Featured in the New York Times this past Wednesday (February 2, 2011), was an opinion piece by writer/food activist Mark Bittman. The piece is sort of a list of interrelated amendments to our nation’s food system that are interspersed with fiscal reform, health, environmentalism, and employment. Short and to the point the manifesto, leaves you asking the question… why arent these changes happening.
One aspect of the manifesto I find most critical and unique is Bittman’s suggested massive food policy reforms at the governmental level. First and foremost, everyone who studies the American food system knows that the USDA (United States Department of Agricultural) is principally concerned with export commodities and processed foods. The USDA spends around $16,000,000,000 (thats 16 billion) dollars a year on subsidizing commodity crops like soy and corn, very little of which is directly consumed by Americans. While the USDA has begun programs that emphasize healthy local direct food systems, continued funding polarities suggest that this department is much more interested in supporting corporate led international food politics than improving the health and communities here in America.
In addition to abolishing the USDA and minimizing subsidies for processed food and export commodities, Bittman argues more for the quality of our food than the quantity, by shifting more power to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). The FDA, which regulates the quality of food and ensures food security, is inherently much more concerned with consumer related-issues.
While I agree that the FDA should be expanded along with the dismantling of the USDA and its excessive subsidies that if re-purposed could revolution American communities, my research suggests that other policy adjustments might be necessary.
Considering the 2000 census data, where 80% of America is urban and 50% is in highly urban areas (as oppose to sub-urban), food has to become more of an urban issue requiring urban-specific food policy. American’s and our policy makers continue an out-dated Jeffersonian view of America as a rural/agricultural utopia. While America does have some of the worlds most productive agricultural land, this is not where people live. Adding to Bittman’s complaints of the USDA, I would argue that the department is purely production (farm) focused. While farming, its productivity, environmental impacts, and the welfare of its workers is critical… America is made up some 230,000,000 urban eaters who have no connection to production and whose relationship to food is almost entirely controlled by private corporations with a nearly powerless FDA to regulate. In the American consciousness and in our government food is only considered as a rural issue. This is made most evident by reading the US department of Housing and Urban Development’s (primary federal agency involving urban issues and policy) 1997 report entitled The Sates of the City Report. Wile the report discussed housing, economic development, fiscal issues, crime, education, environment, jobs, and transportation, issues such as hunger, urban agriculture, malnutrition, food deserts are not mentioned. Actually in the entire report the word food is not mentioned once! This clearly illustrates the way in which urban food acquisition and consumption fall between the cracks of policy and regulation.
A seemingly small amendment to Bittman’s manifesto, new food policy must consider the fact that we are an urban population, utterly disconnected from our sustenance.
Bittman’s manifesto can be read here on the New York Times website. Also for more on Bittman watch his TED Talk entitled What’s Wrong With What We Eat
Filed under: videos | Tags: Food, Food Distribution Centers, Hunts Point, New York City, Project for Public Spaces, video
Well its not really new (yet), but as part of a first time 1 million dollar marketing campaign culminating in the recent launch of a new website, New York City’s Hunt’s Point Terminal Market has officially been (re)branded. Announced earlier last month, the wholesale market’s campaign will attempt to reintroduce and re-frame the market to the city, to the region, and to the world.
The timing of this campaign comes as no surprise as the wholesale market’s facilities and its business have been deteriorating ever since it moved to Hunt’s Point after abandoning Washington Market (previously on the former World Trade Center site) in 1962. While the current spacious 60 acre site in the south Bronx has granted the market larger facilities, quicker access to regional and global transportation networks, and greater volumes of produce exchange, the siting of the market in a poor and industrial neighborhood at the cities hinterlands has possibly led to a loss of public visibility and support.
With the exception of a few modest news clips around holiday feast seasons, the only real press the market has ever gotten was the uncovering of a decade-long fraud scandal where USDA inspectors were being bribed to cheat the farmers supplying the market.
