Unlike conventional food hubs, Louisville's planned $50 million FoodPort will gather and 'incubate' regional food businesses. The hope is to breathe life into the area's struggling small farms.
Conceived by the nonprofit Seed Capital Kentucky, West Louisville's FoodPort promises a new and improved food hub. And food hubs can accomplish a great deal: "The one thing they all have in common is creating economies of scale for small and mid-sized farmers. Individually, these farmers wouldn't produce enough to reach large regional markets; together, linked by a food hub, they can."
West Louisville is beset by economic challenges, including unemployment and depressed earnings. As a light industrial development, the FoodPort may spur revitalization. "In some ways the FoodPort is more like a mixed-use development than a conventional food hub. Most hubs are single-entity businesses or organizations, while the FoodPort focuses on co-locating existing businesses that are, as [project director Caroline Heine] puts it, 'symbiotically related.'"
And away from the city, small farmers face a decline in demand for their traditional cash crop, tobacco. Rather than let those farms die, backers of the FoodPort want a local food renaissance. "Heine hopes that the FoodPort will do that for Kentucky—and help dispel the notion that local food is just for upper middle class yuppies. Seed Capital Kentucky believes it has identified significant unmet demand for local food in Louisville."
FULL STORY: Why Louisville Is Betting Big on a Massive Food Wonderland
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