Planners and architects aren’t the only professionals to connect with sense of place. If you have watched several episodes of Chef Gordon Ramsay’s show, Kitchen Nightmares you probably noticed a pattern—Chef was called to save a failing restaurant. Its struggling because it is generic and serves frozen food. Of course, there are issues of mismanagement, incompetent chefs, and cleanliness that are also involved. He makes aesthetic improvements, psychoanalyzes the staff, and changes the menu to include all fresh, local ingredients in every entertaining episode. He applies the same formula to restaurants regardless of geographic location.
He strongly believes the success of a restaurant depends on two things. The first is that the restaurant can differentiate itself locally. This is accomplished by being aware of the competition and the local context in which it exists. He finds a niche missing in the community’s choices and sells it to them with a local twist. The second key to success is local ingredients. In every episode, Chef Ramsay makes a trip to a local farmer’s market to purchase the ingredients for the new menu. He “surprises” (often the owners act like they never knew a market was down the street) them with information about where to buy local and how to support the farmers in their community.
Chef is not alone in his quest for the local, it is a national trend among consumers. A consumer that shops for food and only eats local production is called a locavore. Is this a trend or a desire to connect with sense of place?
The increasing demand for local has led to a revival of the small farm. It’s a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, there are 4,685 farmer’s markets as of August 2008 up 6.8% from 2006 and up 57% from 2001. Most markets reported are setup in a parking lot or on a closed street throughout the year except winter in urban areas. The USDA’s web site has tools to help consumers locate the nearest farmer’s market. It doesn’t stop there. The site also has resources for farmers to market their farm as a tourist destination.
Branding farms, such as the entire region Napa valley or a specific winery, is not a new concept. In fact, it has a name, Place Marketing. Pick your own is a popular place marketing technique.
Browsing the USDA’s web site, I found a Small Farms Conference proceeding from 2006 with a report conducted on regional cluster farms, the last place I thought place marketing would be mentioned.
Cluster farms are where the same food is grown in a region, for instance mushroom farms near Philadelphia or potatoes in Saint Augustine, Florida. The report elaborates on biological, environmental, and cultural factors that could potentially effect small farms in the US. But then it concludes by identifying the one primary way to keep cluster farms from disappearing : regional branding and farm marketing.
The USDA provides a marketing toolkit to farmers to brand and market the experience of farm life. Here is a snippet from the toolkit,
“Many farmers, government officials, and rural advocates are enthusiastic about the prospects of direct farm marketing for bolstering farm income and promoting rural development. Direct marketing plays a role in rural development by encouraging a climate of entrepreneurship and innovation, attracting agricultural tourists, and promoting alternative forms of agriculture. However, an analysis of 1992 Census of Agriculture data indicates that the income from
direct selling is relatively small and limited to communities near urban areas. Communities in remote locations need to make a concerted effort to benefit from direct marketing.”
Conferences on farm marketing have featured seminars on how to turn farms into haunted houses, ornamental gardens, restaurants, hunting lodges, shooting ranges, and even day labor tourism to bring consumers directly to the farm. The strategy drives traffic to the site which builds customer loyalty at the stand.
While farmer’s markets have been around for hundreds of years, the tourist experience of farm has not. Perhaps farm tourism will continue to inspire more locavores which could save the small farm from demise. Localism coupled with the organic movement has shown that consumers have raised their awareness about where food comes from. This level of consciousness reinforces our sense of place; it has the potential to renew our connection to earth for more than just nourishment.
