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27 <br /> Commissioner McKee said he understood. <br /> Chair Price said she was also interested in seeing food on the table and when she was <br /> contacted by the co-chairs of the fresh buyers, that their data is about getting farmers in touch <br /> with consumers so they can get the food on the table that people actually want rather than just <br /> handing people a bag of food. She said that data will help them go from a philosophy to more of <br /> practical measures. <br /> Ashley Heger said this would include costs so they would get feedback from the buyers <br /> and the sellers of if this makes economic sense. She said the question that could be answered <br /> is can someone grow lettuce in Orange County, then sell it to Weaver Street Market, and that <br /> be an affordable and accessible good in that space. <br /> Commissioner McKee said the farmers do not need that. He said they are educated and <br /> capable of figuring out their own numbers. He said that he is not intending to hound her over <br /> this and that he does not mean to. He said that whatever the county does for food access, they <br /> need to be dealing with food access. He said he does not understand how this organization <br /> helps the farmers and those who have a lack of nourishing food. He said he sees that work is <br /> being done, but he does not understand how this is better than a facility that would collect <br /> aggregated product. He said that there is no way a small farmer in Orange County can supply <br /> the theoretical one hundred boxes of lettuce on their own. <br /> Ashely Heger said there is an issue with aggregation. <br /> Commissioner McKee said he thinks there is a regional collection facility in Durham <br /> County. He said he does not know how the logistics of putting UNC Hospitals in touch with local <br /> farmers is going to work and that it can be guaranteed. He said he thinks the effort does not <br /> seem to help the farmer make contact with the people that they need to sell to. He said when <br /> he was a farmer, he would have to do the legwork to convince them that they needed to buy <br /> from him. He said that help would be fine, but have they not been dealing with this for 5 or 6 <br /> years. <br /> Ashley Heger said they have only been dealing with her since 2019. <br /> Commissioner McKee said they are still at the 30,000-foot level. <br /> Ashley Heger said that Cooperative Extension, the Ag Preservation Board, and <br /> Economic Development that could be grappling with the larger issues he is talking about. She <br /> said that her job as coordinator is to examine those that have been most impacted by the <br /> systemic racism in our food system and how does she work with them to provide a bridge into <br /> this institution while also building out the capacity of the institution. She said coming back to <br /> the idea of moving at the urgency of those most impacted, she feels that it should not be her <br /> deciding what farmers feel is and is not urgent. She said that the design of this particular pilot <br /> program is to work with a very small group of growers to understand the impacts of them <br /> getting the kind of support that Commissioner McKee is talking about and to identify the gaps. <br /> She said some the already anecdotally know. She said that most farmers cannot afford a <br /> $30,000 refrigerated truck and there is no aggregation center in the county. She said that the <br /> aggregation center in Durham will only take GAP certified products and there is only one GAP <br /> Certified farmer in the county. She said that a number of farmers interviewed for pilots are <br /> already doing this work together. She said there is one farm that has already helped incubate <br /> two additional farms and they also have a contract with Weaver Street Market to grow and sell <br /> celery. She said that instead of taking a $100 thousand plus contract for himself, he split it <br /> between him and two other farms. She said that farmers, as Commissioner McKee knows <br /> firsthand, know it takes a community, a network and that they are very wise and very <br /> experienced. She said that it is not her directing people what to do, but rather asking for input <br /> from farmers about what is working well and what supports they need. She said that the pilot <br /> project will allow farmers to benchmark and lead the direction to say what is and is not working. <br /> She said they will have regular meetings with the cohort and the data from Fresh Buyer to <br />