In addition to this bad press the market has been requesting funding to go ahead with facilities improvement that have yet to be granted by city (which leases the market property) state, or federal governments. Things have gotten so bad that as recently as 2008, there was speculation that the market might leave the city and reestablish itself in New Jersey. The nearly 50 year-old facility is congested, out of date, and struggles to comply with modern cold-chain standards. Wholesale fresh food markets, such as Hunt’s Point, have been under pressure for decades as expanding supermarket and hypermarket corporations such as Tesco, Walmart, and Kroger have began dominating the food system and rapidly consolidating, innovating, and automating the distribution process. In addition to competition from vertically integrated supermarkets, the new soon to open 700,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market (for photos see this earlier post) is expected to further compete with Hunt’s Point for business. Clearly the pressure is on, and for now this marketing campaign is the market’s most achievable answer.
Website screenshot:
The “New” Hunts Point Produce Market and My Thesis
From the beginning of my thesis research Hunts Point has always been a potential site. Although I have delayed detailed site analysis, the site has been the door into my understanding of fresh food logistics. When I first discovered it in a post on Mexico City’s produce market in Nicola Twilley’s blog edible geography, I was amazed that such a massive and essential facility in the daily life of New York City could exist unnoticed by its citizens… this unnoticing is of course the work of logistics (see this earlier post). Upon further research over the summer it was evident that the market’s blurred public/private condition has led to poor funding and eventual facility deterioration. Given my architectural knowledge of the historic role of public market buildings in civic life, I could not help but wonder how this market plays a role in that lineage. When did the market become a neglected logistical space? What caused this recent transition and what futures might it hypothesize.
I suppose my innitial instincts were not misplaced. Indeed Hunt’s Point has an image problem (for better or worse image is half of the architectural problem), and if it is going to survive and prosper along with the fresh food system of New York, it needs revamping. While much of this revamping will occur through policy and economics, ultimately the built facilities that these forces are manifested in will play a critical role in the markets evolution and success.
Although I have been expecting the Hunts Point Produce Market’s new marketing campaign for some time, I am still not entirely sure how to react to it in the context of my project. Since the marketing campaign calls upon the citizens of New York City (the public) and the farmers and produce distributors from around the world to come out to the market, I wonder how a facility that was not designed to engage the public will perform. Perhaps this focuses my thesis on further analysis of the differences between public architecture and logistical architecture, spaces designed for people and spaces designed for commodities.
A more pessimistic response to the marketing campaign would be to say the whistle has been blown… here I have been sitting on one of New York City’s best kept secrets and now its out. In addition to the new website, commercials advertising the market will be played on cable throughout the tri-state area. Soon most New Yorker’s will at least know of Hunt’s Point’s existence. Since I will not be fully analyzing the Hunt’s Point site until next semester, I could take the stance that I showed up late to the party and thus the site has less to offer… less to expose. I am leaning towards the former.
Regardless of whether my eventual design project looks to expose Hunts Point’s role in New York City’s food system, or whether it attempts to somehow resolve some of the conflicting issues of landscape and building on the site, for now I certainly appreciate the surge of press and video accompanying this new marketing campaign.
Video: 1
This first promotional video created by Erik West for the marketing campaign is by far my favorite. Upbeat and simply visual it certainly glorifies the logistical spectacle of the market. The video also focuses on a critical point… time and programming. Much of the hustle and bustle of logistics takes place in the early morning hours. While goods are moved throughout the day, the early morning peak is intended to allow for stores and restaurants to be stocked throughout the day.
Video: 2
This second promotional video by Erik West focuses more on the perspective of retailers who buy their product (fruits and vegetables) from Hunts Point.
Video: 3
The third promotional video is more lengthy and comprehensive with narration by the market’s new TV spokesperson Tony Tantillo.
When I first saw this video at Fast Company Design, I was quite surprised to see that the video and the subsequent ‘Real Food Movement‘ is actually funded and run by the Canadian sect of Hellmann’s (yes the mayonnaise company). To be honest, while I cannot not comment on Hellmann’s mayonnaise’s status as sustainable or ‘real food’ I can certainly say they are giving justice and impressive visibility to the local/sustainable/healthy food movement.
