Northeast Florida Farmers Consortium

Filling gaps, breaking silos and working together

Local farmers attend a workshop on USDA's Good Agricultural Practices led by Angela TenBroeck. Photos by Sindy Gonzalez.

If you’re a burgeoning farmer or backyard grower, local maker or food enthusiast in Northeast Florida, chances are you’ve been part of familiar conversations that start a little like this: “How do I become a certified grower, where can I sell my food, what are the rules for growing in my yard? Can I have chickens

or bees? Where can I get fruit trees? Where can I get compost? How can I get my soil tested?” And chances are, if you live in Duval County, you’ve been sent all over the city. Go to Eat Your Yard Jax for perennial trees, Man In Overalls if you want raised beds, Eartha’s Farm & Market for rental beds, Down

to Earth Farms for small farm inspiration, Chandanko Farms for information on transforming your yard into a mini farm business or Standard Feed and Seed to get some chickens for your backyard coop. The experience may have left you feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to start.

What if you could go to one place to find all your answers? Now you can, thanks to a partnership between Blue Zones Project Jacksonville (BZP Jacksonville) and the Center for Sustainable Agriculture Excellence and Conservation (CSAEC).

The Blue Zones Project is working to make the healthy choice the easy choice in Jacksonville through engaging people, places, policy and schools to transform our community. It is part of the national Blue Zones Project that draws on longevity research conducted by founder Dan Buettner. The initiative has identified nine commonalities between communities that live exceptionally long and/or happier lives. The “Power 9” is the guide to BZP’s work to make healthy choices easier and promote sustainable changes in the environment and social networks.

Hayley Spring, public policy coordinator for BZP Jacksonville, believes farming and gardening utilize all of the Power 9 principles, like moving naturally; plant-oriented eating with more fruits, vegetables and legumes and less meat; and having a purpose. BZP believes supporting the local food system, starting with the farmer, will help Jacksonville be a healthier, happier community.

The North Florida Farmers Consortium is a new initiative led by Angela TenBroeck, executive director of CSAEC, with support from BZP Jacksonville. “The goal of the Consortium is to create a formalized infrastructure that can support local growers by helping them coordinate activities, coordinate opportunities, plan out growing, network with one another and connect to resources,” says Spring.

Spring believes the Consortium will help to inform and create policies that make Jacksonville’s local food system stronger. According to Spring, the BZP Jacksonville policy team was interested in supporting this work because policy affects every stage of the food system from production, processing, aggregating and distributing to retail, consumption and post-consumption. “Where we have noticed the main gap is both in food access in terms of food deserts and the lack of aggregation and distribution,” says Spring. “No one farmer can grow enough to satisfy larger contracts with institutions like Duval County Public Schools (DCPS). So how can we make sure that local farmers can grow what DCPS needs and that local food stays here in Duval?”

TenBroeck, a fourth-generation farmer, addressed this question during the first of a series of training sessions for farmers, fishers, ranchers and producers. In May, BZP Jacksonville hosted TenBroeck to conduct a training of USDA Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). This voluntary food safety verification program, offered by the USDA as a way for growers and handlers to demonstrate their commitment to food safety through audits, helps to ensure they are using sound agricultural and food safety practices. The audits also enable producers to align with Food and Drug Administration regulations and demonstrate compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to buyers.

Ensuring best practices is at the heart of CSAEC, founded by TenBroeck in 2013. The goal of this nonprofit is to develop and use best management practices in sustainable agriculture to assist farmers and future farmers. TenBroeck believes GAP certification will help increase market opportunities for small-scale farmers, making small-scale farming a lucrative business and keeping the food here in Jacksonville.

Training is just one aspect of the Consortium. Another benefit is a membership program for growers, producers and advocates. The members directory aims to build connections amongst local food systems stakeholders and help the community connect to their local food system more easily. The Consortium also aims to centralize resources, whether you're looking to start a farm or trying to find a local food systems advocacy group. You’ll find descriptions, links and local contact information for groups like Black Church Food Security Network or The Duval Food Policy Council.

Building a stronger food system by nurturing those who are growing the food is the heart of the Consortium. “There are many farmers working in silos. This platform will be a place for folks like Just Food Network and Eartha’s Farm & Market to put their information up on the site so people can connect to the resources they need," TenBroeck says. “This will give us the ability to bring it all together and help connect to one another.”