Innovations in Agricultural Marketing

Beltsville, MD – Years ago, Indiana farmer Brian Churchill won a grant from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program to experiment with new pest management strategies on his 100 acres of sweet corn, melons, tomatoes and other produce. Scouting for pests, withholding routine spraying and building habitat for beneficial insects cut his insecticide use drastically. He decided to use that as a marketing hook by inviting chefs to an “expo” and opening a now-thriving farm stand.

“We drive the point home about using less chemicals all the time,” he said. “The customers keep coming back and bringing friends with them…Our farm has grown a lot since the grant.”

Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers, a 20-page bulletin recently revised by the Sustainable Agriculture Network, features innovative SARE-funded research in a range of marketing options, including additional resources for further information. Throughout, farmers and ranchers like Churchill share how farmers markets, CSA, tourism, direct-marketing, season extension, adding value, restaurants, and/or the Internet improved their bottom line.

Marketing Strategies is the latest of a series of publications that feature the most creative research funded by SARE.  Preview or download the entire publication at www.sare.org/publications/marketing.htm.

To order free print copies, visit www.sare.org/Webstore, call 301/504-5236 or email san_assoc@sare.org. Agricultural educators may place orders for print copies in quantity at no cost.

“Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers” was published by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. SARE is a program of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), USDA, and works with producers, researchers and educators to promote farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities.  SAN operates under a cooperative agreement between CSREES and the University of Vermont and the University of Maryland to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. For more information about SARE grant opportunities and other SAN resources, visit www.sare.org.

Right, Left, Red, Blue, Middle, Green – UNITE!

“Where are the Greenies?” said a friend who owns property and has been vocal about the intrusion of the heavy hand of government in Colorado land law.

The reinstatement of the “Death Tax” in Colorado will have negative implications for land owners who want to leave their land to their children.  If HR 3524 (Colorado House) does not get passed, the Death Tax will come back in 2011 with even sharper provisions.

Positions of various government representatives seem to favor land-owners, that is, until you look at their voting records.  Politics is in full force at all levels of government – this includes state and local representatives as well.

Aside from the bureaucracy that so many of us are sick and tired of, another more positive and productive statement must be made.  That is, this particular issue, could really unite some facets of ideologies.

For example, land owners want to protect their land (via not being taxed at their death).  By farmers and ranchers wanting to protect their land and NOT sell out to developers, this is in fact preserving the land/environment/eco-system which can be decimated by urban sprawl and unsustainable development.

Farmers and ranchers want to protect land and wildlife because it is important to them and their children.  Environmentalists, and “greenies” if you will, want to protect land and wildlife because it is important to them and their children.

In addition to this, hunters and fishers want to protect land and wildlife because it is important to their sport.  People that are so often shoved into the category of “tree huggers” want the same thing.

So where are we?  Where are the Americans here?  We want the same thing – let’s take a harder look at the bureaucracy and red tape that is in place to “help” the heavy hand of government and see how we may be able to eliminate some of the negative consequences that hurt ALL OF US.

Whether you are conservative or liberal on land issues – this is one area where we should be fighting together.  The death tax, and any taxes that make it impossible to preserve land, wildlife, and eco-systems should be eliminated – we will all benefit and protect the very environments that we call home.

- Tisha Casida

Food Rules By Michael Pollan: Rule #18 – Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.

Simple enough.  Find foods that have been prepared in local restaurants, or even better yet, by YOU!  Most processed foods are made in high-tech facilities with machinery and product flying around (watch “How It’s Made” sometime), and this is normally an indication that this food has been heavily processed.

Go to a local farmers’ market, join a CSA, support local producers, and try to eat foods that have been prepared by human beings versus machines.

Pollan, M. (2009). Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual. New York, NY: Penguin Books.