland accounting for 87 percent of the total

Madison County is ranked 5th in acreage in small grain production in Illinois

However since 1959 Madison County has seen a 50% decrease in the number of farms but the average size of farming operations have increased due to consolidations and economic pressures

Agriculture and related agribusiness contributes greatly to the area economy – for example we are the home of America’s Central Port located in the tri-cities and is one of the largest inland river ports that transloads millions of tons of ag products annually from truck to barge to train


Major threats to agricultural use in the County is encroaching urbanization and the conflicts between farm and non farm uses

Our County zoning policies do protect this encroachment and development policies are in place to protect these kinds of adjacent uses

The County has developed agreements and cooperative arrangements with the MC Soil and Water District to protect agricultural production as well as efforts to manage large watersheds and agricultural areas

Subdivision and development codes account for agricultural uses and also promotes sustainable design concepts to minimize impacts on agricultural land converted to residential development

Management by County Planning and Development is provided


Madison County Community and Economic Development has an Agricultural Food Production focus

The department is actively promoting the development of agricultural jobs, services or food hubs - promoting locally produced foods for local consumption in local markets, creating jobs and economic opportunities for the people of Madison County

Food production through food service and retail is one of the largest economic sectors and continues to expand. About 2.2 jobs are created for every $100,000 in food sales

The food production shift now appears to be towards meeting local demand and creating sustainable food-chains or smaller scale localized food businesses—like Food Hubs


How do Food Hubs help the local economy? Research suggests 30 percent of consumers will

change where they buy food to support local or regionally sourced food

Larger corporations, grocers and others are shifting towards local food production and sourcing

Jobs in the food sector should increase in specific parts of the supply chain, primarily in the processing, food service and retail sectors – Wages are likely to increase

More than 90% of food businesses have fewer than 50 employees


Economic impacts of Food Hubs in a food based economy

Local-regional food hubs provide about 15-19 jobs on average

66 percent of food hubs operate without subsidies

Food tech companies range in size from 7-70 employees

Food incubators are businesses that create businesses

Farm to institution demand is high for regional sourcing and impacts on transportation and logistics

50% of all food hubs are equipped to accept SNAP benefits

76% of food hubs report that all or most producers were small or mid sized and 74% report that customers are within 100 miles


The role of Farmer’s Markets

According to the USDA there are over 8268 Farmer’s Markets- representing a 1.5% increase over last year’s number

Direct marketing of farm products through these markets continues to be an important sales outlet for agricultural products

Markets are often the first point of entry into the market for small and medium sized producers - markets help them incubate their businesses, develop and test new products, obtain better pricing and provides a farm income source

Markets allow consumers to have direct access to locally-produced, healthy farm-fresh foods and to develop direct relationships with farmer/producers

Markets allow the community to develop focus points, strengthen neighborhoods of downtown CBD and often support food desert access to healthy foods


How can local government support a food economy?

Investments in capacity building, start up help, assistance through the SBDC, incubators, culinary operations, Community Colleges

Direct public financing like special zones or districts

Land use policies that encourage flexible land use for food production and distribution

Food safety regulations – review regulations and promote the expansion of smaller scale food production, operations, food trucks

Streamline services- one stop permitting, coordination of governance


Conclusions To Be successful we will partner with the Madison

County Farm Bureau, Soil and Water District and other organizations

We’ll actively partner with our County departments overseeing the creation of development codes and regulations

We will partner with our local governments, municipal and township in the development of a better understanding of food productions, markets and job creation

madison county community development food and food hubs

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