Lauran Larson discussed Oklahoma’s new food-is-medicine coalition during a breakout session at the Oklahoma Local Food Summit. In her role as senior director of food and health for Hunger Free Oklahoma, she works to expand access to fresh locally grown food. (Photos by Candace Krebs)
This year’s Oklahoma Local Food Summit provided updates on solutions for expanding market opportunities for small-to-midsized growers, as well as examples of how creative entrepreneurs are transforming food-focused passions into successful businesses.
A challenge for many growers is complying with Good Agricultural Practices certification, a widely adopted food safety protocol designed to reduce the risk of microbial contamination in fruits and vegetables.
GAP has been around for more than 20 years, but its role on farms took on greater significance following passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011. Many wholesale and institutional food purchasers now require it.
But the paperwork-heavy process is time consuming and can be cost prohibitive for smaller farms. In Oklahoma, certification costs run as high as $3,000 a year, with required documentation exceeding 700 pages or more, according to Ravi Jadeja, a food safety specialist with Oklahoma State University.
One farmer in the audience described GAP certification as the hardest thing he’d ever done, citing the “mental workload” as particularly daunting.
Lack of certification often results in lost sales, something Tulsa-based logistics and marketing consultant Taryn DeWitt witnessed every month in her past work with a food distributor.
Destiny Wahweah is a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University’s food science program and founder of Roaming Rooster Poultry Processing.
“It’s a lot of hoops to go through to sell to one school district,” she noted.
As a result, only five farms in the state are currently GAP certified, despite high demand for local products among grocers and institutional purchasers.
One possible solution is Group GAP, a pilot program currently administered through the Oklahoma Local Agriculture Collaborative. Pooling participation reduces the fee to around $500 a year and limits the likelihood a farm will be audited by an official government inspector to one year in five.
Farmers can choose which products to certify, Jadeja said. Anyone who wants to obtain organic certification can piggy-back the two certification programs together and save time requirements and cost, he added.
For farms that are undercapitalized or represent marginalized populations, OSU Extension can help secure grant assistance, he said.
Two dozen farmers have already signed up. The goal is to offer enrollment twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall.
DeWitt will serve as the group’s internal auditor, assisting farms with implementing a quality management system. Her participation is contingent on grant funding, she said.
Prioritizing local
Lauran Larson grew up in rural Western Oklahoma without giving much thought to whether dinner came from the garden or a can. Now she is at the forefront of a movement focused on how access to fresh healthy food can improve public health.
In her role as senior manager of food and health for Hunger Free Oklahoma, she leads the new statewide Food is Medicine Coalition, which consists of around 100 members who meet weekly to share updates and ideas. Anyone with an interest is welcome to join, she said.
In a standing-room-only breakout session, she talked about current initiatives that fall under the food-is-medicine umbrella.
One exciting change is an alternative treatment waiver that allows doctors in participating states to prescribe fresh, local food to Medicaid patients.
Jill Ragan gave a luncheon keynote and signed copies of her book, The Tiny but Mighty Farm, at the Oklahoma Local Food Summit. In the book, she encourages homeowners to set aside space for growing food to share with the local community, a lifestyle she and her family have embraced as owners of Whispering Willow Farm near Conway, Arkansas.
At least 16 states have either implemented it or are awaiting approval, she said. The programs have successfully demonstrated improvements in health outcomes for recipients, while being cost neutral for taxpayers, she said.
Local food is also gaining traction with tribal governments, hospitals and schools. Last year 250 districts participated in a state program offering financial incentives to buy local products. In the current legislative session, lawmakers are seeking more funds to expand the program.
Larson also pointed to creation of the OKC Food Hub, which addresses some of the logistical challenges related to distributing local food.
“There have been some positive strides for sure,” she said.
Sprouting seeds
A trend toward more people growing at least some of their own food is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in supporting them.
Destiny Wahweah recently earned a master’s degree in food science from Oklahoma State University. Along the way, she noticed more homeowners were keeping their own flocks following the pandemic.
In many cases, these homeowners preferred not to butcher the birds themselves.
Having worked in OSU’s processing lab, she saw a need she could fill.
“I can do the icky part for them,” as she put it.
She’s already raised $3,000 from investors to convert a horse trailer into a processing unit. She calls her business Roaming Rooster Poultry Processing. In the future, she also hopes to process goats too from her home base in Stillwater.
Jacob DeVecchio, meanwhile, translated his fanaticism for fungi into events planning and education.
After traveling the country to visit mushroom farms and learning everything he could, DeVecchio formed the Oklahoma Fungi Company and organized the state’s first ever mushroom festival two and half years ago. The third annual event will be held in October.
Jacob DeVecchio offered tips and trivia on growing mushrooms during a breakout session at the Oklahoma Local Food Summit. More than 700 people attended the conference.
Fresh mushrooms can bring as much per pound as a ribeye steak and sometimes more, he said during a breakout session.
At the same time, mushrooms can be grown in small spaces like basements or on kitchen countertops, which makes them feasible for almost anybody.
A 10-pound bag can produce three to four pounds of fresh mushrooms. While mushrooms are 70 to 90 percent water, when dried and concentrated they can be made into valuable nutritional supplements, the Oklahoma City native said.
Figuring out the “why” behind a local food business is almost as important as determining the “how,” according to keynote speaker Jill Ragan.
Fond memories of helping her grandfather in the garden gave her the seed of inspiration to start Whispering Willow Farm on four acres north of Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite her enthusiasm, she soon discovered not everyone was convinced local food was worth a premium price.
“I’m a wild dreamer, but I got a dose of reality real quick,” she said.
The early discouragement forced her to dig deep to figure out her “why.” She came away with a mission to offer encouragement to every gardener she met. Now she operates her own YouTube and social media channel, hosts on-farm workshops and sells a garden planner and how-to book, The Tiny but Mighty Farm.
For small growers like her, building a viable business often means growing a supportive community alongside the plants and produce.
She recalled her first spring in business when she started hundreds of plants for a community plant sale. A couple of days before the sale, a storm ripped through the farm and mangled them all. Devastated, she posted an update about what happened, then took her damaged plants to the community plant sale anyway. To her surprise, she sold out.
That gave her the support and confidence she needed to keep going.
“The connection is what matters,” she said. “Always remember, we can benefit from our community, and they benefit from us.”
Being profitable isn’t easy, she said, but that doesn’t mean growing food isn’t worth doing.
“We all get to choose our hard,” she said. “There will be obstacles and challenges, but those can lead to the most incredible rewards.”