While the import/export ratios presented in the video are a little more drastic than America’s (Canada has a shorter growing season and has no California or Florida) generally the arguments made are trans-national. I guess there should be no surprise that a campaign such as this might come to fruition in a country like Canada. While concerns revolving climate change, economics, and local food sovereignty in the face of global food crises are not unique to Canada, they are of more immediate concern. As I already alluded to, the developed countries of the north, many parts of the US, but also countries like the British Isles, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, have become particularly reliant on certain fruit and vegetable imports. If global food trade were to collapse or be temporarily paused within days these countries would run out of many fresh fruits and vegetables. It is not impossible to grow adequate amounts of food in these places, but given there post-agrarian economies, these countries have traded the difficulties of food production for the convenience of the global food system. Increasingly this convenience is being viewed as a risky dependence. Localism emerges as a way of mediating this dependence.
While farmer-consumer relationships are mentioned in this video (one of the typical accolades of localism), local food is being emphasized in this video primarily as a political and economic force. As such, ‘Eat Canadian’ is a form of nationalism as much as a form of localism… sort of a ‘for us, by us’ economic model. But to some extent the value in precisely differentiating between nationalism, regionalism, and localism is questionable. The scales of food systems certainly matter but they also have to be taken on a case by case basis. If you live in Toronto and you buy wine from British Columbia (2000 miles) versus wine from the Finger Lakes (200 miles) in the United States, then ‘eating Canadian’ is clearly a decision driven by nationalist ideals not local (or perhaps BC wine is just better?).
Eating local will not save the world, but it is a start. A definition of local as a particular economic exchange, a particular distance, a particular heritage is not the point. If local is to be a solution to food crises, hunger, and climate change it is something we will have to each define for ourselves. Executed through captivating graphics, here’s one such opinion.
Enjoy the show…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Food, Food Distribution Centers, Infrastructure, Markets, NAPMM, Project for Public Spaces
With thanks to Ben Vitale of the Central New York Regional Market:
I wanted to record a synopsis of my experience at the National Association of Produce Market Managers (NAPMM) Conference I just returned from in Philadelphia (more posts on this to come soon). Quickly the highlights of the conference included:
1) Meeting produce market managers from all over the country who collectively help manage the food chain that provides fresh produce for a majority of North America
2) Touring the nearly completed Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market (PWPM), a state-of-the-art 700,000 sq ft and $218,500,000 wholesale distribution center that will move from its previous Philadelphia location to this new mega-building.
3) Observing conversations amongst the various managers about the variety of market facilities they manages (architecture/operations), the major issues facing these markets, and their role in the food chain.
4) Participating in round-table discussions between NAPMM members, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), the Wallace Center, and various other interested parties, about the existing and emergent possibilities within food markets to develop what the USDA and PPS are calling ’food hubs.’ These facilities are interested in ”not only selling a wide variety of healthy foods, including local produce, but also creating a place for community-centered activities to take place like healthy clinics and day care centers.’
Given the thesis of this blog, this conference easily holds the spot most essential resource I have yet to uncover. Although it comes a few weeks late in the thesis schedule this surge of information and future contact opportunities will prove to be incredibly helpful in my explorations of the mysterious and complex architectures of the food chain.
A few photos below, much more to follow soon!
In the meantime imagine a facility, a single space, a giant refrigerator that has a bigger building foot print than all three of Philadelphia’s pro-sport stadiums, cost less than 1 of them, employees more people, and generates more income annually for the local economy. I guess I am wondering how these facilities havent entertained or captured and kept our attention. That being said perhaps now they can.
Google Earth image of the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market
View of the market's 1300 foot-long central concourse
View back to Philadelphia from a market window
Photo from the floor of the central concourse
NAPMM members touring the cooled storage rooms
Exterior view of the 'backside" docking facades of the market
Workshop sessions with NAPMM, USDA, PPS, and the Wallace Center.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Farms, Food, Food Distribution Centers, Infrastructure
While foodscapes such as thisWisconsin dairy farm still exist and are still productive this is not the landscape feeding urban society. The forces of modernity and industrialization that have created our burgeoning population have also responded for our need for exponentially more food. The modern city made of modern men rely on modern foodscapes for further development, yet we are also dependent on their disappearance. Food has been removed to urban hinterlands or cloaked in corrugated mega-box warehouses, removed from our daily lives to avoid disruption, ensure control. Fundamentally urban, extreme, but essential, these are the spaces of modern food:
Filed under: videos | Tags: Food, Food Distribution Centers, Great Britain, Infrastructure, video
While the supermarket (the first ever is the delightfully named Piggly Wiggly) was invented in America in 1916, its growth over the last century is dwarfed by the growth of supermarkets in some other western countries such as Great Britain. Across the pond, the supermarket was introduced in 1951 and its hold on this much smaller food producing country has become much more significant given the Britain’s reliance on food imports.
