Western Adaptation Alliance
Regional Leadership Academy
Enhancing the Resilience of Sustainable
Food Systems through Adaptive Water
Management in the American West
May 5-7, 2014
Clinic: A Roadmap for City Food Sector
Innovation and Investment
Moderator: Steve Adams, ISC
Presenter:
Cynthia Pansing, Changing Tastes
Session Format
• An interactive session designed to help
your team take stock of where you’ve
been and where you are going.
About the Report
An archived webinar providing a full overview of the report
is available at www.ngfn.org/cityfoodsector
The Roadmap is…
…a guidance document to help cities
focus and develop investment strategies
to increase the number of new
innovations and ventures in their local
food systems, and to better the odds of
their survival and success.
Partners
6
• City/County of San Francisco (lead),
cities of Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle
and Vancouver
• Consultants Changing Tastes and
Wallace Center at Winrock International
• Funded by the Urban Sustainability
Directors Network from Surdna,
Summit and JPB Foundations grants
Project Approach
Asset Inventory/
Gap Analysis
Literature Review
and Team Input
Tools and
Strategies
Impact and
Screening
Metrics
Action Plan
Framework
Roadmap for
Food System
Innovation and
Investment
8
How Innovation and Investment Benefit
Cities and the Food System
Economic
benefits
Social
benefits
Investment in
food system
innovations in
metropolitan
areas
Enhancing
economic
development
Strengthening
the food
system
Strengthening
metropolitan
areas and
enhancing
resilience
Employment Growth by Industry:
February 2010 – February 2012
6.0%
5.0%
4.0%
3.0%
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
Total US
Employment
Arts, Entertainment
& Recreaton
Retail Trade
Accomodations
Foodservice
10
Key Facts on Job Creation and Economic
Benefits
• Large share of economy: 8.3% of total GDP in 2011
• High job creation: food services created 30% of all
new jobs in US in 2012, with each creating .45 to .78
additional jobs
• Small business creation: 91% of food businesses
have fewer than 50 employees
• High risk: 60% of food related businesses fail within
one year of launch. 90% fail within five years, 3% of
new food grocery products remain in market after one
year
Factors like these together with the other findings from the Literature Review provide the
business case for Investment in local food systems to help Elected Officials make investment
decisions and compare food systems investments to other opportunities.
11
Characteristics of Food Sector Locally and
Nationally
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
High consumer demand: for local, sustainable
and organic, increasing rapidly among
retailers/consumers
Most local supply near metro areas: 80% of
small farms selling local food in/adjacent to
Supply under strain: unpredictable weather
events and potential supply disruptions
Significant contributor to/risk from climate
change: accounts for 10-17% of GHG
Water management: local and regional
constraining factor
Risk: increasingly role of environmental factors
Role of local governments: increasingly
important role in strengthening/stabilizing food
sector and innovation
Key Report Findings
12
• Increased and sustained demand for local food
• Shifts in local/sustainable food business
ownership
• Uneven quality in wages for new food sector jobs
• Production and processing yield highest local
multiplier effects with highest wages
• Investment risk is comparable to other sectors
• Continued research needed to gauge success of
recent innovations and business models
Innovation Categories
14
Critical Success Factors for Local Policy
and Financial Investments
• Systems approach
• Supportive policies and streamlined services such as
procurement policies and incentives
• Supportive infrastructure (aggregation, processing,
distribution) - *asset mapping
• Favorable political climate
• Infrastructure
• Strong relationships with suppliers
• Local branding
• Business/technical assistance
• Seed capital
• Healthy food marketing campaigns
• Community involvement
How Can Cities/Local Governments Spur
Innovation/Investment in Food Sector?
•
•
•
•
•
Technical assistance
Direct public financing
Land/water use policies
Food safety regulations
Straightforward and streamlined
services
16
Examples of Local Government Support
for Local Foods Planning and Investment
• Tax credits
• Streamlining permitting and/or making it flexible for food
business operations
• Zoning/land/water use changes
• Vacant publicly-owned/managed building space, land,
water and/or other resources
• Public land banks or conservancies
• Innovation clusters/zones through zoning, tax credits,
CDBG, grants and private investment
• Procurement policies for local food purchase
• Marketing healthy local foods
• Private lender, investment capital
• Small food business training/technical assistance
• Large scale up potential of composting or recovery
models
Step 1.
Your assignment: Take 10 minutes with
your team to discuss
To what extent does your city have a vision
for investment and innovation in the food
sector?
