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Sweet Home Alabama

The local food movement, Southern style
Alabama Commodities

Wambles says strong demand for organics is localized regionally in Alabama. “The Madison City Farmers Market is a 100-percent organic market,” he contends, which “works for the people in that community. Other markets are mixed with both organic and conventional to varying degrees. The biggest demand for organics right now is coming from the Huntsville area, and there are a few other small spots where people will pay extra for organic. But for most Alabamans, just fresh and local is what they’re looking for.”

Reid Barnes, general manager for Nathan Segall, Inc., who sells primarily bananas, says he does about five boxes of organics a week. “I’ve heard organics is picking up, but there’s not a lot of demand for it here in the Montgomery area.”

“We’re seeing more organic carrots on the market,” offers Griffin. “In the Birmingham area, there’s a small trend for organics connected to Whole Foods and Sprouts having stores here, but I think most people can’t afford the higher costs.”

LABOR ISSUES HIT HARD
An issue that has hit Alabama hard in recent years, as well as other growing states, is the availability of skilled labor. Following the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act in 2011, a crackdown on illegal immigrants ensued, contracting the available pool of farm workers.

“Labor is of particular concern to us,” Wambles confirms. “Some of the larger producers have gone to mechanical harvesters, and others have lost production because of the shortage of migrant labor.”

Williams concurs: “Labor is a challenge both here at the warehouse, and at the farm, as far as keeping a legal workforce in place.”

Alabama, like Arizona, took a tough stance against illegal immigrants. “Now they’re scared to come back,” says Wright, “and the people the legislators thought were going to take these jobs aren’t replacing them. It’s not working out very well.”

HIGH FREIGHT COSTS
Even though fuel prices have dipped the past few months, distributors aren’t seeing much change in freight rates. Gas and diesel do affect rates, but what’s apparent now is that supply is a stronger variable in the fuel-price equation.

“You would think freight costs would have gone down because of gas,” Williams says, “but it hasn’t for at least two reasons: one, there is a limited availability of trucks, even more so for deliveries from California as the new truck requirements are being enforced. Two, freight companies are trying to make their programs profitable against long-time high fuel prices and new driver regulations. They can no longer legally turn a truck four times in a week, so it costs more as an operator to deliver loads.”

“When gas came down, rates stayed about the same,” Tucker agrees. “It isn’t just fuel prices, there’s supply and demand for trucks, and you have a lot more demand for trucks and drivers these days.”

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