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Section Three: Market Demand This section reviews results of a community wide survey of potential users of a shared use food processing facility and determines the viability of such a project based on measured community demand. A key component of this study was assessment of local market demand, defined as a measurable need or wish on the part of prospective clients to use ashared-use food and agricultural processing facility. Several characteristics of the region, coupled with results of a community survey of prospective facility users, indicate that there will be sufficient demand to support and justify the development of a shared-use facility in the four-county region: • A strong entrepreneurial presence; • An existing local food production, distribution and sales system that includes small farms and food entrepreneurs; • Awell-established "buy local" movement that supports local producers at direct retail establishments, supermarkets, and restaurants; • A culinary education program at the community college level; • A lack of available approved manufacturing space for entry-level food businesses; • Measured strong demand from potential facility clients. When compared to other communities where shared use food and agricultural facilities have succeeded, the four-county region of this study has stronger positive characteristics than any other area that the lead researcher is aware of. I. Methods Market demand was primarily measured through the use of a potential user's survey, which profiled prospective users according to selected characteristics and documented potential facility usage, including equipment needed and hours of anticipated use. The survey instrument (Attachment A) was titled "Piedmont Regional Value Added Shared Use Food Processing Center 2007 Needs Survey for Prospective Users," and was based on an instrument presented in the publication Establishing aShared--Use Commercial %itchen, authored by Dr. Cameron Wold and used in feasibility studies throughout the country. From early June to early September, the survey instrument was widely distributed by members of the community advisory committee through direct mail and email, and was publicized in regional media outlets including the Triad Business Journal, the Chapel Hill News, the Carrboro Citizen, the Chapel Hill Herald, the Durham Herald-Sun, and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Agriculture Review. Area retailers, including Chatham Marketplace and Weaver Street Markets, assisted in having surveys sent to local vendors. The Alamance and Orange Centers of the NC Cooperative Extension Service mailed surveys to prospective users and/or identified potential users from lists supplied by their respective county environmental health inspectors. The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a nonprofit organization based 18