News article: Supermarkets squeeze out local farmers
Regulations favor industrial farms
By: Jamey Bradbury
New requirements in insurance and packaging have made it increasingly difficult for local farmers to market their products in national supermarket chains like Carrs/Safeway and Fred Meyers.
“National markets require stiffer insurance coverage rates that keep smaller farmers from marketing with them,” according to local farmer and Director of the Alaskan Division of Agriculture Larry De Vilbiss.
Alaskan farmers, like De Vilbiss and Palmer potato farmer Bob Greig, are expected to have from $2 - $3 million in liability coverage for the food they produce and market through national chains. While larger industrial farms must also adhere to similar criteria, it is the local growers that suffer, says Greig.
Government regulations “come out of good intentions, good agricultural practices,” says Greig. “But it hurts the small guy more than the big corporations.” Industrial farms, he points out, are able to alleviate the burden of keeping large insurance policies by bringing in more revenue through advertising. “But I don’t have that option.”
Packaging regulations also play a part in making the price of local farmers’ goods less competitive.
Greig, an organic farmer who grows red potatoes and markets them to both Carrs and Fred Meyers, has made a practice of recycling clean apple boxes, provided by Carrs, to ship his potatoes. Now, however, new regulations in packaging make this kind of reuse illegal.
“If I bought boxes from a co-op, it’s cost me up to $400 for 200 boxes,” says Greig. Currently, regulations are not strictly enforced, so “I still get my boxes from Carrs,” Greig adds.
The bags in which Greig’s potatoes are sold, however, cannot be procured from an alternate source. Greig buys his bags from the same companies that sell to industrial farms and must purchase a minimum of 50,000 bags when he places an order. He points out that he typically produces 5 - 8 thousand bales each year, on average.
“A large corporation will buy a million of these bags for two cents apiece,” Greig explains. “I buy 50,000 for five cents apiece. [Small growers] pay more for everything this way.”
The money farmers like Greig spend to meet government standards is reflected in the price of their product. This is where the problem of competing against larger farms arises. Stores like Carrs/Safeway and Fred Meyers “look at the local growers and the growers outside, and they’ll say, “Wait, for us to meet these standards, it’s costing us more to buy these products here,’” explains Greig. “If they can save a penny, they will.”
Chris Greig, who helps her husband run their farm, believes that having to negotiate with non-local administrations of chain stores also plays a part in making it difficult for area farmers to market their goods.
“Box stores are corporate and their interest is more on bottom line and not to catering to the local market,” she says.
There are some stores, she adds, that believe in supporting local farms. “We prefer New Sagaya and Shoprite because they are more friendly. Alaska Premium Food Source […] Those are the ones I’d like to see people support.”
Both De Vilbiss and the Greigs point out that Alaskan farmers do have the option of selling their fruits and vegetables at Saturday Market and the Sunday farmer’s market. However, “it isn’t practical,” says Chris Greig. De Vilbiss adds that to make goods available to a larger area, without the chain stores “we’d be hard-pressed to market all our produce. [Chain stores] have made the delivery system more efficient.”
“I don’t want to make a case against the box stores,” says Greig. “They’re needed just like the little stores are needed.” Just, Chris adds, as local growers are needed.
“Someday, we may come to a place where we can’t get goods from the lower forty-eight. We need these local farmers, but we may lose them.”
Contact Jamey Bradbury at