While in America we are slightly closer to a balance between supermarkets, smaller stores, and public markets, in Britain over 80% of food consumed in households is from a supermarket. Like the food distribution centers that sell to markets, smaller grocers, and restaurants, major supermarkets such as Walmart, Tescos, Costcos, and Sainsbury’s have recently begun consolidating there food distribution through their own distribution centers. Moving more towards vertical integration, supermarkets are also beginning to hold dominion over some of the farmers and food processing companies that stock their shelves.
The video below from the BBC’s series Britain From Above takes a look at the massive and complex spaces and logistics of supermarket food distribution in Great Britain. In many ways, this system is much more technologically advanced and efficient, but one must question the need for privacy towards efficiency vs. the need for the public’s national, regional, and local food sovereignty (the right of peoples to define their own food).
Filed under: Interview | Tags: Central New York Regional Farmers Market, Food, Food Distribution Centers, Hunts Point, Interview, Markets, New York City
http://media.syracuse.com/news/photo/2009-07-23-jb-market9jpg-e9dc17385deb7758.jpg
As my thesis begins to focus on the spaces of food logistics, I have become increasingly aware of such spaces here in Syracuse, New York. Beyond Wegman’s grocery stores and various farmers markets, Syracuse’s grand space of food is the Central New York Regional Market (CNYRM). This 60 acre site (located on Hiawatha Blvd. and adjacent to the Mall and Regional Transportation Center) is the primary produce food hub in Upstate, New York. The combination of wholesale (for distributors) and retail (for consumers) sales, facility upgrades, a on site restaurants/commons, and community engagement have led this market to be considered one of the more successful in the country, and one of the larger ones in respect of the scale of its context. The market oversees the sales of nearly $70 million a year in farm products and on public market days draws in crowds of up to 26,000 people. I headed up to the market to meet its Executive Director, Ben Vitale. You can read more about Mr. Vitale and the growth of the market under his leadership in this article in the Country Folks weekly farm newspaper.
Additionally Mr. Vitale is the current President of the National Association of Produce Market Managers (NAPMM). As the title implies this organization comprises the managers of all the major food markets in the United States. Collectively these produce markets are hubs of our national/global food system. In addition to running the logistics of these food markets, NAPMM and Mr. Vitale work closely with goverment and policy agencies (such as USDA) in managing our countries food system.
Mr. Vitale and I talked informally for over an hour about the Central New York Regional Market, our countries food system, global food trends, and the different types of markets and their possibilities in my thesis. Below is a transcribed version of some of my more specific question and his answers.
Q+A:
Nate Wooten: The Central New York Regional Market has been incredibly successful at maintaining both buyers and sellers, with peaks of 40,000 people per week, and over 400 separate stalls, under your leadership what role have facility expansions and upgrades had on the success of the market?
Ben Vitale: The market went through some really bad times in the 70′s, 80′s, and early 90′s, and when we did the renovation project here I guess the timing was pretty good. The market was at its lowest point, when I came here in ’97, if you take a look at the pictures downstairs, I mean is was in shambles. So we got an influx of money and put roofs on the place and did a lot of upgrading to the facility. And at the time people were getting more involved and wanting to know where there food was coming from, farmers markets became more popular, so it was really good timing that we improved the facilities. We had a change in management, we had a change in society, and all those things came together. This place is really- if you look at markets across the county- this is one that really sticks out.
NW: Also, do you think that part of the success is the multiple functions of the market (wholesale and retail)?
BV: That is what makes us financially successful. When we first opened the commons, I had fifteen different people come. They wanted to look at it and copy it some other place. They would say “well is it viable?” By itself no; you know, are our wholesale building viable, not by themselves, probably not. I can guarantee you our retail markets aren’t viable by themselves because it is very expensive to run a farmer’s market with the type of facility we run, with buildings, and all the services we provide. What makes us successful is the combination of everything.
