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Growth in direct markets — CSAs, food - buying clubs, farmers' markets — across North Carolina has been phenomenal. These direct markets offer advantages for both farmers and consumers. Farmers enjoy the full retail price. And consumers, because of their direct connections to the farmers, understand and appreciate exactly where their food comes from and can often get fresher products. Cabarrus County is in a good position to expand direct market sales of local food. Increasing direct market sales offers excellent opportunities to build the County's local food system. Potential impacts include increased consumer awareness of benefits related to local food, more support for small -scale farmers, more businesses engaged in the local food system, and increased consumption of locally grown and raised food. 1. Invest in ways to increase consumer access to direct market channels. Examples include adding drop points to County offices, businesses and schools and promoting direct market channels through the consumer education initiative mentioned in Produce Production Recommendations. 2. Encourage new business development of micro - aggregators that will serve direct markets. Examples include Retail Relay, an online grocery store (www.relayfoods.com); Freshlink, an aggregator that offers the option to dedicate farm capacity to individual customers who work with farmers to plan crops for a seasonal menu (www.thefreshlink.com); Farmers Fresh Market, (www.farmersfreshmarket.org); and Go Local NC Farms, a food - buying club operating in Cabarrus County (www.golocalncfarms.com). 3. Provide farmers with training and technical assistance they need to access these markets successfully. 4. Explore ways to increase traffic at the farmers market. Administering a survey of market shoppers to find out why they shop the market is a possible first step. �► �r MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION B. Food Service Market Channel: Restaurants The National Restaurant Association's "What's Hot in 2011" survey of more than 1,500 professional chefs revealed that local sourcing will be one of the hottest trends on restaurant menus in 2011. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) most recent research into consumer expenditures on food — collected in 2009 — reports that American consumers spent 40 percent of the money they spent on food away from home at full- service restaurants. The County has 126 full service restaurants ' 60 and Mecklenburg County has 721. This summary includes key points taken from telephone interviews with chefs in both counties. We asked chefs about challenges they faced when selling locally -grown food, and questions for micro - aggregators were designed to gauge demand for local food and identify restaurant needs. Comments from farmers who are working to access restaurants are included as well. 28 CENTER for ENVIRONMENTAL FARMING SYSTEMS Attachment number 1 1 -1 Page 642