Marketing in the New Normalcy |
Friday Schedule |
|
The challenges of 2020 have forced change and innovation in marketing local food. The Business Track this year will take a closer look how different vendors, farmer’s markets and online service providers have adapted their approaches, what has worked and which of those changes we may see continuing into next year.
|
Morning
9:00 - 9:40 AM Session 1 9:45 -10:30 AM Session 2 10:45 -11:25 PM Session 3 11:30 - 12:15 PM Session 4 |
Lunch
12:15-1:00 PM Afternoon 1:00-2:30 Keynote 2:45-3:30 PM Grower Association Meetings |
|
9:00 - 9:40 am
New Tools for Evaluating Your Marketing Channels | Recording We will look at how to evaluate different market channels for specialty crops, based on research conducted at Colorado State University. In particular, we will talk about the role of labor in marketing functions and how labor utilization impacts profitability. Lastly, we will look at how COVID-19 may have changed marketing, perhaps in the long term. Martha Sullins, Colorado State University 1311 South College Ave, Campus Delivery 4040 Fort Collins, CO 80523 [email protected] (970) 491-3330 |
Martha Sullins is an Ag Business Management Specialist with Colorado State University Extension, where her areas of emphasis in applied research and outreach include smaller-scale and specialty livestock and crop production businesses, agritourism, local foods, farm transition, on-farm food safety and risk management. She develops and teaches small business management classes, evaluates classroom and field-based educational programs targeted at beginning farmers and ranchers, and develops tools for ag and food producers navigating food safety and business regulations, as well as those starting value-added agricultural enterprises.
|
|
9:45 - 10:30 am
Adaptations at Farmers Market - Producers Panel with T.D. Hollub, Rachel Lynch, Miranda Duschack and Gary Fehr | Recording T.D. will be speaking on changes his farm made in their marketing strategy since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Mainly, their new way of marketing things on-farm, increased community supported agriculture (CSA) capacity and increasing wholesale in some sectors of the food chain. T. D. Hollub, Garden Oasis Farm 3262 York Avenue Coggon, IA 52218 [email protected] (319) 558-6481 www.gofarmveggies.com |
T.D. runs a 10 acre diversified vegetable farm in Coggon, a small community in Eastern Iowa. Garden Oasis Farm was started in 2013 as an very small business venture and has grown each year since our start. Currently our 35+ vegetable types are offered through our 120 member CSA, wholesale and on-farm sales (new for 2020).
|
|
Rachel will be covering the timeline of COVID-19 response at Webb City Farmers Market.
Rachel Lynch, Webb City Farmers' Market, Webb, City, MO PO Box 1 Webb City, MO 64870 [email protected] (417) 438-5833 webbcityfarmersmarket.com |
Rachael is the market manager at Webb City Farmers Market. Born in Missouri, she’s always been a city kid with an intense calling from the wild countryside. During many years as a social worker, Rachael developed an interest in the benefits of proper nutrition coming from fresh foods. She spent years working in a shop specializing in holistic healing. Now, as the manager of a farmers’ market, she works for the betterment of local farms at heart believing that the future of a healthy community begins with the food it consumes.
|
|
Miranda will present the ways in which her business's marketing strategy successfully pivoted in the COVID-19 pandemic to make sales in a socially distanced manner, including introduction of the "Petals On the Porch" program.
Miranda Duschack, Urban Buds: City Grown Flowers 4736 Tennessee Avenue St. Louis, MO 63111 [email protected] (314) 604-3403 www.urbanbudscitygrownflowers.com |
Miranda Duschack is co-owner of Urban Buds: City Grown Flowers, a commercial family farm located in St Louis City. Founded in 2012, Urban Buds grows specialty cut flowers for sale direct to customers at Tower Grove Farmers' Market, through the website, designed for weddings and events, and wholesale to florists. Miranda also serves as Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Regional Small Farm Specialist in the St Louis area and is a member of the MO SARE Advisory Board.
