Over the past few years, agriculture has emerged prominently on the climate agenda. This is a significant development as policymakers, donors, and investors are realizing the importance of investing in various regenerative actions such as soil restoration, agroecology, and agroforestry. However, our African colleagues have taught us that without concurrent investment in healthy local markets, these sustainable production efforts may fall short.

Unlock the Power of Local Markets for Climate Resilience

Local Markets: A Climate Resilient Solution

Local markets play a crucial role in building climate resilience. They are a perfect fit for smallholder farmers practicing agroecology and offer greater equity and accessibility for women and youth. Strengthening local economic markets and farmers' access to them creates a mutually beneficial cycle of food and ecological resilience, which is essential for local incomes and livelihoods. Remember, family farms continue to feed a significant portion of the world's population. Specialty crop export and global food trade are just a small part of the overall food story. 1: Local markets have two distinct advantages in accelerating climate solutions. Firstly, their proximity to consumers reduces the distance food has to travel to reach the market, resulting in net savings. Secondly, increasing agroecological production enhances soil fertility, captures carbon, and reduces the use of carbon-intensive inputs like artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides. When considering the amount of food and land under climate resilient food production, the carbon reduction is substantial. 2: For example, in many African countries, local markets for agroecological products are booming. There is a strong demand for local, healthy produce such as green leafy vegetables, fruits, grains, small livestock, and native seeds. Local manufacturing of bio-inputs like fertilizers, bio-pesticides, and inoculants is also on the rise. These markets are not only large but also crucial for local producers. Strong markets for agroecology incentivize farmers to practice climate resilient agriculture. An unpublished study by Groundswell International on cooperatives and entrepreneurs in Senegal and Mali showed that the local demand for healthy foods is significant and growing. The My Food is African campaign launched by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa has spread across the continent, promoting the production and consumption of healthy, local, and culturally relevant foods.

Women Farmers: The Biggest Beneficiaries of Local Markets

African women and youth stand to gain the most from investment in local markets and local entrepreneurship. There are numerous examples of successful businesses and value-added production that rely on women's agricultural knowledge and practices. Climate resilience requires the active participation of the most vulnerable farmers, who are often rural women dependent on natural resources for their well-being. 1: In Senegal, a cooperative of women called We Are the Solution has created a popular brand of bouillon mix called Sum Pak. Made from locally available ingredients without chemicals or preservatives, this mix echoes village flavors and offers consumers low and no sodium options, capitalizing on doctors' recommendations. Chefs and home cooks have praised this product. 2: Another example is in Cameroon, where Service d'Appui aux Initiatives Locales de Développement (SAILD) completed a market analysis that demonstrated the viability of replacing imported wheat flour with locally grown agroecological tuber flours. Indigenous local foods are the present and the future, but they require financing to play a critical role in food systems.

Finance: Inclusive and Accessible for Smallholders

The concept of the "missing middle" is a myth. Smallholder agroecological farmers are not receiving adequate financial support at any level. Many policymakers focus on the missing middle in agribusiness and assume that microfinance is addressing smallholders' needs while larger investors are focusing on opportunities above $100,000. However, this is not true. Less than 15% of smallholders practicing any kind of farming have access to finance below $100,000. Microfinance is often not used by smallholders due to high interest rates and repayment durations that do not match agricultural cycles. 1: Smallholder farmers engaged in agroecology need what regenerative farmers in the US are requesting - low interest, long-term patient capital to transition to agroecology and build up aggregation, processing, and marketing of their products. Financing infrastructure in the $2,000 to $20,000 range creates new opportunities. This infrastructure enables smallholders to thrive and serve local markets, increasing the circulation of local, healthy food. 2: For instance, in Uganda, the Eastern and Southern Africa Small-scale Farmer Forum, Uganda (ESAFF) purchased a grinding machine to produce high-quality peanut butter, which enabled a women's cooperative to increase the value of their peanut crop by 2.7 times. In Cameroon, SAILD's market analysis showed the potential of replacing imported wheat flour with local agroecological tuber flours.

Local Markets: Diverse and Thriving

Farmers' organizations are working together with cooperatives, associations, entrepreneurs, and local governments to develop multiple markets and channels for smallholders' produce. This includes supplying food to territorial markets, developing specialized markets, creating online digital markets through websites and apps, and exploring regional markets. 1: Innovative initiatives that connect communities through direct purchasing agreements between producers and purchasers, which started during the COVID-19 pandemic, are continuing to be successful. The Kenyan Peasants League worked to pair peri-urban communities with direct purchases from smallholder farmers in villages, enabling regular purchases of food, small livestock, and farm inputs. Shared transportation and the absence of regional market costs led to cost savings, allowing many groups to participate. 2: Government procurement programs and interregional trade among African countries are relatively underdeveloped but hold great promise.

