Food Hubs as Community Economic Development: Lessons From TRACTOR Food & Farms

Traditional economic development approaches have been criticized for overemphasizing the importance of export-oriented industries, and for ignoring non-monetized community impacts. The community economic development (CED) framework can serve as a remedy to both of these shortcomings, and help build resilience in rural communities that have been hit hard by global economic restructuring. In particular, small rural communities that are highly dependent upon agriculture are struggling to keep farmers on the land in the face of a globalizing food marketplace. Publicly financed "food hubs" have arisen as one possible way to support agricultural economic development and encourage community development at the same time. This case study examines the outcomes that can arise when a hub is more than a site of economic transactions, but rather a form of community economic development. This study is based on both qualitative and quantitative data, including interviews and surveys conducted with food hub founders, local officials, community partners, and farmers, as well as economic modeling using IMPLAN software. The TRACTOR model provides a promising example of one community’s investment in the traditional food hub model, and then successful pivot from pure economic expectations to a more broad-based view of how the hub supports community revitalization. Food hubs as an organizational entity can be more resilient and better investments if they are considered as indirect investments that build community and economic development together, rather than simply as a site of economic transactions.Master of City and Regional Plannin