New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences will launch Path to Plate, an online marketplace that connects New Mexico producers with local buyers, in May.
“Path to Plate will be an online b2b marketplace that allows producers, such as farmers, ranchers or food entrepreneurs, to be able to sell directly to institutional, wholesale and retail markets," said Weston Medlock, Path to Plate senior program manager. “It’s designed to streamline the procurement, the logistics and the distribution of local food supply chains within New Mexico.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, national participation in farm to institution activity has risen by 10.5% from 2019 to 2023 and by 75% since 2015.
More than 50% of institutional buyers report difficulty sourcing local food due to fragmented supply chains and lack of reliable procurement systems, according to USDA local food research.
“It’s creating an end-to-end marketplace solution that addresses a lot of the inefficiencies currently faced by producers and buyers,” Medlock said.
“Path to Plate’s mission is to make local food more accessible by enabling any producers, of any size, to sell directly to any market in the state. It’s creating simple solutions for complex problems to make purchasing local food as easy as it is to purchase from anywhere else,” Medlock said. “It’s creating the intuitive technology that removes the inefficiencies and barriers from the equation so that producers and buyers can interact just the way they would dealing with Sysco or with U.S. Foods or Shamrock, and really trying to find the most efficient path possible from point A to B.”
The subscription-based platform is available to producers for $29 a month and buyers for $49 a month. Real-Time Solutions, a software development company based in Albuquerque, developed the platform.
Path to Plate includes robust features and tools such as real-time inventory management, advanced search filters, secure messaging portal, automated invoices, interactive user map, secure and direct payments, automated notifications and forward contact templates.
“In addition to that, there’s a really unique Forward Agreement Marketplace, which allows the producer and the buyer to find each other, negotiate, transact and secure an order, or multiple orders for a future point in time, allowing the producer and buyer to be proactive in their local food procurement and local food sales,” Medlock said.
“It allows both parties to plan in advance, enabling the producer to optimize their crop production schedule and have a guaranteed buyer for their products and allows buyers to navigate any sort of procurement orders with their traditional food distributors,” he added.
According to the New Mexico Regional Farm to Food Bank, for every dollar spent on local food in New Mexico, there is a local economic multiplier effect of $1.70.
Path to Plate received funding from a 2023 Specialty Crop Block Grant through the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.
Medlock has worked closely with NMDA and the New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association so that Path to Plate has integrations with the New Mexico Grown Approved Supplier Program, which is a New Mexico state recognized food safety program that allows local producers to sell to institutional buyers. Path to Plate has built in food safety checkpoints including backend food safety database integration. The New Mexico Grown Approved Supplier Program currently has 277 participating farmers and ranchers, who serve more than 160 schools, senior centers, preschools and daycares.
“The ultimate mission with Path to Plate is to allow producers of any size to become more profitable and increase access to reliable markets, while enabling buyers to easily purchase better quality food without having to go through more work,” Medlock said.
To join the Path to Plate prelaunch waitlist, visit https://www.pathtoplate-waitlist.com/, and those who sign up will get their first month for free. When the website launches, visit pathtoplatenm.com to learn more.