Connecting farmers and community to grow year-round sales of local agriculture products

2008 Annual Report for CNE08-041

Project Type: Sustainable Community Innovation
Funds awarded in 2008: $9,968.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2009
Region: Northeast
State: Massachusetts
Project Leader:
Kelly Coleman
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture

Connecting farmers and community to grow year-round sales of local agriculture products

Summary

According to market research CISA performed in 2006, 82% of residents in Hampshire and Franklin Counties in MA recognize the Be a Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown ® brand. More importantly, people who recognize the brand are at least twice as likely to buy local food every week and they shop at farmers’ markets or farmstands twice as often! In the summer, this results in a lot of local sales for local farmers, but in the late fall, winter, and early spring direct farm sales to consumers drop off, even though our farmers could supply some products year-round and consumers are asking for more local products.

Consumer interest in buying local agriculture products and local food is growing, as we see with the localvore movement and the high profile of Barbara Kingsolver’s recent book Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. We frequently get phone calls from individuals trying to find local winter products for use in institutional cafeterias, restaurants, Thanksgiving meals, and day-to-day cooking. These community members need assistance in learning what is available in the long winter months and where they can find available agriculture products. At the same time farmers need assistance in understanding the market potential of winter products and they need help reaching out to consumers.

This project will pilot a new public education and engagement initiative which will extend the market for local farm products by encouraging western Massachusetts residents to buy and eat locally year-round. We will do this by developing outreach directly for consumers that highlight winter agriculture products and by working directly with farmers to assist them in assessing winter demand and marketing their product. Our work with farmers will build on a successful e-business workshop series we ran last spring. A large portion of the outreach to consumers will be through innovative web-based tools, such as emails, an updated searchable on-line Farm Products guide, creation of and links to farm WebPages, and more.

These activities will strengthen our local communities’ ability to make enduring connections with local farms and will encourage consumers to think of local agriculture year-round.

Objectives/Performance Targets

  • Creation of an advisory committee for the project.Development of outreach/e-marketing tip-sheets for farmers.

    Development of a community oriented informational pamphlet (print and web-based) on eating local.

    Email newsletters to consumers and farmers providing tips and suggestions on finding local agriculture products in the winter/marketing local agriculture products, respectively.

    Assessment of long-term barriers to further expanding winter agriculture sales (such as market demand, grower capacity, storage facilities or technological challenges.)

Accomplishments/Milestones

Accomplishments to date
  • CISA has two advisory groups working with us on this project: a website/communications/marketing committee and a farmer committee. These committees advise program staff and provide overall direction.Due to the funding delay, we are still developing out outreach/e-marketing tip-sheets for farmers. These will cover topics relevant to winter product sales and where possible, will share success stories of local farms.

    CISA developed community-oriented outreach on eating year-round and has published it in our 2008 Farm Products Guide and will be putting that information on our updated website when that launches in spring 2009.

    To date CISA has sent out five staff-written articles on eating local year-round including articles on storing winter crops, preserving food, and winter markets. CISA will be writing articles for farmers in the coming months to coincide with the tip sheets.

    CISA will be surveying farmers in the coming month about their barriers to increasing winter sales and will survey retailers and institutions in spring of 2009. This information will help us develop an assessment of the barriers to increasing winter sales of local food.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Impacts and Contributions

As a result of CISA's leadership in supporting year-round sales of local agriculture and in helping farmers develop the technical and marketing skills to expand their businesses, five farmers have approached us with an interest in advising and collaborating on this project. Over the course of this grant period we will continue to reach out to farmers with resources and success stories.

CISA's enews goes to over 2000 people and is an important tool for reaching out to encourage consumers to look for local food year round. Our articles on eating local year-round have been well-received and one article, indirectly, lead to a mention in the New York Times.