Working with local farms has been a longstanding priority at Seward Co-op. Whether in the form of fruits and veggies, eggs, meat, or cheese, locally farmed products from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa come with a plethora of benefits: they help support the local economy, use fewer resources—and thus create fewer carbon emissions—in transporting product, and they arrive fresher than items that had further to travel. But feeding a flourishing local food system means supporting more than just the largest, most prolific farms on the map. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the average farm size in Minnesota is 388 acres, with approximately 30% of farms in the state under 49 acres. So how do farmers that tend relatively small plots of land, and work on a smaller scale, not only manage to enter the broader wholesale markets, but also compete against the biggest farms in the region? That’s where The Good Acre comes in.

The Good Acre is the largest nonprofit food hub in Minnesota. Working with approximately 140 different producers, The Good Acre connects buyers, like Seward Co-op, with producers in the area who are looking to gain wholesale experience and reach higher volume markets. For many farmers who sell at farmers markets, moving into a wholesale playing field, rather than selling directly to consumers, can be a challenging step. The Good Acre’s grower support program and partnerships help small farmers navigate wholesale requirements, making it easier for buyers, from grocery stores and schools to The Good Acre’s 500+ CSA members, to consistently source and support locally grown food in Minnesota. “There’s power in local, there’s power in small,” says Micha Helle (they/them, he/him) The Good Acre’s Wholesale Partnership Manager. “Small does not mean weak.”

Micah is the main point person for anyone looking to do business with The Good Acre. As an aggregator, The Good Acre brings in product from their partner farms, stores it in their warehouse in St. Paul, and fulfills contracts with buyers like Seward Co-op to supply the store with fresh, local produce. Micah is Seward Co-op’s contact at The Good Acre and works closely with the co-op’s produce buyers to bring in what’s needed. Seward Co-op’s commitment to local has been long apparent, but Micah works with all sorts of customers who are just beginning to enter the local scene. “How can we reduce friction for a number of these customers looking to evolve how they interact with local food?” they ask. It’s a question he works toward answering daily.

Since Seward Co-op began working with The Good Acre in 2021, it has not only been a bountiful source of local food, but also a link to working with BIPOC farmers. “This was my first connection to working with majority BIPOC producers to be distributed,” says Aiesha Babu (she/her), Fresh Departments Buyer at Seward Co-op. In fact, in 2024, 78% of The Good Acre’s produce spending was with BIPOC growers. This is especially significant in a state where, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, fewer than 2% of farm producers are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). This year, Seward Co-op brought in produce from 17 BIPOC farms through The Good Acre, including items like rainbow carrots, Japanese eggplant, and ground cherries.

Most famers who work with The Good Acre are Hmong or East African, and a large majority rent the land they tend. “There are larger systematic inequities in our food system, and really in land ownership, that makes it easier for white farmers, [historically] farmers with more resources, to access more markets,” says Micah. According to the 2022 National Young Farmer Survey, 65% of young BIPOC farmers said that finding affordable land to buy was “very or extremely challenging.” Renting land means being limited in building infrastructure for a farm, and it’s more difficult to become certified organic. Supporting BIPOC farmers at The Good Acre, and down the supply chain at Seward Co-op, means shifting market access and building opportunities for more businesses. Additionally, in a widely diverse city like Minneapolis, having BIPOC growers’ specialized knowledge of producing culturally specific crops is extremely valuable, Micah explains. Making those items regularly available to the community is just another boon from working with BIPOC farmers.

Micah’s own background in farming has led them to think regularly about—and work towards—building a better world for farmers. Ultimately, Micah’s reward is seeing small-scale farms grow and reach larger markets. This is one benefit of working with co-ops, they say, because there is always an open line of communication about what’s working, what’s needed, and where there can be improvements. Co-ops are also interested in telling the story of small-scale farms, bringing a farmer’s market-type experience to shopping at stores. Local at co-ops is prioritized and celebrated, whereas at many other mainstream corporate grocers, local can be harder to implement at scale without trusted wholesale partners.

The farmers The Good Acre partners with collectively cultivate over 1,000 acres of local farmland, demonstrating that small and mid-sized farms, when supported by a food hub, can be a powerful force in feeding our communities. With lots of red tape set up for bigger farms to win the contracts, The Good Acre is championing the small-scale producers, working to bring them value while also managing the steps it takes to get produce into stores. “The courage to start and wade through that,” Micah says, “we need more of that.”