Business matchmaking can pull local food sector together

Weekend phone calls, late nights, working out the details of a new farm-to-retail distribution venture. The entrepreneurs on either end of the line are Laura Edwards-Orr and John Brusie.

She is executive director of Red Tomato, a local food venture that’s been sourcing and marketing fresh produce from farms across the Northeast for 19 years. He is vice president of Ginsberg’s Foods, a century-old family business, and the last independent food distributor in upstate New York’s capital region.

The guy in the middle is Todd Erling, executive director of the Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corporation (HVADC). He’s trying to connect soaring demand for local foods with his upstate New York region’s bounty.

“We’re within a five hour radius of 60 million people, and New York City is just one-third of that,” he says. “New York state alone boasts an estimated $7 billion unmet demand for locally produced food and beverage.”

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