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Hyperlocal demand generates new markets for farmers

Demand for fresh-milled, local flour is creating new opportunities for some farmers.

Shelby Kibler, co-owner of Field and Fire, sources many of his ingredients from a farmer partner 15 miles from his bakery in West Michigan.

“His farm is ideally suited to meet our needs, and so we’re growing together, and it’s really exciting,” he shares. “I don’t think that’s really common in the industry, but I feel like it should be.

Kibler points to the Artisan Grain Collaborative as a way farmers are supplying local food-grade grain needs across the Midwest.

“They’re actively involved with bakers and distillers and beer makers and farmers and those who support that whole system, so it’s a good resource,” he encourages.

The Collaborative’s recent annual survey found access to processing is a limiting factor throughout the value chain. Kibler agrees.

“He has equipment needs that make it tougher for him to process the spelt, for instance, and on our side, we don’t have a big enough mill to mill as much as we would want,” he explains.

More than 80 percent of grower members say they expect to increase their planted food-grade grain acres in the next three to five years, and nearly 90 percent of end users plan to purchase more local and regional grains.

Brownfield interviewed Kibler during the recent Food-Grade Grain Field Day in Michigan.