Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council Member Gale A. Brewer's opening remarks on NYC's food infrastructure hearing
0:00:53
·
4 min
Council Member Gale A. Brewer, chair of the Committee on Oversight and Investigation, delivers opening remarks for a joint hearing examining New York City's food infrastructure and its impact on produce quality and cost. She highlights the challenges of rising food prices, the city's unique density affecting food distribution, and the need to improve food access and affordability.
- Brewer emphasizes the importance of modernizing food distribution infrastructure, particularly at Hunts Point Market.
- She discusses the struggle to establish modern supermarkets in many parts of the city and the reliance on small corner groceries.
- The council member expresses interest in exploring solutions such as renovating Hunts Point and incentivizing larger supermarkets in underserved communities.
Gale A. Brewer
0:00:53
Sorry.
0:00:54
I'm Gail Brewer.
0:00:55
I am chair of the committee on oversight and investigation.
0:00:58
This committee is, obviously this here is committee on oversight and investigation, but it's also economic development.
0:01:06
Thank you for joining us.
0:01:07
We will be examining the city's food infrastructure and its effect on the quality and cost of produce we consume.
0:01:16
I would really, really, really like to thank majority leader Amanda Farias, chair of the committee on economic development for co chairing this hearing and for going with me.
0:01:26
I learned from her at Hunts Point.
0:01:28
I'd also like to thank the representatives from the administration, the public, and my council colleague who will join us later today.
0:01:36
In our country and city's ongoing cost of living crisis, the rise of food prices has hit many New Yorkers very hard.
0:01:44
No question that food prices soared after the COVID nineteen pandemic and years of supply chain disruptions that followed.
0:01:51
But even before 2020, our city had long struggled to supply its community with fresh food at the same price and the quality of even nearby suburbs.
0:02:03
Our density is unique for America and the source of many of our greatest strengths, it also makes life hard for food distributors who overwhelmingly rely on trucks that cannot easily navigate our tight street network despite efforts to use rail and water.
0:02:21
The specialized infrastructure we've developed to get food in in and out of our dense metropolis, mostly at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx, is somewhat obsolete, too small, and inefficient to accommodate New Yorkers' nutritional needs.
0:02:37
Trucks idle for hours outside Hunts Point waiting to unload goods, spewing exhaust into the neighborhoods, wasting workers' time, and increasing costs, all while produce loses its freshness before it can be delivered to grocery stores.
0:02:52
Although when you're there, you see the amazing hard work of the companies and the workers to make sure that it is fresh.
0:02:59
They really go to the nth degree.
0:03:02
The same time, modern supermarkets and food distribution systems have struggled to establish themselves in many parts of the city with many local change such as Pathmark closing over the past several decades.
0:03:15
I know they certainly did on A Hundred And 20 Fifth Street.
0:03:18
Research shows that as the size of urban food retailers increases, so does the quality and affordability of produce.
0:03:27
Yet New York is overwhelmingly rely on small corner corner groceries with limited fresh food options.
0:03:34
Although I'll speak for myself, I like the small options in terms of the delis, the bodegas, and even the smaller supermarkets, but I know they're not as as inexpensive as the largest suburban ones, which I do not like going to.
0:03:50
Today, we are talking to the mayor's office of food policy and the economic development corporation to get a better understanding at what can be done to improve New York City's food distribution system and improve the quality and affordability of fresh food.
0:04:05
Certainly, learned a whole lot at Hunt's Point, although I know that my colleague already knows all that.
0:04:11
We wanna talk about recent developments in the ongoing effort to renovate expand Hunts Point as well as the state of tax and zoning incentive programs to draw larger supermarkets into underserved communities and that's that's not even easy even with the fresh program.
0:04:28
We wanna hear what steps the city can take to beat our reputation for overpriced produce which plagues food markets everywhere.
0:04:36
I'd like to thank the following council staff who worked incredibly hard.
0:04:40
From the o and I committee, Nicole Kata, Erica Cohen, Alex Yoblon, and Owen Kotowski.
0:04:47
From the division staff at O and I, Meg Powers, Uzair Kwitar, Brian Parkhan, and Amisa Ratliff.
0:04:55
And on my staff, Schuler Pooter and Sam Goldsmith.
0:04:59
Everyone has been, helpful.
0:05:02
And I also want to let you know that we've been joined by council member Banks.
0:05:06
I will now turn it over to the
Amanda Farías
0:05:08
awesome co majority leader, Amanda Farias.