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Marketing Conference: Selling Produce from Small Scale Farms


  • Central State University Xenia campus 336 Progress Drive Xenia, OH 45385 United States (map)

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Central State University in partnership with Agraria's BFN presents "Selling Produce from Small Scale Farms", a marketing conference for small scale farmers. 

This conference discusses local and regional sales and food safety for small scale fruit and vegetable growers. Topics covered include:

  • how to organize and run a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

  • selling produce to local and independent grocery stores

  • connecting local farmers with buyers

  • selling fruits and vegetables at produce auctions

  • how to make online sales

  • preparing a harvest for sales

  • what are marketing co-ops and how can they help small scale farmers succeed in making sales

  • selling cooked food prepared in your home kitchen.

REIMBURSEMENT OPPORTUNITY for Minority Owned and Veteran Owned Farmers

To learn more on qualifications and to apply go to: https://www.centralstate.edu/academics/cse/agriculture/im/pdf/Building-Small-Farm-Viability.pdf


Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice's Sliding Scale relies on respect and truthfulness. Please be mindful that if you purchase a price at the lowest end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the higher ticket prices, you are limiting access to those who truly need the gift of financial flexibility.

25% Off Registration Cost - MCDSIC25

50% Off Registration Cost - MCDSIC50 

75% Off Registration Cost - MCDSIC75 

If additional financial assistance is needed, please contact pallen@agrariacenter.org


WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS FOR BOTH DAYS

In-person Session Topics (Day 1)

9:00 to 10:00 am    Direct Marketing at Farmers Market and CSA’s – Marc Amante and Michelle Wallace 

this discussion will provide information and examples of how a farmer or a group of farmers can start a Community Supported Agriculture  (CSA), how they can recruit customers, how to manage a CSA.

 

10:00-11:00 am  Independent Grocery Market Roundtable Discussion – 
T.J. Fan, owner of Far East Center, in Dayton and  Happy Asian Mart in Cincinnati

Destiny Broughton of  Asafo International  

This discussion is for farmers to interact with local independent grocers and obtain information about selling fruits and vegetables to these grocers. This session will be facilitated by Dr. Dasgupta and is going to take a question-answer format where farmers can bring questions about types of vegetables for sales, packaging, pricing, deliveries and payments, food safety certifications, insurance, etc.

 

11:00 am to 12:30 pm Marketing your produce online 
Gina Holland of Redbib and selling vegetables via social media with Richard Bryant

This discussion will cover how Redbib does their business by connecting farmers to buyers, the logistics of sales, and how farmers receive payment. The next half of this discussion will cover how farmers can use social media to advertise their products and get paid via online instruments such as Paypal.

 

1:30-2:30 pm  Produce/Food Action Roundtable Discussion – Jessica Dotson, Site Manager for  Chesterhill Produce Auction  

This discussion will cover topics related to selling via produce auctions.  This session will have an initial presentation followed by farmer questions. Relevant topics will be quantities of produce for sale, auction price determination process, produce quality, packaging, and the payment process for farmers.

 

2:30-3:30 pm  Marketing Co-ops –  Cherrelle Gardner, Program Director for Co-op Dayton  

This session will describe what marketing cooperatives are and how they can benefit farmers.  This will also cover to basics of how to organize a marketing cooperative, associated costs of operations, and how such cooperatives can expand small scale farmers ability to sell their products.

 

3:30 pm to 4:30 pm Infrastructure/Administration/Logistics for post-harvest handling of fruits and vegetables 

Dr. Robert Korir, Central State University Extension 

This discussion will cover post-harvest handling and food safety of fruits and vegetables including washing, storage, packaging, and transportation of fruits and vegetables from the farm to the market site.  Dr. Korir will describe food safety certifications that farmers can receive and how these certifications can improve their farming business.  This session will NOT cover actual certification trainings.

Online Session Topics (Day 2): 

Independent Grocery Market Case Study Data – Dr. Dasgupta

This session will present results of marketing studies conducted by Central State University to discover how small farms can sell fruits and vegetables to local independent grocery stores.  Farmer questions are welcome.

 

Selling home cooked foods for profit: Ohio’s cottage food regulations – Stacey Stangel

This session will describe Ohio’s cottage food laws that allows certain foods to be prepared in the home kitchen and sold for income.  Farmer questions are welcome.

BIOS OF PRESENTERS

Marc Amante

Regional Educator: Southwestern Ohio

Marc is one of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Educators for the Southwest region. His background is primarily in working on and operating small-scale, diversified vegetable and fruit operations and greenhouse production of vegetable seedlings and bedding plants for commercial sale. He also has a little bit of livestock experience from some of his farm work, including working with sheep, alpacas, and pastured chickens and hogs. Additionally, he managed Central State’s demonstration aquaponics facility in his prior role with the University. He has a growing interest in agroforestry and non-timber forest products as well as experience with native habitat restoration. He has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago and a joint Master’s in Agroecology and Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is in the process of turning his backyard into a microfarm.

Stacey Stangel

Family & Consumer Science (FCS) Educator for Central State University Extension in Northeast Ohio 

She has been an FCS professional for 30+ years with Lorain and Medina City Schools, and Ohio Department of Education Office of Child Nutrition. She has Manager’s certificate and an Instructor for food safety with the Ohio Department of Health and is a Better Processing Supervisor. In her spare time, she farms 200 acres and raises crops, forage, beef cattle and chickens.

Michelle Wallace

Northwest Ohio Regional Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Educator with Central State University Extension since 2020

Prior to joining the CSU-E team, she worked for North Carolina State University Extension as an Extension Agriculture/ Horticulture Agent for over ten years.  She has a BS in Horticulture, a BBA in Business Information Systems, and a Master's in Landscape Architecture. Michelle grew up on a kibbutz in northern Israel where she worked alongside her dad in the kiwi vineyards and apple orchards.



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