The Intervale Center’s
Food Enterprise Center
An ecological industrial park to strengthen
our local food system.
The Food Enterprise Center is a project still in the planning phase. As envisioned the Food Enterprise Center would provide an important link between farms in the Intervale and throughout Vermont and consumers looking for nutritious locally grown food year round. The design of the Food Enterprise Center would integrate green design, energy efficiency, and nutrient circulation systems.
Overview
The food we eat is generally grown, packaged and distributed with heavy dependence on non-renewable energy and chemical inputs. Millions of pounds of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides poured onto fields, preservatives and plastics in processing and packaging; and petroleum used to truck the finished product thousands of miles to the table are all examples of resource use that is bringing the environment to collapse. In addition, the profit from this food economy is not reaching the farmer. Only 20 cents of every U.S. dollar spent on food goes back to the farm. The consumer suffers too. The low nutrient value of processed foods laden with fat and sugar is known to increase the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. And fresh produce loses nutrients quickly in transport over great distances.
The Food Enterprise Center is envisioned to address these issues of agriculture and our food distribution system with a combination of fresh food production, value-added food processing, green energy use, and social enterprise. As originally designed the facility would include 20,000 square feet of a food processing facility and 20,000 square feet of greenhouse space. We are still working through the components of the final programming and plan to prepare an updated business plan in 2007, including an outline of the ownership and management structure of the facility.
The Food Enterprise Center is a combined effort of the Intervale Center and the City of Burlington. In addition to providing an extended market for food produced on farms in the Intervale and throughout Vermont, the design of the Food Enterprise Center would integrate principles of industrial econoly, green design, energy efficiency and nutrient circulation. Our goal is that waste outputs from one operation be used to drive another. For example, located next to the facility would be the McNeil Generating Station, one of the world’s largest sustainable wood- fired electric power plants. The McNeil Station produces 95 degree hot water as a byproduct. We envision using this hot water to heat the tenant businesses and the greenhouse space. Similarly, by-products of producing one food product could be used as a growing medium for another.
For more information about the timing and plans for the Food Enterprise Center, contact Kit Perkins at or by calling 660 0440, ext 103.