Building A Food System We Can All Be Proud Of
Last night I had the genuine pleasure of sharing a few remarks about sustainable food systems with a group of food industry professionals in Chicago. It was an event hosted by Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network, formed last year to catalyze the 4,500 food...
Toolsite Spotlight: A How-To Guide for MarketSizer® and HubSizer® Users
New Venture Advisors launched the MarketSizer® and HubSizer® Toolsite earlier this year to enable anyone to conduct preliminary assessments of various types of food system infrastructure. The results allow users to refine their food business concepts and due diligence...
Toolsite Spotlight (6 of 6): The Frozen Processing HubSizer®
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors Are you a food hub that sees surges from your farmers in broccoli in the summer or beets in the fall? Have you been trying to figure out how to take advantage of a big glut of produce...
Toolsite Spotlight (5 of 6): The Kitchen Facility HubSizer®
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. Do you own or have access to an entire building, space or business and want to convert it into a commercial kitchen or food business incubator but are not sure where to start? Today...
Toolsite Spotlight (4 of 6): The Produce Facility Hubsizer®
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. Over the past few weeks we’ve explored how to analyze a market for local food with the Local Food MarketSizer® tool; investigated how to turn a grocery store into a food hub with the...
Toolsite Spotlight (3 of 6): The Local Produce HubSizer®
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. This week we’re looking into how to use the Local Produce HubSizer® tool to estimate the economics and potential markets of a produce food hub. For this post, we’ll take you on the...
Toolsite Spotlight (2 of 6): The Rural Grocery HubSizer®
A microblog series on the HubSizer® and MarketSizer® tools from New Venture Advisors. This week we’re digging into how to use the Rural Grocery HubSizer® tool. This tool was designed for an owner and/or operator of an independent grocery store that has at least some...
Toolsite Spotlight (1 of 6): The Local Food MarketSizer®
We are so excited about the launch of the NVA Toolsite and to get these tools into the hands of food system professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs, store owners and all of the hard working planners out there! Over the next six weeks, this NVA Toolsite Spotlight...
6 New Tools for Food System Planners
Over the last nine years New Venture Advisors has had the privilege of participating in over 60 food systems studies ranging from feasibility studies to market assessments, business plans and strategic business improvement plans. They have ranged in focus from local...
Good Food Glossary: What is (and isn’t) a Food Hub?
There are so many “new” terms out there describing our food these days. They are on the produce racks (natural, organic, local, sustainably grown, fresh) and they are in the grocery aisles (whole grain, gluten free, no preservatives) and in the meat case! (hormone...
Big Goes Small and Small Goes Big: 5 Ways Big Food is Finding Growth in the New Food Economy
Anyone reading the food news these days would think that Big Food is dead. In recent years, analysts have been alert to the trends, publishing excellent reports such as Is Big Food In Trouble? (A.T. Kearney/The Hartman Group, 2016), Invasion of the bottle snatchers:...
Reflections on Leadership and Human Flourishing
Earlier this month I was glad to attend the Community Food Systems Conference hosted by the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at Tufts University. Not only was it an occasion to reconnect with friends and former clients, to enjoy the local food scene in...
From the Warehouse: 5 Lessons I Didn’t Learn in Business School
Two years ago my husband and I became the co-owners of EcoEnclose, a business that manufactures and distributes sustainable shipping solutions to eco-focused ecommerce businesses. Through my many years as a management consultant and then a food entrepreneur, my...
14 Favorite Good Food Books & Films
We set out to curate a list of books that might comprise the canon of literature of the good food movement. But we quickly realized that the vastness of the issues and range of viewpoints would make it almost impossible to settle on a shortlist. So instead we decided...
Small to Medium Sized Miracles: Food Entrepreneurs in Nigeria
Anyone who has attempted to launch a food business knows how difficult it can be. Whether it’s raising capital, finding and retaining talent, balancing a side hustle with a full time job or finding reliable co-packers, we hear lots of stories from entrepreneurs that...
Sowing the Seeds of Capitalism in Cuba
Late last year, not long after then president Barack Obama reduced trade restrictions with Cuba, the chance to explore the state of sustainable agriculture in Cuba became an opportunity I did not want to miss. In early February, I was introduced to a world I knew...
Climate Change and Agriculture – Reflections from California
Communities around the globe are grappling with the consequences of climate change and working to come up with strategies aimed at mitigating its effects and building local climate resilience. As a Californian, I have experienced firsthand weather patterns that are...
10 Books That Inspired Us This Year
We, like everyone, now read most of our news, research, opinions and ideas online—through articles, blogs, social media posts, and digital debates. But we find that reading a good old fashioned book (yes, even when it’s read on a tablet!) is when we truly become...
Immersive Roadmapping: A Tune-Up for Small Businesses
Last month, New Venture Advisors had the opportunity to coach twelve fellows of the Good Food Business Accelerator for a full day session. What an incredible program and inspiring group of entrepreneurs! The Good Food Business Accelerator gets farm and food businesses...
When to Leap and When to Learn
December…while it is, first and foremost, a time for us to be with our friends and family, be thankful, take out our mittens and hats, and celebrate the season – it is also the time for reflection and planning. This may sound boring to some people, but we tend to geek...
6 Insights from a New York State Grain Hub Study
Of our growing list of local food systems projects, the majority of them are focused on how to best help move local specialty produce into more wholesale markets. We love this work, and it is incredible to see how this landscape of local produce intermediaries has...
Rural Grocery Food Hubs: Our Findings, the Future and a Widget
A lot has happened since we first explored the idea of a rural grocery store housing a local food hub, almost two years ago! The concept is one we continue to be excited about and see tremendous potential in. A quick refresher: Independent rural grocery stores are...
Ready, aim, farm! How one county is addressing wholesale readiness
The regionally-based, source-identified wholesale supply chain, once a creature of mystery reserved for the imagination of a handful of optimistic change-makers, is now a successful tool for creating market opportunities for agricultural producers and conveniently...
5 Fantastic Ideas for Building Resiliency in Small Town Grocery Stores from the Rural Grocery Summit
We became aware of the plight of rural grocery stores a few years ago. Through USDA funding we have begun to research if and how a rural grocery store can viably serve as a food hub to strengthen its bottom line. This blog post by Saloni – Rural Grocery Stores as Food...
