There are a wide variety of venues for the buying and selling of food and beverages. They reach from the personal garden stand to massive food floors or international wholesaling operations. In today’s highly urbanized culture, the majority of us do not do the weekly or monthly shop – we tend to shop every day or so – and therefore it is important to have as many venues for purchasing food as possible.
Economies of scale tend to push the wholesaling and retailing sector into larger floorplates with greater choice and lower prices and large centralized purchasing, storage and distribution systems. The supply chain for these stores tends also to favour larger industrial producers who can guarantee supply and quality of food stuffs. These provide us all with more choice of food at the lowest prices in history today.
Because of the global nature of the buying and selling of food today, much of the money in the system is also circulating globally. Therefore, it is wise for communities to support smaller local food producers and sellers where possible, as the local economic multiplier effect is larger and sometimes the environmental impact can be less.
The “local food” movement of recent years has increased the interest and demand for farmer-direct sales (eg: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)), farmers markets, local artisan producers, and other smaller scale niche retailers.
An Agriculture Urbanism project will endeavour to have the widest range of feasible food retail available in every neighbourhood in order to ensure convenient access to food and to support local food-related businesses and employment.
Below are some resources on food wholesale and retail.
Food sales general
- Food marketing Institute – This site contains a wide range of information on the food retailing industry. http://www.fmi.org//research-resource s
- USDA How to Start a Food Business – An interesting page within the USFDAsite covering the wide range of US regulations in play for any food business. http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Industry/ucm322302.htm
- Statistics Canada – This site contains a lot of information on the food system, including expenditure data for Canada. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-201-x/2009000/part-partie1-eng.htm .
- Changing food retail landscape in Canada – This site from the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development offers interesting information on the evolving trends in the food industry in Canada. http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sis14494
- Industry Canada – This government site contains a range of expenditure and related data on the food and beverage industry. http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf/IDE/cis-sic413wgpe.html
Food wholesale
- Yahoo Finance – This site contains a lot of interesting business information on the food wholesale sector. http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/757.html
- Valuation Resources Food Distributor and Wholesalers – This site offers a good range of business information on this sector. http://valuationresources.com/Reports/SIC5141FoodDistributorsWholesalers.htm#outlook
Food retail
- The Food Institute – This site contains a wealth of information on the food industry and its economic issues. https://www.foodinstitute.com/
- Specialty Food.com – This site is focused on niche food markets. http://www.specialtyfood.com/news-trends/distributor/#.UvCKYfldWGI
- Data and Trends of the European Food and Drink Industry – This is an interesting and highly accessible report of the 2012 status of the food and drink industry in Europe. http://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/uploads/publications_documents/Data__Trends_(interactive).pdf
- Food Retail World – This site is a major portal site to publications and major food companies form nearly every country in the world. http://www.foodretailworld.com/NewsLinks.htm
- Portland State University Food Industry Info – This page has a good list of links for a range of information on issues, trade associations and American government sites. http://www.pdx.edu/retail-leadership/food-industry-information-links
- Canadian food retail sector report – An interesting and highly accessible report summarizing the Canadian food retail sector (2010) for Swiss food producers looking to expand. http://www.s-ge.com/en/filefield-private/files/2344/field_blog_public_files/1272
Farmers markets
- BC Assoc of Farmers’ Markets – This is the industry organization website in BC with lots of information on starting, managing and the network of markets. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/community-gardens
- Farmers’ Markets Canada – A national website with info and resources from many provinces.http://www.farmersmarketscanada.ca/index.cfm
- University of Florida guidelines – This site has a range of accessible principles and guidelines for starting a farmer’s market. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy639
- University of Missouri – This site is from the U of Missouri and has a simple and comprehensive summary of starting a farmers’ market and issues to consider. http://extension.missouri.edu/p/g6223
- Purdue University – This site has a nice 4 page brochure on how to start a good farmers’ market. http://agmarketing.extension.psu.edu/ComFarmMkt/PDFs/start_frm_mrkt_pur.pdf
- Arizona State University – This document is from Arizona and offers a thorough overview of what’s entailed in starting a running a farmer’s market. http://ag.arizona.edu/arec/pubs/dmkt/AGuideto..FarmersM.pdf
Farm gate and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
- Farm gate sales primer – A good summary of farmgate sales from the Ontario government. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/facts/11-011.htm
- Farm Folk City Folk CSA Programs – This site contains a lot of good information about food issues, including a list of the major CSA programs in British Columbia, Canada. http://www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca/resources/knowledge-pantry/csa/
- Local Harvest – This site is a good summary of the basics of CSAs – as well as a lot of other food system information. http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
- Community Supported Agriculture Report – This is a practical report on many aspects of CSAs. http://usaskstudies.coop/socialeconomy/files/LLL_Final_Reports/Report_CL1_07_NO.pdf
Small scale food enterprises
- Starting a business selling food– This is a good site from the Ontario government on how to start many different types of food businesses. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/business-development/food-selling.htm
- National Center for Home Food Preservation – This is a great portal site of resources for home-food entrepreneurs for all American states. http://nchfp.uga.edu/business/starting_business.html