5 Steps to Food Sector Innovation
Planning and Evaluation
Step 1: Visioning
To create a vision for your city’s role in
food sector investment, questions might
include:
• What kind of future food system/sector
do we want?
• How do we create it?
• What do success and/or progress look
like?
Step 2. Mapping Assets and GapsInventory of Food Related Assets
• City compiles an inventory and map of food
related assets. Such assets include:
–
–
–
–
Human capital- capacities and skills of people..
Social capital- rules, relationships, networks…
Financial capital – monetary resources
Physical capital - manufactured items and built
infrastructure
– Natural capital - naturally occurring, ecological
resources
Asset Mapping and Assessment
•
•
•
•
•
•
Urban Land
Assembly
Ag Land
preservation
Water
•
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Business Training
Food Start Up Incubators
Food Sector Innovation
Clusters
Community Prep Kitchens
•
•
•
•
•
•
Direct investment
Tax incentives
Connecting Angel
Investors to
Entrepreneurs
Bank and loan
officer education
•
•
•
Food Hubs
Infrastructure
Food Policy Councils
Procurement Policies
Streamlined
Permitting
Step 2.
Your assignment: Take 10 minutes with
your team to discuss
To what extent does your city have an
asset-gap inventory?
What are some of the assets that you
have?
What are some of the key gaps?
Step 3. Assessing Options
• To support this step, the report includes:
– Investment Evaluation Tool
– Risk Management Tool
These tools are available at:
www.ngfn.org/cityfoodsector
Investment Evaluation
Financial Return:
Jobs:
Food Access:
Local Food System:
What is the return on
Public Investment?
How many, how good and
at what cost?
Will this increase access
to healthy & sustainable
food?
Does the venture play a
key role?
Worthwhile?
On balance, does this make
sense for our city?
Acceptable Risk?
What are the odds this will go as
planned?
25
Sample Project to Evaluate:
CityLights Urban Rooftop Greenhouse
• CityLights is a start up company that puts
greenhouses on top of warehouses to grow
fresh leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers
and herbs.
• It needs $2M in startup funding.
• The city also would need to create a new
zoning category to allow for this use.
• Within 3 years it expects to generate $3M in
sales, $857K in payroll, and employ 30
people in two greenhouse operations, with
average wages of $14/hour.
• The management team now works for a
large grocer and has good experience.
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Investment Evaluation and Risk
Management Tools: City Lights Application
Financial Return:
Jobs:
Food Access:
Local Food System:
What is the return on
Public Investment?
How many, how good and
at what cost?
Will this increase access
to healthy & sustainable
food?
Does the venture play a
key role?
283%
30 people - $14/hr avg
$857K annual payroll
Yes
Yes
Worthwhile?
On balance, does this make
sense for our city?
Acceptable Risk?
What are the odds this will go as
planned?
27
Investment Evaluation and Risk
Management Tools: City Lights Application
Financial Return:
Jobs:
Food Access:
Local Food System:
What is the return on
Public Investment?
How Many, How Good
and at What Cost?
Will this increase access
to healthy & sustainable
food?
Does the venture play a
key role?
283%
30 people - $14/hr avg
$857K annual payroll
Yes
Yes
Worthwhile?
On balance, does this make
sense for our city?
Acceptable Risk?
What are the odds this will go as
planned?
15-17% chance of failure
235% adjusted ROI
Step 3.
Your assignment: Take 10 minutes with
your team to discuss
How does your city currently assess its
options and choose which strategies to
pursue?
How does this differ across city
departments?
Step 4. Planning and Implementing
Step 4.
Your assignment: Take 10 minutes with
your team to discuss
What are some of the tools and strategies
that your city is considering?
How do these relate to your assets?
How do these connect food, water and
climate adaptation?
Step 5. Evaluation
• Clarify and prioritize what is important to city and why
• Balance what is needed for decisionmaking,
monitoring and evaluating outcomes
• Select manageable number of indicators (<10) that
align city’s vision, goals and desired outcomes
• Address social, economic and environmental
sustainability
 Examples: % of residents who are food secure, acres of city
land used for food production, number of sustainable small
businesses/jobs created, amount of energy or water
conserved, etc.
Step 5.
Your assignment: Take 10 minutes with
your team to discuss
What, if any, metrics is your city tracking?
What baseline metrics would be helpful to
have as you implement your strategy?
Clinic Wrap Up
Report back/larger group discussion for 10-15
minutes
 What were key takeaways from group discussions?
 What do they reveal about how to draw together
development/implementation of food, water and
climate adaptation plans/strategies?
 Where are there gaps, barriers and opportunities?