Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The current food system poses many challenges to getting healthy nutritious foods into the hands of vulnerable populations such as children, low-income, and communities of color in Food Deserts. As a result, an overabundance of shelf-stable, junk foods predominate in these region food systems leading to malnutrition and extreme persistent health disparities. Small farmers producing fruits and vegetables also face obstacles to getting their produce to market in the food system. The increasing cost of agricultural inputs, corporate concentration of commodity markets, and federal programs that favor subsidies for large monoculture farms have made it increasingly difficult for small and mid-size fruit and vegetable farmers to remain profitable. Ascetic imperfections such as scratches, blemishes, or deformities that renders the fruit or vegetable unsellable, resulting in a loss for the small farmer. Farmers also loose perishable fruit or vegetable due to the short shelf-life to transport their product from farm to customer. It may be difficult for many small farmers to overcome these losses by increase the size of their production, making it important to increase the value of their products and decrease product loss to remain profitable. The current Phase I project seeks to focus on the Borderplex Region food system, spanning New Mexico and West Texas, a Food Desert which suffers from the nation's leading childhood hunger rates, extreme poverty, and suffers extreme health disparities related to diet (diabetes, heart disease, and obesity). Backyard Farms will help to empower small fruit and vegetable farmers by using lyophilization (freeze drying) to create a value-added healthy food product that preserves flavor and nutrition of fruits and vegetables at their peak and creates a shelf-stable product for up to 25 years. Removing the need for refrigeration and significantly increasing the amount of time to reach customers will allow schools, food banks, and disaster relief organizations to get more locally grown fruits and vegetables to reach vulnerable food insecure populations in the Borderplex Region food system. The project will use farmers' "seconds" or produce that is overripe or has ascetic imperfections as the inputs for the freeze dried foods, helping to reduce product losses, creating a new specialty food market, and increase revenue for small farmers. This Phase I application will prove feasibility of an innovative business model to build a sustainable economically viable freeze dried healthy food industry to better serve the needs of the BorderPlex Region food system. Phase I will support research and development of technical, marketing, and business strategies and supply partnerships that are scalable and in a position to expand during Phase II. The technical objectives of this project are (1) to access the technical and market feasibility of freeze dried local fruits and vegetables in the Borderplex Region, and (2) to conduct a value chain analysis and develop an optimal business model based on this information.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Our primary objective is to develop a sustainable and economically viable freeze dried healthy food industry to better serve the needs of the Borderplex Region food system. This Phase I project will prove feasibility of an innovative business model to build a sustainable supply chain using lyophilization of local fruits and vegetables to improve food access in the BorderPlex food system, while improving the profitability of small-to-medium size farms by introduction of a specialty value-added food process.
Project Methods
Technical and Market feasibility of freeze dried local fruits and vegetables in the Borderplex Region will be acomplished by develop protocol for lyophilization processing including size and thickness, freeze & drying times for each item (fruit or vegetable) being processed. This project will identify most promising food formulation for a "sweet" and a "savory" food products, including nutritional analysis, and product label to meet NMDA and NM Health Department regulations. For thevalue chain analysis and development of an optimal business model based on this information, a methodical value chain analysis will be conducted usinggeographic analysis and mapping of distribution of supply, shipping parameters and costs, and the cost/benefit to local and regional small to mid-sized farms and food processors.