The Northeast currently sources only 5% of its food from local farms, yet New England and New York sit on millions of acres of fallow prime farmland (abundantly fertile after decades of underutilization) with unparalleled access to clean water. As consumers increasingly demand better quality foods, and have become more connected to local production, the Northeast is poised to return to profitable farming. Establishing economies of scale through supply of meat to a market gasping for more consistency and volume of high-quality local foods can create a breadth of profitable farms built on diversified crop outputs suitable to the Northeast climate. The results = cash-flow, risk mitigation and increased enterprise valuation. – by Aaron Niederhelman