Economics of local food systems: a toolkit to guide community discussions, assessments and choices, The

As consumers across the Nation express a growing interest in a closer connection to their food producers—whether through access to more localized markets and/or shorter supply chains— cities and regions have begun to regard the expansion of local food marketing activities as a critical component of their economic development strategies. Rising demand for locally produced, source-identified, and differentiated food products has generated a plethora of new and spinoff businesses in many communities, which aim to increase the range of and accessibility to local food items for both retail and wholesale customers. In turn, this emergence of local food businesses has sparked a groundswell of financial support and interest from private foundations and public agencies on the assumption that the development of local food systems contributes to positive economic outcomes, especially with respect to local economic development and improved farm viability. Unfortunately, given the nascent nature of local food demand growth and the scarcity of available data, relatively few of these efforts have been guided by rigorous assessments. In response, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has formed new initiatives and programs to develop new markets and support existing markets so that producers and their communities may leverage these new opportunities. Specifically, the USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has managed the Farmers Market Promotion Program (now expanded to the Local Foods Promotion Program), with great expectations of positive outcomes, but no standardized approach on how to evaluate market and economic outcomes. As a result, a team of regional economists and food system specialists were assembled through a project hosted by Colorado State University (CSU) to develop a Toolkit comprised of food system assessment principles and economic indicators a community may expect to share. Given the real-world projects, experiences, and applied research of the CSU-led team, the Toolkit is grounded in practices that are credible and useable within the economic development discussions guiding communities. The goal of this Toolkit is to guide and enhance the capacity of local organizations to make more deliberate and credible measurements of local and regional economic activity and other ancillary benefits

Why Local Food Matters: Views from the National Landscape

Table of Contents: What do we mean by local food? -- Relationship of local food to U.S. food system (Importance of local food demand, Growth of local food marketing outlets, Demand drivers and trends) -- What does the future of local food look like? (Is there room for further growth?) -- How do AMS programs facilitate market access for local food