Farmers' Organizations: An Essential Component

Incubator programs reach a small number of farmer entrepreneurs, but community-rooted farmers' organizations can build trust among a network of small enterprises by forming associations and cooperatives to strengthen their voice and action. These cooperatives and associations, supported by representative farmer organizations and networks, have traditions and practices of rotating credit funds that are fair and provide access to appropriate finance. 1: By working with existing women-led farmer cooperatives, Concertation Nationale des Organisations Paysannes au Cameroun (CNOP CAM) has introduced and funded new agroecological businesses. Ongoing relationships, savings, and credit programs, often managed by farmers' organizations, enable women and smallholders to benefit from loans and technical assistance that others may overlook. 2: This is a common experience where the potential and existing assets of women and smallholders are undervalued. As policymakers and donors consider opportunities to create climate resilience through agroecology and regenerative agriculture, it is crucial to remember that territorial markets are at the center of resilient food systems. We must not overlook the investment in public agencies that manage them, the businesses behind them, and the farmer organizations that advocate for them.

After sharing a delightful dinner with my family at an exclusive eatery, my mother's gaze fell upon the piece of bread left on our table. She intended to request it be wrapped, yet, much like a teenager being prematurely collected from a gathering, I interjected, "Mom, you can't do this." Subsequently, while I was in the restroom, she discreetly slipped the bread into one of the numerous Ziploc bags she always carries and informed me about it in the car, leaving me with no recourse.

Unraveling the Taboos of Taking Leftovers from Fancy Restaurants

Can I Take Bread Home from a Restaurant?

When it comes to bread, the response is a definite "no," although the situation becomes more complex with other items. Almost all the high-end dining servers I engaged with stated that they do not pass judgment on diners who wish to have a slice or two wrapped. A year after the incident involving my mother and the bread, I deeply regret my initial hesitation. Food should never be wasted when it is avoidable, end of story."Occasionally, people wrap up bits of bread they have been holding onto throughout the meal, and I do not condemn them for this," one server shared with me. "There was once a woman who wrapped up her fried broccoli. When I inquired if she wanted her bread, she paused and then mentioned that she was avoiding carbs. That, I did judge her for."

Will it Annoy the Waiter if I Take Home Leftovers?

However, do not celebrate prematurely. In terms of taking home leftovers in a broader sense, a woman who has worked at multiple upscale restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn mentioned that there is not so much awkwardness as there is annoyance when the dining room is crowded and there are a multitude of other tasks demanding her attention."I did not encounter judgment from other staff usually; it was more frustration when it was busy, and I had to wrap up like half a bite of steak and a small potato," she said. "But it was just part of the routine. Additionally, some tasting menus are unusually large, so it is quite common to wrap up leftovers for that purpose."

Will the Server Judge Me if I Asked to Get Food Wrapped?

Another server, who has worked at two upscale restaurants in Manhattan, echoed this sentiment. She has never judged people for asking to have food wrapped, but she certainly resents them for it due to her already overburdened workload."There are certain dishes that are a major hassle to wrap up," she explained. "We had this crudité tower, which consists of three tiers of spreads and raw vegetables. People often struggle to finish it as it sometimes comes at the end of the meal and is a significant amount of veggies and dip. Visually, it is truly impressive, but when they request it to be taken away, a busboy has to scrape black hummus into a box and throw the vegetables in, and it literally looks dreadful. If I were to open that at home, I would give it to someone I did not care about."Of course, an enormous amount of perfectly good food is wasted every day in restaurants, which is the primary reason why servers would not judge you for taking it home. (Some servers even admitted to consuming the leftovers from your plate, as I discovered earlier this year.) But there is one thing you should never, under any circumstances, do, and that is ask for an elaborate multi-course meal to be taken away.

Are there Foods I Shouldn't Take Home?

"We once had to prepare an entire tasting menu to be taken away," that same server informed me. "I have no idea why this occurred as the whole essence of a tasting menu is not about the quantity of food you receive but about sitting and observing each course unfold. All I could think was, 'Who allowed this to happen?' And it is such a pity too because nothing looks presentable in a box. I am all for not wasting food; please take home your leftovers and give them to someone on the street if you do not want them. But this is a restaurant. Sit down and have the staff bring you your food; please."