Local FARE
Four members of Flagstaff Foodlink's Board, in conjunction with NAU and other community members, secured funding through NAU's Office of the Vice President for Research to examine four interrelated components, each tied to a potential food-related enterprise.
First, researchers are conducting a Production Needs Assessment focusing on two groups of growers. Small regional direct farmers are being surveyed to assess what they need in order to thrive and grow. With precarious profit margins yet growing demand for local foods, Local FARE believes research will show that a Cooperative Farming Enterprise could substantially aid area farmers. By identifying business opportunities most efficiently realized through cooperative endeavor – such as shared distribution networks, cooperative growing strategies for specialty products and supply contracts with institutional consumers significant growth in production could occur. Expert backyard growers are also being surveyed. Researchers are focusing on low income expert growers, particularly in the Sunnyside neighborhood. The aim is to launch a Backyard Growers Market Collaborative that will make surplus production for sale at the Flagstaff Community Markets a viable microenterprise for backyard growers. Without collaboration, the small quantities and variability of production precludes what could be a substantial business opportunity from which the community will benefit.
The second leg of the research is a Market Demand and Feasibility Study. Although there is anecdotal evidence that there has been rapid growth in area farmers markets, in the number of chefs who source or wish to source locally grown food, and in both individual and institutional consumers’ demand for the same, we are conducting the research to determine with more careful precision the nature of the demand for specialty crops that can be sustainably and profitably grown in local greenhouses or sourced from regional farmers. The Market Demand and Feasibility Study is in the process of conducting interviews with restaurant owners, grocery stores, large institutions (FUSD, FMC, and The Peaks) and has completed interviews with 6 regional farmers’ markets.
Solar Pod and Cold Frame Prototype at Flagstaff Farmer's Market
The third leg is research on season extenders and production enhancing technology. Researchers are building and planting cold frames, hoop houses and solar pods, experimenting with thermal mass, venting, materials, plant groupings, etc. The aim is to build the most cost- and design-efficient infrastructure, and then to expand an existing woodworking business in Flagstaff for these technologies so crucial to successful growing in the high desert’s difficult conditions (short growing season, searing sun, high winds, early and late frosts, to name a few). Look for these structures. They will appear soon along the southside of the ARD building on campus.
Hydrostackers
Finally, the group is researching all seasons greenhouse to market growing, utilizing a greenhouse at NAU’s South Greenhouse Complex. Water-conserving hydrostackers are being planted with niche crops for local businesses. The cost-effectiveness of this method of growing will be compared to conventional greenhouse growing for the same niche crops. Businesses already on board to buy this season’s produce include Satchmos (chilis), Rising Hy Hot Sauce (interested in creating its own local dried chili blends), Local Alternatives, and Sodexo. Enterprises that follow from this research could be a business that replicates this Greenhouse to market model, or a research-based enterprise at the University which would form a virtuous circle: teaching and research that supports itself by selling locally. Developing and marketing local varietals best suited to high altitude desert growing would be one possible strategy.
Local FARE hopes to secure additional grants for further research and enterprise development. Already the group has identified needed research on a mid to large composting enterprise to take advantage of unused waste streams on campus and in the wider community. Research on area honeybees that could lead to a local enterprise spinoff is another project percolating.