Maine shoppers, restaurants and institutions spent $432 million on food and alcohol from New England in 2022 — but it still only made up 3.4 percent of all the food and alcohol they bought, a new report estimates.
To meet the state’s goals, that number needs to increase to 30 percent by the end of the decade.
The report was released this week by the New England Food System Planners Partnership, a collaboration of state and nonprofit agencies across the region.
It’s important for New Englanders to buy more local food, the partnership argues, because it helps the region be more self-reliant and supports its agricultural economy. To help close the large gap between the 2022 purchase totals and its goal, the state plans to continue investing in farms, food production, infrastructure, access to markets and food security.
Larger regional efforts are also needed, researchers said.
“[The] report clearly highlights the opportunity to increase the amount of Maine and regionally-grown and produced food consumed in our state,” Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Commissioner Amanda Beal said in a press release on Tuesday. The state also urged Mainers to buy more regional foods.
Researchers said getting complete data for the report was difficult, especially from larger stores and restaurants, and the numbers may be underestimated.
Their “local food count” estimated local food spending in New England states from retail sites, restaurants and institutions such as schools, hospitals and prisons. The total numbers include alcohol and beverages along with food.
One of Maine’s challenges is getting more regional food into grocery store chains, where residents do most of their food shopping, according to the report. In 2022, Mainers spent an estimated $163 million on regional food at grocery stores, or 4.3 percent of total sales.
In contrast, sales from farmers markets and other direct connections to farmers totaled around $48 million that year.
Local food is also often more expensive and more difficult to access in some areas of the state and to non-white residents, the report said. Processed food such as pasta, prepared meals, canned goods and cereal make up a bigger part of sales and diets than Maine-grown blueberries, maple syrup and vegetables.
Despite this, Maine did have the second-highest percentage of regional food spending in New England, second only to 10 percent in Vermont.
For sales to go up, the area has to start producing more food too, researchers said.
To get the rest of the way to Maine’s goals, “it is clear that sustained and collaborative action, along with a significant and coordinated investment of resources, will be required,” the report concluded.
Maine officials describe the 30 percent target as ambitious, but said Tuesday that work has been underway since it adopted the goal as part of the “Maine Won’t Wait” climate plan four years ago.
Locally, the state has spent more than $19 million on expanding local food processing infrastructure for meat, dairy, grain, blueberries, vegetables and potatoes.
State-funded programs have invested several million dollars into donating local food to pantries and paying farmers to do so. Maine also gets federal funding to market local food and agritourism, along with subsidizing farmers market purchases for older residents and other projects.
Similar reports are planned for 2025 and 2030.
