Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Crop Production: cover crops, organic fertilizers
- Farm Business Management: new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, marketing management, agricultural finance, value added
- Pest Management: integrated pest management
- Soil Management: green manures
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities
Proposal abstract:
Marin Farmers Market Association and several producer partners secured their Professional + Producer grant to develop and pilot a local farmers market distribution program called Farm Direct. The goal is to increase revenue for participating sustainable farmers by as much as $700,000 in the first year, with farm fresh products being purchased directly from farmers markets by local hospitals, school and restaurants. The idea is that the farmers will be able to add boxes of their produce to trucks bound for the farmers market. The boxes, in turn, will be loaded onto a single truck that will deliver to these local business and institutional customers, allowing farmers to deliver a diversity of products to multiple customers at little additional cost. The four components of this pilot program are to research distribution systems, develop easy-to-use ordering and delivery systems, train producers and conduct educational outreach to producers and customers.