"Commercializing" local foods (Part 1): Entrepreneur looking for clients, partners

[Debbie Hillman]

To:

Advocates for Urban Agriculture (Greater Chicago)

Illinois Local Food and Farms Coalition (Illinois)

Good Greens Midwest (6 states served by USDA FNS Midwest Office:  IL, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)

Illinois Farmers Market Assn. (serving all 300+ Illinois markets)

FoodLoveChicago (food lovers in general)

Hi, all --

While there is much talk about "financing farm to fork" (grants, donations, loans, and investment), recently I came across an interesting Chicago-based food entrepreneur (Lance Avery) who talks about "commercialization" of the local foods economy in a creative way.   I had been thinking that until the policy playing field is leveled, creating and sustaining local food enterprises is going to be a steeply uphill battle.   Until the playing field is leveled to support entrepreneurs rather than corporations, the primary survival opportunities will be through creative and practical "commercialization" such as Lance promotes.

 

Local food entrepreneurship:  Cracks in the system + synergies (economics of scale).  Since I have never used Lance's services, I cannot recommend them directly. I can recommend his blog.  I do believe that the local food economy needs more entrepreneurs like Lance who are looking for the current "cracks" and "synergies" in the current food economy to build viable food and farm businesses.  

The current opportunities seem to be in (1) finding the cracks in the system, (2) identifying truly local markets, and (3) creating economies of scale based on #1 and #2.   While I and many other are spending our time on trying to level the playing field (through policy work), I am happy to know that there are entrepreneurs like Lance (and many others) who are working to keep local food businesses alive and thriving.

Based on his website, I asked Lance to meet with me, hoping I could convince him to sell advertising for some of our great local foods media outlets (Edible Chicago, WCPT's Mike Nowak show, blogs like Seeding Chicago).   Unfortunately, Lance has other plans at the moment, so this is a two-part e-mail to the local food networks in Chicago, in Illinois, and the Midwest:

Part 1.  Introduction to a food entrepreneur looking for clients and partners

Part 2.  Suggested entrepreneurship opportunity:  Marketing local food businesses to local food media outlets  (can someone make money in both directions?)

Part 1.  Introduction to a food entrepreneur

Below my signature are links to Lance Avery's websites, plus a brief list of his services and clients.

Currently Lance is looking for 

1.  Potential partners for new incubator kitchen in Chicago.  Planning on opening an Innovation Kitchen somewhere on Chicago's north side  (Lincoln Square possibly) by June 1st, 2012.  The kitchen will be a multi-use incubator-style kitchen great for food related videos, food photography, private dinners, special events, and corporate food presentation. 

2.  New outlets for his Bacon Sausage.   Based on my conversation with Lance, I believe the new kitchen will be the new home of his Big Fork Brands, whose signature product is bacon sausage.   Being Jewish, I admit to not being terribly knowledgeable about sausage meat vs. bacon meat.  But I do love bacon and I wanted to try bacon sausage.  (I tried the original Hickory & Applewood; there are 3 other flavors as well.)  

Lance currently gets his pork from Niman Ranch.   I don't know if he would be open to trying more local pork suppliers as well.  

3.  New clients forAvery Innovations culinary consulting.  Here is Lance Avery's description of his company (run with his wife, Ann): "Specializing in concept through commercialization, Avery Innovations, LLC is a boutique culinary consulting firm supporting entrepreneurs, ingredient companies, processors, and consumer package goods companies alike."

I hope that this is a useful introduction for everyone.  

-- Debbie

Debbie Hillman

847/328-7175

DLHi...@sbcglobal.net

http://about.me/debbiehillman

Evanston Food Council   (co-founder and chairperson)

Illinois Local Food and Farms Coalition   (co-founder)

Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council   (co-founder)

Cook County Food Systems Steering Committee (member)

Avery Innovations  Services include:

• Culinary Sales, Marketing Support, & Presentations
• Product Development & Product Matching
• Sustainable / Green Business Strategies
• Food Blogging & Culinary Article Writing
• Kitchen Operations Optimization
• Restaurant Business Strategies
• Culinary Training & Teaching
• Food Styling & Photography
• Kitchen Design and Layout
• Recipe Creation & Testing
• Concepting & Ideations
• Trade Show Support
• Menu Development

Current and/or former clients:

Tom & Eddies

Gonella Baking Co.

Sara Lee

Newly Weds Foods

Kraft Foods

Lance Avery
Founder / Chef
Avery Innovations, LLC
2629 W. Wilson Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625
312.206.9444
lance...@gmail.com
www.bigforkbrands.com
www.averyinnovations.com