Fellow farmer, for the past three years I’ve been sharing my thoughts and ideas on farming with you in this blog series funded by a grant from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. I’ve enjoyed walking with you on this journey.
As the grant comes to an end, I’d like to sign off with some lessons I’ve learned as I enter my 20th year of farming.
Advertise with CCOF and access your target audience. But hurry, space goes quickly! From full-color publications to targeted online media, CCOF's resources appeal to all parts of the organic sector, from producers to suppliers to consumers. Our publications serve as long-trusted sources of information on organic farming and food production.
The CCOF Foundation is trying out something new. After the broadcast of our Sustainable Produce Packaging for Farms that Sell Directly to Consumers webinar on October 20, we will offer a limited number of 20-minute private marketing consultations via Zoom with our webinar partner and farm marketing consultant, Jamie Collins of Serendipity Farms.
With many people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we increasingly display the backdrop of our lives during business meetings on Zoom. No matter how we try to put our best faces forward, it is inevitable that your home life will now slip into your work, like your kid coming over to discuss their bodily functions while you are in the middle of an important meeting. Whether we try to hide it or not, life is messy! Everyone can relate as we adapt to our new COVID-19 reality.
If there has been anything I have learned from experiencing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic these past few months, it is how amazing my farming community has been in rising up to meet the needs of their community and supporting each other. We make up truly important, interconnected food webs within the local food shed. We may grow different crops, but we all have a strong work ethic and the desire to feed people local food. I believe it is crucial that we see our farmer peers not as competition, but as collaborators working towards the same goal. There is plenty to go around.
We changed the date of our Innovative Direct Marketing Webinar for farmers. The new date for the webinar broadcast is May 26, 2020.
Innovative direct marketing can keep your farm business viable in fast changing times. Join Jamie Collins of Serendipity Farms on for a webinar on tools to increase your farm’s customer base and your revenue.
Farmers are currently facing unprecedented challenges as supply chains quickly and radically change. Our local food systems can be strengthened by building consumer awareness of local farms using sustainable growing practices.
Join the CCOF Foundation and Hannah Muller from Full Belly Farm on May 19 for a webinar that delves into social media marketing for farms selling directly to consumers.
Use social media platforms to grow your business! This webinar will review key considerations for developing a social media plan, such as how and what to post to target specific audiences, how to create hashtags that help increase your outreach, and how to turn followers into consumers.
As part of USDA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) plans to spend $3 billion for vendors to purchase, package, and deliver boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, and meat to non-profit distribution centers such as food banks, schools, churches, and community groups.
The CCOF Foundation’s Farmers’ Marketing: Tools for Success project is aimed at helping growers who sell at farmers’ markets finetune their marketing to increase sales and revenue. The project offers both on-line and in-person workshops for farmers and resources on organic for farmers’ market managers.