The US food production industry is an impressively vast and complicated system, but not one that’s respectful of the people who produce and consume the food. Labor practices are notoriously exploitative, environmental degradation is rampant, and small producers are excluded from profitable markets—all to deliver food that isn’t particularly nutritious.
But there is a better way, according to Tom McDougall. He’s the founder and CEO of 4P Foods—and an Aspen Institute Food Leaders Fellow. 4P Foods connects communities in the Mid-Atlantic region to more than 200 farmers, helping to return the food industry to a model that’s more nourishing for workers, producers, and consumers.
The big goal at 4P Foods is to rebuild a regional, regenerative, and equitable food system. They work with local farmers so that food is delivered fresh, provide access to communities who are traditionally excluded from access to healthy food, and deliver to food hubs from subsidized food pantries to elite university dining halls. It’s a system explicitly designed to reduce inequities in agriculture and food access—and one that’s already paying off. In the current industrial food system, only 15 cents of a consumer’s dollar go to the food producer; if that same dollar is spent with 4P Foods, 65 cents make it back to the farmer. (These and other statistics are available in 4P Foods’ impact report.)
