Need for Project
The Arkansas Valley region of southeastern Colorado currently does not offer a sufficient supply market for locally farmed food products. These products provide advantages with freshness and storage-life, quality, and inventory costs. A significant range of businesses and other institutions present demand and support of an internally sustainable food development network that is derived from local farms. Schools, healthcare facilities, catering, food transport, and restaurants are main market drivers. A consumer market composed of individuals also contributes to the total demand. These market drivers benefit from locally farmed products as it promotes philanthropic identities and improved access to products exclusively made available from small agriculture.
The region contains several small farms that can provide the supply market and benefit from the proposed development of an agricultural food hub that enhances the efficiency of goods production and sales. Most of these small farms do not have a sustainably viable infrastructure as they have limits on food storage and processing that would provide effective distribution of their products to market drivers. The distribution center will expand the operational market for these farms that currently function upon direct consumer sales to a larger scale including commercially designated businesses.
NewFarms is the primary developer and non-profit organization that aims to additionally integrate an educational role with this agricultural food hub in association with Arkansas Valley Organic Growers (AVOG), promoting industry training and assimilation for new entry farmers and students.
Collaboratively this commitment of regional small farms, with NewFarms and AVOG, working together with the development of the agricultural food hub will together establish agricultural industry success and economical sustainability for the region.
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