National Farmers Market Summit Proceedings Report

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), in partnership with the Farmers Market Consortium, hosted the National Farmers Market Summit November 7–9, 2007, in Baltimore, MD. The Summit assembled key stakeholders from the farmers market community to convene a national conversation on issues and challenges facing today’s farmers markets. The National Farmers Market Summit had three broad objectives: (1) Identify farmers market needs and existing gaps in assistance, (2) Prioritize future research and technical assistance initiatives, and (3) Provide guidance to policymakers on how best to allocate available resources. The Summit was attended by 75 participants who represented a diverse range of farmers market stakeholders, including national resource providers, farmers market representatives, and community partners. Invitations were sent to farmers market stakeholders with diverse interests, expertise, and geographic location. Participants included representatives from 31 States and the District of Columbia. The Summit also included 12 staff members of AMS’s Marketing Services Division (MSD), the lead organizer of the Summit, and Dr. Kenneth C. Clayton, the Associate Administrator of AMS and chair of the Farmers Market Consortium. Using the brainstorming and consensus priority exercises, participants at the National Farmers Market Summit identified 12 key issues that they believe deserve attention from policymakers, funders, and other market assistance providers. These included: “Growing” Farmers, Policy/Regulation, Professional Development, Partnerships, Message Related to Farmers Market Promotion, Research, Funding/Resources, Farmers Markets as Center of Community, Public Health, Low Income Access, Local Food Systems, and Economic Sustainability. To explore possible approaches and solutions for addressing each consensus priority, Summit attendees were invited to engage in one of 12 issue-specific discussions, based on their level of interest in the given discussion topic. Although each of the 12 key issues has a distinctive scope and set of associated characteristics, they primarily fall into the following three broadly defined categories of activity: (1) Policy and Advocacy-based Initiatives; (2) Education and Training Initiatives; and (3) Community-based Initiatives. Policy and advocacy-based initiatives aimed at championing the importance of farmers markets and facilitating their continued growth. As defined by Summit participants, specific priorities to be addressed within the framework of policy-based initiatives included: Policy/Regulatory Barriers, Message Related to Farmers Market Promotion, and Funding/Resources. One of the common themes that surfaced repeatedly during discussions of all three priority issues related to policy and advocacy was the notion of creating a single national trade organization for farmers market stakeholders (perhaps similar to the newly reorganized Farmers Market Coalition) to speak with a unified voice to policymakers and be a centralized point of contact for disseminating information about available funding and technical assistance to community members. Other strategies that appeared to share wide support were the development of a professional training curriculum aimed at enhancing and creating greater consistency in the expertise and knowledge base of farmers market managers (a theme that also emerged repeatedly during the “education and training” related priority discussions), and the development of a national farmers market promotional campaign aimed at informing policymakers and the public about the economic, community, and health benefits of farmers markets. All three discussions touched on the difficulty of preserving some degree of local autonomy while centralizing authority. Education and training initiatives, especially those targeted at enhancing the technical skills of farmers-market practitioners. As defined by Summit participants, specific priorities to be addressed include: “Growing” Farmers, Professional Development, Economic Sustainability, and Research, One common theme that surfaced repeatedly throughout each of the priority discussions related to education and training was the importance of establishing a minimum standard of technical experience in business planning and marketing for farmers market participants, whether through the development of a formal curriculum or the provision of other relevant continuing educational opportunities. The ability to properly gauge production costs and prices, and gain ongoing exposure to such rapidly changing issues as emerging consumer trends, new product varieties, and improved season extension techniques, were seen as essential tools in enhancing the profitability and long-term economic viability of farmers market vendors and suppliers. With respect to farmers market managers and members of market boards/management organizations, who often serve as a market’s primary point of contact with community members and policymakers, it was recommended that workshops or courses be developed that help such individuals learn how to: (1) Develop effective community partnerships (especially by examining the lessons learned from successful partnership models); (2) Augment the reach and impact of existing partnerships by exploring the possibility of relationships with nontraditional organizations; (3) Locate available resources from Federal, State, and local sources; and (4) Train market managers and other advocates on how to best capture, document, and report information that measures a market’s impact on the local economy/community. Community-based initiatives aimed at establishing farmers markets as vital cornerstones of their community’s quality of life. As defined by Summit participants, priorities included: Partnerships, Farmers Markets as Center of the Community, Public Health, Low-Income Access, and Local Food Systems. Probably the most common conversational thread that appeared in all of these independent discussions was the emphasis given to the importance of establishing innovative—and possibly untraditional—partnerships in order to achieve desired community goals. Lack of public awareness about the opportunities and benefits offered by farmers markets was a pervasive complaint throughout many of the discussions, whether the members of the public in question involved household consumers, local farmers, elected officials, or Federal policymakers, and improvement in outreach to potential allies was considered essential to obtain the level of attention necessary to change consumer behavior and/or public policy. Discussion participants also expressed the general opinion that current levels of communication and collaboration with relevant farmers market stakeholders was less than optimal and could easily be improved if greater attention were paid to the issue. This phenomenon appeared to hold true whether or not such discussions were occurring at a local, regional, or national level, suggesting that geographical proximity alone did not ensure that proper lines of communication were established and maintained

National Farmers Market Summit Proceedings Report

This item was a duplicate and was withdrawn. Full record and item are available at http://purl.umn.edu/14826