|
|
Gary Fehr
3740 Everett Street Lincoln, NE 68506 [email protected] (402) 570-4382 https://www.greenschoolfarms.com/ |
Green School Farms is a small, diversified vegetable farm located near Lincoln, Nebraska. We are committed to the philosophies of organic, sustainable, and regenerative farming practices. Like many small farms we employ a variety of techniques in this space such as no-till or low-till, cover crops, crop rotation, integrated pest management, water conservation, soil-building, and many others. Ultimately we believe that the health of our soil, our bodies, our communities, and our environment are inextricably linked. So it is our humble mission to lead by example as well as continually learn from others as we seek to improve our little corner of the world.
|
|
10:45 - 11:25 am
COVID Adaptations for Local Products: Building Better Beyond | Recording Covid has disrupted local markets in many ways. Observations from a national market study on local food system impacts will be shared with special emphasis on farm strategies for 2021. Challenges and opportunities are emerging for both direct and intermediated markets for local growers. Tim Woods, University of Kentucky 808 Willow Oak Circle Lexington, KY 40514 [email protected] (859) 559-1845 www.uky.edu/CCD |
Dr. Woods is a Professor of Agricultural Economics and state extension specialist in the area of horticulture, agribusiness marketing, and management at the University of Kentucky. He has devoted his time and energy to help facilitate the development of small ag-related businesses and cooperatives that have promising innovative processes and/or products. He served as the staff economist to the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Ag Policy and Ag Development Board. His work has been presented at numerous international workshops, professional meetings, and state and regional extension programs.
|
|
11:30 - 12:15 pm
Online/Delivery Adaptations - Producer Panel | Recording Karin will discuss details about how her farm transitioned sales in 2020 during the pandemic to include online sales and home delivery. Will also talk about what aspects of these adaptations she will keep going forward and which ones will be modified or discontinued. Karin Velez, Wolf Creek Family Farm 23901 S. Cowger Road Peculiar, MO 64078 [email protected] (816) 738-4076 |
Karin Velez is a U.S. Marine-turned-farmer and local food proponent. She and her husband Arcenio, also a Marine, began farming in 2007 with a small CSA and two farmers markets. Wolf Creek Family Farm focuses on sustainably grown produce and is home to 100+ laying hens and 70+ pigs, all raised on pasture. The CSA program and farmers market sales have grown substantially over the past 13 years and the farm and its farmers continue to roll with the tide of changes in the local food landscape. Karin went back to school in 2016 to complete her bachelor's degree in horticulture from Oregon State University. She is a frequent speaker on topics related to small farming, gardening, and local foods.
|
|
Like all farmers out there COVID really changed our business. We will discuss what adaptions we had to make and the constant scramble to make sure customers safety (as well as ours) was at the forefront of our minds. In addition we will talk about the systems we used to make our job of adapting a little more efficient.
Katie Nixon, Green Gate Family Farm 15197 Highway B Wheatland, MO 65779 [email protected] (816) 809-5074 greengatefamilyfarm.com |
Katie Nixon is a farmer and local food systems champion who has been working with and for other food producers for over 12 years in the KC region. Along with her husband, Ken Barber, Katie co-operates Green Gate Family Farm, a certified Organic diversified market farm where they produce bedding plants, fruits, vegetables, eggs and flowers. Katie is a founding member of the KC Food Hub, a farmer-owned and farmer-run cooperative. For West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, Katie serves as the Food Systems Director, working to improve the region's food system. Katie also Chairs the North Central SARE Advisory Committee and in 2021, she will be a Zhi-Xing Agriculture Eisenhower Fellow.
|
|
In March of 2020, during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott co-launched Sunflower Provisions, an online local grocery marketplace for quality produce, proteins, and provisions to help deliver food to their local community and beyond. Scott and his operation have also participated in the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
Scott Thellman, Juniper Hill Farms 1547 N. 2000 Road Lawrence, KS 66044 [email protected] (785) 840-4892 www.jhf-ks.com www.sunflowerprovisions.com |
Scott Thellman is first generation farmer and owner of Juniper Hill Farms, LLC, a diversified farm producing hay, alfalfa, small grains, and organic vegetables located in Douglas County, Kansas. He has a passion for organic and sustainable agricultural production, post-harvest handling, food systems, and the economics of growing.
|