4 minute read

I have always lived in a structured environment prior to starting Producycle - going to school, grad school, working at large corporations with clear KPIs and directions, more school, and now for the first time where I am in full control of what structure looks like. Maybe practice and repetition is what makes following “next steps” straight forward, and because there is no clear “next step” on this entrepreneurial ship, it feels like I’m not progressing at times. My therapist highlighted the importance of self compassion and the fact that learning is progress, even when it feels less tangible and measurable. So here I am, trying to quantify that learning :P And I never would have thought that I’d be doing something related to supply chain, so I’m glad what I study may come in handy from time to time.

By the numbers

21 Farmer Interviews

8 calls with professionals in the space of agriculture, supply chain

1 potential cofounder now I actively collaborate with

3 calls from relevant organizations

50+ contacts setup for outreach within HubSpot

1 draft of business model canvas (which needs to be changed already after conversations)

so many non-profit organizations, reports, publications that I combed through to learn more about this field

Interesting Nuggets

  1. A number of different public institutions have signed a commitment of Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP)

    GFPP focuses on 6 aspects - equity, accountability, and transparency; local and community-based economies; environmental sustainability; valued workforce; animal welfare; community health and nutrition but face many challenges in transforming the what to the how.

  2. Food procurement is a long and complicated process

    Needs assessment -> budgeting -> vendor selection -> order placement -> delivery and inspection -> food preparation and service -> waste management -> payment and reconciliation -> performance review -> compliance and reporting and spans across roles like food service managers, nutritionists, procurement officers, supply chain/logistics, legal, chefs, finance, compliance, quality assurance and I’m sure there are roles that I’m missing out. Some public institutions also contract to food service companies, and that even elongates the food supply chain.

  3. There is little transparency in the origin of where products are coming from and along with the conditions under which the products were produced (especially when working with broadline suppliers)

  4. There’s a concept of food hubs that provides a selection of services ranging from aggregation, storage, processing, marketing, logistics, etc. to the local and regional growers

    This pool of produce makes it possible for working with institutional buyers, increase how much a farmer retains each consumer dollar, bolstering a local food system by shortening the supply chain.

  5. There is no singular definition of what local and regional food means

    Agricultural Marketing Services defines it when distances between the origin and the point of sales is <400 miles or when the origin and the point of sales are in the same state. USDA Food and Nutrition Services defers to School Food Authorities set their own definitions.

  6. Public food procurement traditionally favors dominant food systems by evaluating mostly based on cost-efficient and competitive process.

    In countries like Uruguay, prices for food products may be set 40% higher than the produce reference price provided by the central Farmer Observatory to support family farmers. In addition to pricing, there are other socioeconomic attributes like farm worker welfare, farming practices and its environmental impact that are overlooked during the bidding process.

  7. Certifications were largely created with industrialized farming practices in mind, and is yet another barrier for local farmers to find institutional buyers.

So what?

I’m really interested in the data flow end to end starting from the origin of the farm to a public institution. I haven’t quite figured out what that would look like as it involves multiple stakeholders with each of them having different interests in mind requiring different incentives. The part where distributors/wholesaler needs to be involved as part of the value chain is the most difficult part, what could be an incentive for them if they actually benefit from an opaque system?

Heartwarming moments

Closing out what I mentioned in the opening, there were many days that I felt like I wasn’t making progress. On a call with James, a farm business advisor who has been super generous with his time and knowledge so far, shared with me that in food the motto is to walk slow and observe everything contrary to move fast and break things in tech. He explained to me that because the food system is so nuanced, it takes a long time to understand all the innerworkings, and even when I feel like I do, things will start changing again. Both times we spoke, he mentioned how grateful he is of someone like me really humble and eager to learn about the problems instead of imposing a solution on “what I thought is the problem.” Slow is smooth and smooth is good is what I will hold dear to my heart as I continue on this journey.

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