New law puts locally produced foods on menu

Buyers get leeway to acquire costlier foods from Oregon

By peter korn

Pamplin Media Group, Aug 13, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

JONATHAN HOUSE / Pamplin Media Group

Zoe Kane grabs an apple during lunchtime at Atkinson Elementary School, during Portland Public Schools’ monthly all-local food day.

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Consider the ramifications of the lowest-acceptable-bid policy used for government purchasing. Kat West, sustainability manager for Multnomah County, did, and she thinks it’s way behind the times.

Sure, West says, requiring public agencies that are purchasing goods and services to accept low bids has encouraged transparency and economic use of state and local government dollars. But in today’s world, West says, there are other criteria to consider beyond cost. The one she cares about is sustainability.

Last year, West discovered that public agencies in Oregon had not made a great effort to buy local goods, primarily because they were not supposed to. What they were supposed to do was find and accept the lowest responsive bid. If the prison system can get apples cheaper from New Zealand than from Hood River, those were the apples prison purchasing staff were supposed to buy.

What wasn’t calculated in those bids, West says, are the environmental costs – such as carbon emissions – of transporting New Zealand apples to Portland. In addition, West says, public agencies buying local goods keep those dollars in the local economy. And food purchases made from local farmers helps keep local farms viable.

In the long run, West says, the lowest possible bid may be the most expensive, when you consider all the costs.

So, working with the Portland/Multnomah Food Policy Council, a citizens advisory panel, West last year decided to take on the state purchasing code. The result was House Bill 2763, which takes effect in January.

The bill amends state purchasing requirements so that public agencies can favor locally produced foods. Public agencies can buy locally grown or produced food even if it is as much as 10 percent more expensive than food from outside.

Individual agencies get to define local and can even adjust the premium they will pay – for instance, a school district may decide to pay 10 percent more for food grown within its county, and only 5 percent more for food grown within the state.

“This is a tool to allow local agencies to be more sustainable,” West says. In time, she says, considering a product’s origin will become standard practice for public agencies.

Re-localize the economy

But HB 2763 is notable for what it doesn’t contain, as much as for what it does. It allows agencies to buy local at a premium, but it does not require them to do so. And it doesn’t provide an incentive.

Most public agencies are cash-strapped these days, and can’t afford to pay more, or much more, for local foods.

The Oregon Department of Corrections feeds more than 13,000 inmates each day. Without a financial incentive and with a tight budget, the department is not going to change its buying choices because of the new legislation, says Jan Lemke, purchasing and contracts manager for the corrections department.

Still, Lemke says she can see buying local food if it’s a little more expensive.

The bill’s legislative sponsor, state Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, says his attempts to produce a companion bill to require local purchasing met resistance from the state’s Department of Administrative Services.

The incentive that many hoped would accompany HB 2763 was House Bill 2800, known as the Farm to School bill. That bill, co-sponsored by Clem, didn’t pass. It would have directed state lottery funds to provide 15 cents per lunch to help Oregon schools purchase more expensive local foods.

Schools purchase even more food than prisons. Portland Public Schools, for example, serves 20,000 lunches and 13,000 breakfasts a day. Right now, $2.35 in federal money goes to pay for each school lunch in an Oregon public school.More than half of that goes toward overhead costs, such as paying cafeteria staff and washing dishes.

School districts are left with $1.09 per lunch to purchase food. That isn’t enough for schools to pay a premium for locally produced food, says Deborah Kane, vice president of food and farms at Ecotrust, a nonprofit conservation organization in Portland.

“If you want (agencies) to buy local products, you’re going to have to incent them or provide additional resources,” Kane says.

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