[HN Gopher] Tennessee Awards $5.5M to Strengthen Food Supply Cha...
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Tennessee Awards $5.5M to Strengthen Food Supply Chain
Infrastructure
Author : mooreds
Score : 33 points
Date : 2024-08-02 18:20 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ams.usda.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ams.usda.gov)
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Is $5.5M enough for a material impact? My reference point is the
| fact that setting up a single new farming operation that is
| profitable, can set you back by millions.
| mooreds wrote:
| The focus is on co-packing and other food processing
| facilities.
|
| > Using RFSI funding, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture
| will fund projects that increase access to commercial kitchens
| and co-packing facilities. Additional funded projects will
| expand processing capacity, including adding product types,
| increasing production volumes, and supporting new
| wholesale/retail product lines. The state's priorities are
| informed by stakeholder engagement and outreach to underserved
| producers to better understand their needs.
|
| Looks like it costs 15k-250k to set up a commercial kitchen:
| https://www.kitchenall.com/blog/commercial-kitchen-cost.html
|
| A new product line is 85k-175k:
| https://www.foodresearchlab.com/blog/new-food-product-develo...
|
| I imagine they are doing grants that cover part of the costs
| not the whole thing. If they covered 50% of the cost and each
| project cost 100k, that would mean 110 projects, which is a lot
| in one state.
|
| I see 22 commercial kitchens in TN currently:
| https://www.thekitchendoor.com/kitchen-rental/states/tenness...
| so if half of the projects were commercial kitchens, that would
| be a 250% increase.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Ahh interesting. I think I kind of expected the grant to only
| partially cover costs for any project. But it is very
| surprising to see the costs of setting up a commercial
| kitchen to be so low.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| This press release is so vague that I have trouble understanding
| what it is they're actually doing.
|
| > Using RFSI funding, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture
| will fund projects that increase access to commercial kitchens
| and co-packing facilities. Additional funded projects will expand
| processing capacity, including adding product types, increasing
| production volumes, and supporting new wholesale/retail product
| lines. The state's priorities are informed by stakeholder
| engagement and outreach to underserved producers to better
| understand their needs.
|
| So is it adding facilities that producers (of crops?) can use to
| go from harvesting to a product that is ready to sell? Is it
| because small farmers don't have relationship with processors? Or
| is it that big farms do it all on their own and there is no one
| for small farmers to turn to?
|
| Also what will a few million achieve when individual machines
| probably cost a lot more? I would think any facility would be
| enormously expensive to build and operate.
| mooreds wrote:
| > So is it adding facilities that producers (of crops?) can use
| to go from harvesting to a product that is ready to sell? Is it
| because small farmers don't have relationship with processors?
| Or is it that big farms do it all on their own and there is no
| one for small farmers to turn to?
|
| As someone who used to work in the space, there are a lot of
| different ways for farmers to turn what they grow into
| something they sell. It can be as simple as a space at a
| farmer's market and as complex as a co-packer that turns fruit
| into jelly or chiles into hotsauce.
|
| In the middle are commercial kitchens that let small food
| businesses safely make food to sell in stores and at markets.
| These are more expensive per unit to use than co-packers, but
| don't require the commitments that co-packers do.
|
| There are also processors like grain or meat processors that
| have been consolidating. Here's a list of local grain mills:
| https://wholegrainscouncil.org/find-whole-grains/local-grain...
| . I see zero in TN, so maybe there's a need there?
|
| There are also all kinds of tasks that need to happen that
| aren't related to food production/cooking, such as finding
| distributors, marketing, customer development and more. That's
| what "supporting new wholesale/retail product lines" means to
| me.
|
| > Also what will a few million achieve when individual machines
| probably cost a lot more? I would think any facility would be
| enormously expensive to build and operate.
|
| See my comment about costs here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41142419
| silexia wrote:
| As a farmer, what we actually need is de-regulation of food
| production. The big four meat packers have used government
| regulations on "safety" to create a monopoly where it costs
| millions of dollars to process your own meat.
|
| This $5.5m will disappear into the pockets of the cronies of
| politicians.