USDA National Farmers Market Manager Survey, 2006

Seasonal farmers markets remain the predominant market type in the United States. Approximately 88 percent of respondents reported they operated seasonal markets, open, on average, 4.5 months per year. As might be expected, seasonal markets that were open for 6 or fewer months per year attracted fewer vendors and generated less revenue than farmers markets open 7 months or more. Markets open 6 months or less reported an average of 25 vendors, with sales of $20,770 per month, and serving 565 customers weekly. Markets open 7 months or more reported an average of 51 vendors, with$57,290 in monthly market sales and serving 942 customers weekly. Year-round markets reported more than three times the sales of markets operating 6 months or less, had more than twice the number of vendors, and slightly more than six times the number of weekly customers. On the other hand, seasonal farmers markets that operated for 7 or more months performed similarly to markets that were open 12 months per year. Year-round markets reported an average of 58 vendors, had monthly market sales of $69,497, and served 3,578 customers weekly. Location appears to be a critical factor in market performance. Most market managers reporting high monthly sales were in densely populated urban areas. The most successful farmers markets in terms of sales were located on the coasts. The Far West and Mid-Atlantic regions reported average monthly sales of at least twice that of other regions—$56,742 and $41,452 respectively. The sales of the remaining regions clustered around$23,000 a month. The number of customers per week, as reported by region, somewhat mirrored monthly sales per market regionally. The Far West and Mid-Atlantic regions were again the top two regions, reporting 1,964 and 974 customers per week respectively. The North Central Region was a close third, reporting 856 customers weekly, and the remaining regions around 700 customers per week. Markets that sold organic products reported larger numbers of weekly customers, larger number of vendors, and larger monthly market sales at their markets. Both seasonal and year-round markets that sold organic products performed better than markets that did not. Seasonal markets that sold organic products reported average monthly market sales of $34,715 and 854 customers per week. Seasonal markets that didn’t sell organic products reported$11,812 in monthly market sales and served 394 customers per week. Similar results were reported by year-round markets—those that sold organic products reported monthly market sales of $92,349 and 4,344 customers weekly; those that did not reported$41,584 and 2,590 customers. Seventy-one percent of markets that sold organic products were located in urban areas, compared with only 55 percent of markets that did not.4 These relationships held true for markets that sold organic products regionally, except for the Northeast region that reported markets without organic products were more often located in urban areas than markets that sold organic products. However, in spite of this one inconsistency, Northeast markets that sold organic products had more customers and vendors, and higher monthly market sales than markets in other regions across the Nation. Government programs had varying degrees of impact on vendor sales at farmers markets. The Women, Infants, and Children Farmers Market Nutrition Program (WIC FMNP) had the largest effect, showing average monthly sales of $1,744 nationwide and 61 percent participation. Senior Farmers Market Nutrition program (SFMNP) average sales were$1,004 per month and 45 percent of markets reported they accepted SFMNP vouchers. The average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) sales, which utilize electronic benefits transfer (EBT), were a distant third at $279 a month and only 7 percent of markets reported accepting EBT cards. Clearly the WIC FMNP had the greatest impact on vendor sales, both nationwide and regionally

How Local Farmers and School Food Service Buyers Are Building Alliances -- Lessons Learned from the USDA Small Farm/School Meals Workshop, May 1, 2000

Excerpt from the report Introduction: While the content of the report is focused on the collective experience of a handful of small farmers and school food service directors in Kentucky, North Carolina, the Florida Panhandle, and southern California, many of the experiences outlined here may well be adaptable to other regions of the country. In order to help interested small farmers and school food service directors launch their own successful marketing ventures, the rest of the report is devoted to addressing the following topics: • The importance and benefits of farm-to-school marketing; • Product preferences of the school food service buyer; • Factors that influence a school food service buyer’s choice of vendor; • Potential barriers to entry faced by the small producer; • Recommended approaches for breaking into the school food service market; and • Case studies of successful farm-to-school marketing initiatives

CSAs and the Battle for the Local Food Dollar

The Community Supported Agriculture marketing model has evolved from its early roots, adapting to both increases in local food demand and consumer market engagement as well as to expanded competition for the local food dollar from a variety of other direct-to-consumer and intermediated sources. This paper explores the strategic positioning of CSAs in the changing food market and draws on descriptive summaries of observations from a recent survey of CSA managers to document specific trends in adaptations to the CSA business model. An application of the transaction versus alliance marketing framework is applied to local food distribution alternatives and opportunities for differentiation. CSA managers generally are aware of alternative channels for local food but primarily point to other CSAs and farm markets as the closest competition