Organizing Local Food Systems
Promote Local CSA's-Community Supported Agriculture
- Pre-paid subscriptions provide grower with preferred clientele, details for planning, finance source
- Fresh, in-season produce, grown to specifications, available to local families
- Children learn from and are motivated by "on-farm" educational experiences
- Consumers gain real awareness of the challenges facing food producers
Upgrade Community Markets
- Involvement of both growers and economic development/tourism staff on advisory team
- Enhanced facilities, hours, and services plus host community events
- Incentives for more growers offering a greater variety of fresh produce
- Promotion of community market through variety of local media outlets
Improve Regional Wholesale Facilities
- Effective outlet for extra or expanded fresh production
- Consolidation site for truckload shipments to major distributors
- Opportunity for consistent grading, packing and cooling
- Location for processing facilities or value-added product sales
Sponsor Certified Community Kitchen
- Site for developing recipes and processes for new food products
- Convenient facilities for beginning caterers and bakers
- Location for dinners or festivals promoting local products
- Classroom for both youth and adult education programs
Combine Teen Scholarships with Mentoring and Foodbank Programs
- Grants can be sought for summer garden production scholarships
- Teens paired with master gardeners learn skills and gain practical experience
- Teens involved in delivering fresh produce to elderly and needy in community
- Program can include processing of excess produce for local food bank
Facilitate Institutional Marketing
- Schools, hospitals, military facilities, factories can provide a significant local market
- Local competition is limited by the complex service needs of institutions
- Growers rewarded for skills in market development, customized service and public relations
Assist LOVAs-Locally-owned, Value-added Processing
- Additional market for local farm products
- Convenient and accommodating jobs for local labor
- Leadership development within the community
- Business profit retained within the community
Selected Resources
Sharing the Harvest: A Guide to Community-Supported Agriculture, by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En. Lays out the basic tenets of CSA's for farmers and consumers. Cost $24.95. Chelsea Green Publishing, 800-639-4099; www.chelseagreen.com.
Establishing and Operating a Community Farmers' Market, by Forrest Stegelin. Publication designed to help community leaders, policy makers, consumers, and marketers establish and manage a successful market. Univ. of KY, College of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension. Available online: www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/aec/aec77/aec77.htm.
A Guide to Developing a Community Farmers' Market, by Farmers' Market Federation of New York, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and NYS Dept. of Ag & Markets. Cost $7.50. Contact Diane Eggert at diane99@dreamscape.com.
The New Farmers' Market: by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig, and Eric Gibson. Ideas for beginning and existing farmers' markets. Cost $24.95. New World Publishing, Auburn, CA. Credit card orders call: 888-281-5170, other orders call 530-823-3886, or email to: ericgib@earthlink.net.
Small Farmer Success Story. Four bulletins about North Florida Cooperative's experience selling to local schools. Bulletins 1-4, July 1999; available at: www.ams.usda.gov/tmd/tmd/
Sustainable Vegetable Production From Start-up to Market, by Vernon P. Grubinger. . Guide to beginning a vegetable enterprise. Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Engineering Service (NRAES), 607-255-7654 or nraes@cornell.edu. Cost $42.
Adding Value for Sustainability. A guidebook for producers, processors and community leaders interested in adding value to farm products. Cost $11.50. Contact Farming Alternatives Program, Cornell University, 607-255-9832.
Making it on the Farm: Increasing Sustainability Through Value-added Processing and Marketing, by Southern SAWG. Includes interviews with Southern farmers and ranchers who are adding value to their products, describes some of their practices and includes a list of resources. Cost $12. Contact 501-292-3714.
Starting a Food Processing Business. Examines business and food safety considerations in food processing. Cost $40 which includes updates for 5 years. Contact Cooperative Extension Service, Business Office, P.O. Box 391, Little Rock, AR,72203.
Direct Farm Marketing and Tourism Handbook, by the Arizona Department
of Agriculture. Comprehensive overview of direct marketing options. http://ag.arizona.edu/lc/pubs/dmkt/dmkt.html.