NW: Considering the variety of scales in which food systems operate, and a lot of the environmental concerns and nutrition concerns, what trends do you see developing in the food industry and where would you like to see it go?
BV: I’ve never been a supporter of organic, because its a perception more than its a fact. For the last five years Ive been telling everybody organic is a fad, local is the real thing. People can identify whats local whats regional, that will be around for a long time… Where I’m excited and the thing that I like right now is the whole movement toward local and regional and just really getting back to what the whole organic thing started on: where is your food grown and how is it grown. I think thats where we’ve been in the last couple of years and I think thats gonna be our future for a while.
BV: Then it goes to the next level with markets like this. One of the things Ive been working on with the national sub-comittee with the USDA, the Wallace Center, and the Project for Public Spaces is regional food hubs. The USDA and our current administration would like to develop these regional food hubs a lot more. I was just in Washington, and two weeks ago I did a presentation on what we do here in the market (which is considered to be a regional food hub). I just keep beating it in their heads, its not a new concept.
NW: As part of the National Association of Produce Market Managers, what opportunities and impacts can you have on actual food policy?
BV: NAPMM has been around since the 40′s, 60-some years, and were completely volunteer. We have one paid employee that does some secretarial work for us part time. The USDA use to work with us quite a bit, but the policy in Washington the last 20 years shifted away from wholesale terminal markets, markets like us, and shifted more to the tailgate markets (farmers markets). So we lost contact with the USDA over the years, and my focus as president this year was to rebuild the relationship with the USDA and another good organization United Fresh. United Fresh is mostly made up of members that are wholesalers and distributors, even the Ciscos are part of that. Even the fast food places like McDonald’s are part of United Fresh.
BV: When I was in Washington a couple of weeks ago and was doing the presentation on the food hubs, we were also meeting with our congressmen and representatives in Washington to talk about policy regarding produce and the food industry. Thats really the way we can make the most influence by participating in those types of things. Also, by me working directly with the USDA, they get a sense of whats going on out there in the real world, sometimes in Washington they dont know whats going on out there. For instance they’d seen pictures of this market but they didn’t really know what we do. When I was giving them the presentation on the market they were like: “holy cow, we didnt realize you were doing all that stuff.” Yeah, you want to talk about food hubs, but its happening out there.
NW: Early you mentioned the Project for Public Space, this concept is one of the main interest in this thesis: exploring markets as public spaces. I’m interested in the history of markets as public space, I interested in urban food economies, and I see so many positive opportunities in the exchange of food. More specifically I am interested in wholesale markets as part of our public infrastructure, wholesale markets like Hunt’s Point in New York. What potential do you see for these markets becoming more public?
BV: Well they dont want you there. You’re gonna be in the way. You’re gonna see things that they don’t want people to see. Its interesting the markets in this country, though we’ve developed over the years, were almost behind the times compared to Europe. Food safety and cleanliness are behind the times here. We’re so worried about traceability; who cares about tracing were you got sick, Im more worried about making sure no one gets sick in the first place. Us American’s, thats the way we work. Our markets are filthy compared to the European markets, this market’s not.
NW: Well European markets are more thoroughly designed architecturally and spatially to be places that people want to go.
BV: Well your talking about retail markets, thats the trouble. When you go to a wholesale market its completely different. Their wholesale markets exclude the public because they probably dont want people there either. I mean, have seen you anything about the 7th Street Market in Los Angeles with the rats running all over and people using the bathroom all over (watch the nbc hidden camera report here). This market use to be that way back in the bad days. Im not saying this stuff goes on everywhere, but the Hunt’s Point Market is just so congested and you know there are things going on there that you dont want people to know. Yet, they are doing such an important task.
NW: That contradiction and the differences between retail and wholesale is really what my research is getting at right now. From what I can tell retail alligns more with sustainable and local food movements while the wholesale markets are more unsustainable and part of the global food system.
