The proposed 24-acre West Louisville Food Hub, with an expected cost of $45 million, would combine urban renewal in a distressed neighborhood of Louisville, KY, with local food marketing, says Civil Eats. Food hubs provide a joint marketing site for local producers whose individual output may not be large enough for the needs of buyers such as restaurants. The Louisville hub would include a two-acre demonstration farm.
“Local produce will first…go to restaurant and market buyers within the hub. What doesn’t sell that way–-the ‘seconds’–-will go to an industrial food processor located next door. What’s left–-the ‘thirds’–-will go to a food bank in the hub. And whatever cannot be eaten will go to an anerobic biodigester producing methane and heat from organic waste,” says the story by Anna Rohleder.
The Obama administration announced 26 communities would receive “technical support to integrate local food systems into community economic action plans” through the “Local Foods, Local Places” initiative. Projects include a plan by Youngstown, OH, to reclaim vacant property for food production.