New York has the Infrastructure to Keep Food Affordable and Local. It just needs Investment.

Voices from the Land is a collaborative op-ed and video series between Farm School NYC (FSNYC) and the New Harvest Project (TNH) that highlights urban and rural farmers, policy that impacts their work, and what we can do to uplift legislation reflective of their needs to direct future policy decisions. This project is funded by the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation (RAF) through the Rural Advancement Foundation International - USA (RAFI).

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Photo Courtesy of Brooklyn Supported Agriculture

New York has an opportunity to rethink what affordability and local food actually mean.

You don't have to look hard to find worker-owned cooperatives, community food hubs, local distributors, and independent growers that have built the infrastructure needed to move fresh food from farms throughout the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, western New York, New York City, and beyond. That's exactly what Brooklyn Supported Agriculture (BSA), the organization I co-founded with Shawn Santana in 2016, does as a worker-owned cooperative focused on changing the food system. However, one key hindrance to our local ecosystem is institutional food procurement—a process that allows institutions such as universities and hospitals to source food and other services from the lowest bidder.  

We have built a food system that treats food like any other commodity. Consumers expect the lowest price. Contracts are awarded to entities—in this case, farm and food aggregators—that can supply food and services at the lowest cost. This means that large corporations, institutions, and agencies can maximize their bottom lines. But the farmers and farmworkers growing our food and the small businesses trying to make fair prices work for everyone get squeezed.

For me, this is where the tension lives.

While the cheapest offer wins, food quality and fair wages are often disregarded, failing to reflect the true cost of growing food. The result is a system where schools, hospitals, and senior centers receive inexpensive food that is likely not the most nutritious. This begs the question of why we aren't prioritizing the health of our elders and youth. At BSA, we are always doing a delicate dance to get our farmers the highest price we can for the labor and care they put into growing our food, while making sure we offer prices our customers can afford. 

It has been encouraging to see legislation such as the Good Food NY Bill that pushes municipalities to “consider other factors when determining best value,” rather than just the lowest cost. The bill, inspired by The Good Food Purchasing Program, supports institutions in shifting toward a values-based procurement model that prioritizes five key aspects: local economies, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, nutrition, and a valued workforce, to hold institutions more accountable in their practices and procurement decisions. Focused on supporting small and historically marginalized farmers and food vendors, this is a step in the right direction toward creating an equitable, local food system while helping organizations like BSA secure larger contracts. 

Can City-Owned Groceries and Small Farm and Food Businesses Work Together?

Rather than building entirely new food systems, New York should strengthen its existing networks. The forthcoming city-owned grocery stores proposed by Mayor Mamdani’s Administration offer an opportunity to do so. For BSA and for where we stand as activists and business owners, the critical question is whether these new grocery stores will strengthen the existing ecosystem or simply recreate the same supply chains under a different name. Other questions we have are:

1. Will local farmers have a seat at the table?

2. Will worker-owned cooperatives and the existing local food ecosystem be part of the initiative?

3. How might local farmers and this Mayor’s office work together to strengthen food access?

While the five proposed grocery stores will not transform New York City's food system overnight and will face logistical challenges, we must acknowledge how incredible this bold idea is. This is the kind of experimentation that helps public systems improve. At the same time, community food enterprises, like BSA, Corbin Hill Food Project,  Connected Chef  and many other community food hubs, and regional logistics organizations have spent years solving problems that the government now hopes to address. 

We have relationships with farms. We know how to aggregate produce, manage refrigerated transportation, and deliver fresh food into neighborhoods that have historically lacked access. I see these city-owned groceries as an opportunity to work together. We have shared our concerns and guidance in a white paper in collaboration with Equity Advocates, Catskills Agrarian Alliance, New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives, and other partners.  Prioritizing Affordable, Quality, Neighborhood-Based Supermarket Access as a Public Good: Focus on City-Owned Supermarkets and Complementary Cooperative Ownership Models makes recommendations for how NYC’s city-owned grocery stores can succeed while grounding what a solidarity economy could look like for our food system. 

While much of our food is now through apps and fast-delivery platforms, one focus of BSA is to bring back face-to-face relationship-building. Over the past few months, we’ve been doing more pop-ups and community-focused events such as our recurring pop-up at BEM Books & More,  Brooklyn Children’s Food Festival and Black VegFest, alongside our new updated storefront in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. We are seeing that people want more opportunities to interact with us and each other, and this is how we can continue to build community. 

If we truly want a resilient local food system, we don't need to invent one from scratch. We need the political will and opportunities to support the one that's already growing around us.