Identifying Factors Influencing a Hospital’s Decision to Adopt a Farm-to-Hospital Program

Farm-to-hospital (FTH] programs can potentially improve the economy of local communities and preserve the environment. Research on adoption of farm-to- hospital (FTH] programs is extremely limited in the agricultural and applied economics literature. Using data from our 2012 regional FTH program survey of hospital food-service directors in the Northeastern United States and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this study estimates a logit model to determine factors that influence a hospital's decision to adopt an FTH program. The empirical results indicate that specific hospital characteristics and agricultural factors significantly influence a hospital's decision to adopt.Key Words: community-supported agriculture, farm-to-hospital program, locally produced fresh food, logit model(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)The agricultural and food sector in the United States has evolved from being highly localized to more regional and national, driven primarily by tremendous improvements in transportation and distribution technologies that have made it possible to move food substantially greater distances and at a lower cost. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in consumer demand for local agriculture and food. The term "local food" has no formally established definition, but the definition adopted by the U.S. Congress in the 2008 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (2008 Farm Act] is food that is produced in the same state or less than 400 miles from the location in which the food is being consumed (Martinez etal. 2010], While the local food movement remains small relative to the food industry overall in the United States, its share has grown substantially in recent years. For example, in 2008, the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS] conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA] estimated gross sales of locally marketed food at $4.8 billion or about 1.6 percent of the U.S. market for agricultural products, four times larger than in the previous census in 2002 (Low and Vogel 2011],There are numerous examples of campaigns and partnerships within local food systems. For instance, farm-to-institution partnerships involve organizations such as elementary and secondary schools, universities, colleges, and hospitals that purchase some or all of the food they serve locally. "Buy Local" and "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" campaigns, farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA] organizations, and locally produced food guide publications promote local, regional, and sustainable food systems. In turn, the localization of food systems supports rural sustainability initiatives and cultivates relationships between farmers and consumers.There have been many studies and popular articles aimed at improving people's understanding of local food production and promoting direct marketing of local food (see Hinrichs 2000, Thilmany 2004, Thilmany and Watson 2004, Allen and Hinrichs 2007], Currently, however, little is known about the contribution of hospitals in support of local food systems and empirical research on farm-to-hospital (FTH] programs is nearly nonexistent. In this study, we define an FTH program as the supply-chain relationship associated with locally produced fresh food incorporated into patients' meals through programs that link hospitals and other healthcare facilities with the farms that produce the food. Such programs can improve the freshness, quality, and nutritional value of hospital food while opening new markets for small- and medium-sized farms (Beery and Markley 2007],FTH programs are being implemented primarily through pilot-program initiatives across the United States, and several case studies have been conducted to raise awareness and highlight the benefits of the programs. In addition to case studies and pilot programs, more than 350 hospitals nationwide are taking steps to improve the health of their patients, communities, and the environment through the Healthy Food in Healthcare Pledge. …