| TylerE wrote:
| I do not trust Big Ag. I'm convinced they'd mix hog shit in
| with the sausage if they thought they could get away with it -
| and no, I don't support allowing the commercial sale of
| unpasteurized milk, either.
| rightbyte wrote:
| > I don't support allowing the commercial sale of
| unpasteurized milk
|
| Why? Some of us would like to make proper cheese ...
| TylerE wrote:
| Because it kills people.
|
| " According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease
| Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug
| Administration, there were 202 disease outbreaks in the US
| due to drinking raw milk between 1998 and 2018, leading to
| 2,645 illnesses, 228 hospitalizations, and three deaths. In
| 2017, nearly 5 percent of Americans were thought to consume
| unpasteurized milk products, including raw cheese, and raw
| dairy products led to 840 times more illnesses than
| pasteurized products."
|
| 840x higher risk of food borne illness is significant.
| kerkeslager wrote:
| I mean, saying 840x more makes it sound significant,
| but...
|
| US population in 2017 was 324 million. 5% of that is 16
| million people. 2645 out of 16 million is 0.017%.
|
| Does that make it sound significant? Is that even as
| dangerous as refined sugar?
|
| In my mind that's well within the risk range of "slap a
| warning label on it and let people make their own
| decisions".
| TylerE wrote:
| What's the benefit? It doesn't taste different. It's just
| a thing that appeals to luddites and granola moms.
| willcipriano wrote:
| Not everything that happens needs to benefit you.
| skyyler wrote:
| They were asking what the benefit was to you, actually.
| eikenberry wrote:
| The benefit already laid out by the grand-parent post...
| to grant easy access for people to use it to make their
| own cheese.
| eikenberry wrote:
| Labeling should be enough regulation for products like
| this. Just make sure people can know the difference. This
| places the onus where it belongs, on the individual.
| mcmcmc wrote:
| You can get a dairy cow or buy a share of one to get raw
| milk if you really want it that bad
| mooreds wrote:
| Would anti-trust action against the four big meat packers be
| helpful? Instead of deregulation?
| traviswt wrote:
| No. The regulations aren't in place to protect consumers,
| they're in place to make it prohibitively expensive for
| anyone to compete. They're lobbied into existence by the
| market incumbents to stifle competition.
|
| Regulations favor the established.
| kerkeslager wrote:
| Could you go into what regulations you think are wrong? I
| am by no means an expert on the topic, but I'm under the
| impression that meat packing regulations exist because the
| meat packing industry was causing massive harm to workers,
| consumers, the environment, etc. I mean, high schoolers
| read The Jungle for a reason.
|
| One thing that has changed in the past few years is that
| programs to help local farmers get organic certifications
| has made organic certification much more accessible to
| local farmers. Could there be similar programs to help
| smaller meat packers comply with regulation?
|
| I'm not saying you are wrong, but there are a lot more
| people on Hacker News who are just against all regulation,
| than there are people who actually know why specific
| regulations exist and are against them for informed
| reasons.
| kerkeslager wrote:
| > The big four meat packers have used government regulations on
| "safety" to create a monopoly where it costs millions of
| dollars to process your own meat.
|
| Could you go into what regulations you think are wrong? I am by
| no means an expert on the topic, but I'm under the impression
| that meat packing regulations exist because the meat packing
| industry was causing massive harm to workers, consumers, the
| environment, etc. I mean, high schoolers read _The Jungle_ for
| a reason.
|
| One thing that has changed in the past few years is that
| programs to help local farmers get organic certifications has
| made organic certification much more accessible to local
| farmers. Could there be similar programs to help smaller meat
| packers comply with regulation?
|
| I'm not saying you are wrong, but there are a lot more people
| on Hacker News who are just against all regulation, than there
| are people who actually know why specific regulations exist and
| are against them for informed reasons.
| GenerocUsername wrote:
| Alternative headline: consultancy firm owned by politicians
| friend hired for 5.5 million dollars to produce a paper that
| suggest ways to do something that will never be actioned on...
| Thankfully because it will also be incredibly innacurate
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