BV: Well you have to have both. If people want a choice you have to have both. Thats one of the reasons our market, a state authority, doesn’t limit trade. We have out-of-state dealers, we have New York state dealers, we have farmers, we have everything. We don’t limit anything. But, were the decision is made is what choices the customers have. At one time there was a rule here that if there were local tomatoes at the retail market no one could sell any other tomatoes. And ok, thats great for the local farmer, which 75% of our board is made up of, but what choice does that give to the consumer. So in the end of October when all the tomatoes start freezing, some farmer is gonna pick these bad tomatoes and the customer cant have the choice to have a better tomato.
NW: Then there’s the concept of food sheds and how much land it requires to feed our cities in a local manner. Look at greater New York, its huge, there just isn’t enough agricultural land nearby. And then there are places like Phoenix and remote cities way up north, were they cant grow much food, but people live there, cities have been built there. You’re not going to reorganize the entire urban population.
BV: The way society is now we have really learned to have choices, and for us not to have choices isn’t going be the answer anymore. I keep talking about the educated consumer. Something that bothers me here in Syracuse is we have an opportunity to grow so much more than we already are. Within an 8 hour drive, if you think of all the populations we cant get to I wonder why we aren’t bigger and better than we already are. We got the thru-way, interstate 81, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston all just a few hours away.
NW: Well also mixed in this landscape are a lot of farms. When I first came up here I wasn’t aware of all this history and the productivity of the upstate.
BV: Yeah, but instead we’re going the other way. The farmer’s are planting less. Farmers are going out of business. Its just sad.
NW: Let’s finish by trying to address some questions related directly to my thesis project. I am hoping to start looking at the global, regional, and local food system–from production to distribution to consumption–and what role architecture plays in it. From farm barns, to wholesale market sheds, to kitchens, food has some significant typological and spatial impacts. More specifically I want to examine and propose ways in which a food hub like Hunt’s Point can become more public. With more funding and attention coming to the market I see it as an opportunity to use Hunt’s Point as a place for public education that could be more of a market hybrid like the market here in Syracuse. This is at least my initial plan, more of an urban design project perhaps.
NW: Right now the city has a vision plan for the Hunt’s Point Market site that includes some public things like a waterfront park or boardwalk, but the market buildings are this vast truck-filled industrial wasteland. I guess I am also interested in challenging this vision plans modest suggestions. I don’t think it deals with the real issues. I see the market as having so much more potential. You use the term ‘food hub’ but maybe it could be more like a ‘food campus’- a place where the broad realm of food is brought to the publics attention as education and entertainment.
BV: Well I guess there’s potential, but then I worry about the safety concerns and the issues of the massive amount of trucks that currently have to go in and out of there. If you are going be bringing the public there you’re probably going to have to separate them in some way. I don’t know the current plans for the market exactly, but I know the facility use to look more like an airport, with different layers of use. You know, space is so valuable in New York, and if you start spreading it all out one level, I don’t know if you’d have enough room. J. R. McIntyre, the manager there now, he actually oversaw the construction of the Atlanta airport, so that his background. So they have all the different trucks delivering on all the different concourses. When you think about it they are getting twice as much in the same amount of space. I guess my issue again is how you separate the two enough to be successful, safe, and beneficial to both. Its an issue of logistics.
Photos of the Central New York Regional Market provided by the Central New York Regional Market Authority:
Wholesale/Dealers Shed: ca. 1940
Central New York Regional Market: 1938
Central New York Regional Market: 1996
Central New York Regional Market: post renovation
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Abstract, Ecological Urbanism, Food, Food Distribution Centers, New York City
On the left of my blog you will find a new menu entitled “A Crisis City Blog”. Here you can access the Crisis City website to which this blog belongs, the Crisis City Manifesto, and my personal Thesis Abstracts. Below you will find the first version of my thesis abstract. Still rather vague, it is a first pass at defining the contention and site for which my thesis project will operate. I had several other ideas including, a monument tosuperuse (architectural resuse), a museum of intermodal transit to be located at LA’s Alameda Trench, and Options for the People of Male (a city of 100,000 in the Maldive Atolls which is sure to go under water). I would appreciate any feedback you might give.
A pdf version can be viewed here: Nkwooten_Thesis_Abstract_submittal_1
Filed under: Seeking | Tags: Food, Food Distribution Centers, New York City
