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Opportunity is there, but barriers exist Price does play a role in chefs' decisions to buy local. Locally- sourced ingredients can cost 20 to 40 percent more than conventional ingredients, and chefs who pay more for local ingredients inevitably pass those costs on to their customers. "It can be really hard to use local meat and produce on the same plate, because of the costs," one chef said. Supply can be challenging. Farmers growing for the local food system often produce small amounts of a variety of vegetables. Or they have small animal herds, making their annual yield lower than that of conventional producers. As a result, chefs often cannot get the volume they need from one farmer, which makes ordering and menu planning more time consuming. Chefs also would like more variety from local farmers. Craig Barbour, who started Cooperative Connections to distribute local produce to restaurants, says that many farmers in the Charlotte region grow similar items, such as tomatoes, collards and sweet potatoes. "Chefs would like to see more specialty items, like mushrooms and lettuces," he says. "It would be great if chefs could get kitchen staples that have been locally grown. Every chef uses onions, carrots, celery, and white potatoes, but they can't find these locally." Farmers often don't know how much it costs then to grow each item, so it's hard for them to negotiate price with restaurants. "Some farmers don't know what to charge, so I call around to get prices and help them set a price," Barbour says. "The more experienced farmers know what it cost them to grow a single carrot or tomato, so they're better able to negotiate on price, which makes it easier for me." Distribution is also challenging because most restaurants need their products delivered, sometimes more than once each week. Farmers must either invest the time and money it takes to deliver their own products, or work with a distributor, many of which require third party certification for their products. From a farmer's perspective, chefs move often, so it's hard to keep relationships going. Plus it takes valuable time away from farming to manage relationships with chefs and provide them with the service they request. And just as some chefs find it hard to know what farmers generally have available, farmers struggle to know what chefs need. Farmers mentioned other challenges in working with restaurants: customers don't appreciate the taste of fresh food; chefs are hard to meet with and don't understand farming; deliveries make working with restaurants time - consuming; cost can be a barrier for some chefs. "We lost a sweet potato buyer because of the money," said one farmer. "It took us additional time to process the product, and they didn't want to pay for it." 18 Attachment number 1 1 -1 Page 253