Michigan food hubs seek to make local food more accessible

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'All food hubs are a bit different,' says Rich Pirog, senior associate director of MSU’s Center for Regional Food Systems.

The locavore movement has taken off in the last five years at least. This notion that consuming food that is raised and grown close to where we live was even given a memorable send-up in the hit IFC comedy "Portlandia." 

But parody is not the only thing the locavore movement has spawned. Over the last five years, food hubs have become an increasingly popular  way to scale the local food movement affordably and efficiently. Their goals are to make produce and meat raised nearby more readily accessible to people of all income levels, as well as larger-scale institutions such as hospitals and school cafeterias. And it turns out that Michigan is a national leader in food hubs. 

Rich Pirog, senior associate director of MSU’s Center for Regional Food Systems and co-convener of Michigan Food Hub Network and Joan Nelson, director of the Allen Neighborhood Center which includes the Allen Market Place shed some light on Michigan's food hubs.