Building Resilient Food Systems

As food prices rise, tariffs loom, and Waffle House announces a $0.50 surcharge on eggs—giving “scattered and covered” new meaning—here’s a tough question for Tennessee:  Are we good with losing what’s left of our farmland at a blistering pace, or should we at least do for family farmers what other states have done?  

During COVID, people reconnected with their local farms concretizing a decade of increased demand for local meats and veggies. Families drove to the farms for non-industrialized food they could see, taste, and trust. Farmers’ markets still enjoy the life breathed into that model, but it is not enough.

There are larger, mid-sized distribution models that coalesce the once fledgling “local food movement” into real money business. Those models provide regional farmers and growers a place to sell in bulk, every day, not just once a week with a booth and limited hours. In addition to those models, state programs can drive far more technical help direct to farms to scale up or stay where they are, but become more profitable. 

The time for Tennessee to create that food future and bring the funding together is now. 

Tennessee has not exactly crushed it on the agricultural food business development front. As we lose farmland at a five-alarm fire rate, we import our food from Canada, Mexico, and South America. We lack a farm-based regional food system. Other states such as Ohio and Kentucky have planned ahead, saving farmland in the process.

🌈 Dragging Drag Suit Finally Over The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to hear the case challenging Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act. You may recall that Friends of George’s, a Memphis LGBTQ+ theater company, filed a lawsuit against the state in March 2023 over the law, which restricts “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” After years of back and forth, an appeal was kicked up the food chain where it was promptly put to bed on Monday.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called it a big win. “Free speech is a sacred American value, but the First Amendment does not require Tennessee to allow sexually explicit performances in front of children,” he’s quoted saying in an X post. “We will continue to defend TN’s law and children.”

💊 Faux-zempic Last week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a bi-partisan coalition requesting that the Food and Drug Administration “take swift action against bad actors who are endangering consumers with counterfeit and unsafe forms of the weight loss and diabetes drugs.” Apparently, fake Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound dealers have been taking advantage of the recent weight loss craze.

"These counterfeit or copycat drugs can be contaminated through shady supply chains running from China, Turkey, and other overseas suppliers, or they can contain entirely different drugs manufactured and packaged to look like GLP-1 drugs,” said General Skrmetti in a press release. “We are asking the FDA to lead efforts to safeguard our American supply chain and to work with other federal and state agencies to stop bad actors from producing counterfeit drugs."

🐕 Nashville Exec Heading DOGE Yesterday, Amy Gleason was named acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency. Gleason is a former healthcare executive with ties to both the Biden and Trump administrations. She also happens to be linked to Nashville. A graduate of the University of Tennessee and Brentwood High School, Gleason has worked for Main Street Health and Russell Street Ventures—both based in Music City. In her new role, she will oversee efficiency changes enacted by the new administration under the advisement of Elon Musk and his team.

DEVELOPMENT

• Berry Hill office building listed for sale (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.

TONIGHT

🪕 Verdigrass @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

🎸 Vaden Landers & The Tennessee Roundups @ Dee's Lounge, 9p, $5, Info

🎸Anberlin, Copeland and The Dangerous Summer @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, 7p, $30, Info

🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.