PSFN has spent the past months researching what is needed to support the growth of regional food transactions.The last month has been spent less on blog posting and more on network formation. Development of the next-phase website (beyond this development blog) is under way, with a soft launch of the initial work due next month….
Separating out the economic return of growing local food for regional consumption is gaining momentum as more governments and communities measure the economic return of going local. New Jersey is one state that has measured such efforts. The state supports a Jersey Fresh program with an annual expenditure from state funds. From the 2004 NJ…
Portland, Oregon’s Ecotrust just released an economic analysis that researched the impact of farm to school spending across the state’s economy and found that “Investing in locally produced foods for the school lunchroom fortifies the state’s economy with dollars previously spent elsewhere.” The research focused on two public school districts that were part of a…
FamilyFarmed, in Chicago, has created a direct wholesale handbook called “Wholesale Success: A Farmer’s Guide to Selling, Postharvest Handling and Packing Produce”. The publication ” Includes comprehensive sections on issues such as Building Relationships with Buyers, Food Safety, and Calculating Return in Investment. It also includes 63 crop profiles that give specific harvesting, cooling, storage,…
USDA’s AGR-Lite is a whole farm revenue insurance program which covers natural disasters and market fluctuation for all commodities produced on the farm. The plan provides protection against low revenue due to unavoidable natural disasters and market fluctuations that affect income during the insurance year.
A supplement to the March 2009 issue of Sustainable Industries, Plants at Work features articles and resources for growing the “living market.” Learn about floating wetlands’ market appeal, find out how nurseries are partnering with the transportation sector on sustainable landscaping solutions, and learn ways the plant industry is tapping into the carbon market.
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Iowa State University) continues to generate innovative work (as does WSU’s CSANR program). Leopold’s Marketing and Food Systems initiative has created The U.S. Food Market Estimator which is “designed to help users determine the potential demand, by county in the United States, for more than 200 different food items….
The USDA Economic Research Service has shared it’s Farm Income and Costs: 2009 Farm Sector Income Forecast. Some of the highlights (so to speak) are below. Please visit their website to see explanations of the highlights. Net Farm Income Forecast To Be Down 20 Percent in 2009. – Net farm income is forecast to be…
The USDA 2007 Ag Census was released in early February. Please see the 2002 Puget Sound Ag Stats posting for previous information. While we wait for USDA to generate spreadsheets for easier data comparison across all measurements, here are the highlights: We have more farms creating higher value products off of fewer total acres. We…
