Running a CSA can be a long journey throughout the season, requiring one to stay on top of many weekly tasks and decisions. Some are more important to think about than others. Here is a list of what the Purdue Student Farm sees as some of the most essential tasks in the decision-making process and[Read More…]
Marketing
USDA is implementing updates to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) for producers of agricultural commodities marketed in 2020 who faced market disruptions due to COVID-19. This is part of a larger effort to reach a greater share of farming operations and improve USDA pandemic assistance. The CFAP 2 signup period has reopened as part[Read More…]
A list of articles and publications are available at the Purdue Horticulture Business website. Articles range from weekly reports about prices of fruits and vegetables sold at farmers markets, the economic feasibility of plant growth regulators, the importance of relationships in the organic certified markets, and how to strategize your social media marketing. To access[Read More…]
Hoosier Food Market, an online sales platform where farmers can sell directly to consumers with no overhead costs. COVID-19 has changed the way we do a lot of things. Purdue Agriculture recognized that many farmers markets may not be operating at the same capacity, and restaurants may not be purchasing the same amount of product[Read More…]
Would you buy something if you didn’t understand how it worked or what to do with it? Likely not… Imagine a customer of yours who doesn’t know how to select, prepare or store the fresh healthful produce that you are growing and offering for sale. How likely is it that they will buy that product? Or buy it twice?[Read More…]
The VAPG program helps agricultural producers enter into value added activities related to the processing and marketing of bio-based, value-added products. Independent producers, agricultural producer groups, farmer- or rancher-cooperatives and majority-controlled producer-based business ventures are eligible to apply for the program. Beginning farmer or rancher, a small or medium-sized farm or ranch structured as family[Read More…]
Recently the USDA announced the addition of a new third-party auditing service that will be available through the Ag Marketing Service (AMS). The service, called “GroupGAP”, will be available in the spring of 2016. The expansion of the service follows multi-year piloting and testing of the program. Under the GroupGAP program, independent farms may organize[Read More…]
Consumers have many choices in today’s marketplace. Whether they are shopping in the your farm market, roadside stand, community farmers’ market or the local grocery store it makes no difference…busy shoppers can choose to buy fresh fruits and vegetables or any number of frozen or otherwise preprocessed (value added) foods. FoodLink, a FREE tool developed[Read More…]
If you grow kale you may be interested in the ‘You Heart Kale’ effort promoted by Indiana’s Farm to School program for this year’s Food Day. The “Kale Toolkit” provided by the Indiana Dept. of Education encourages schools to buy kale from local farmers, plant kale in the school garden, let students taste-test kale recipes,[Read More…]
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s (ISDA) Indiana Grown Program is an all-inclusive collaborative initiative to promote Indiana produced agricultural products to Indiana residents, restaurants, grocery stores, farmer’s markets, wholesalers, processors and other retail businesses. In addition, through the Indiana Grown program, the ISDA is establishing a marketing strategy to promote Indiana agriculture nationally as well[Read More…]