Start Date
2020 12:00 AM
Abstract
With nearly 15 million people that live within 250 miles of Kansas City, the demand for local food is increasing. Local beginning farmers in the region want to reach an emerging wholesale market. However, selling directly to consumers demands different skills than the wholesale market requires. There are many educational programs offered in the region that are focused on direct to consumer sales. Unfortunately, there is a gap in educational programs that are offered to support beginning farmers that wish to expand into wholesale markets. In 2018, the Beginning Farmer Wholesale Project was started within the Growing Growers Kansas City program in congruence with the overall mission to improve the skills and livelihoods of the region’s growers. The project offers support and training to beginning farmers as they begin to navigate new market opportunities. It provides on-farm technical assistance, mentorship, opportunities to connect to wholesale buyers, a workshop series, a manual and an extensive foodshed GIS map. The ongoing project has seen several contributions to improving farmer access to wholesale markets. As of 2020, six workshops have been conducted that have covered a variety of farm production and marketing skills. Six farmer mentees have enrolled in the mentor program which enlists nine farmer mentors from across the region. Over twenty farmers have utilized the technical assistance service on their Kansas and Missouri farm operations and the farmer buyer matching program has resulted in thirteen beginning farmers gaining access to new markets. The project highlights the value of collaboration among organizations and the importance of offering multiple farmer services in order to improve wholesale access.
Keywords
agricultural education, training, mentorship, marketing, local food
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
McManus, M.; McKelvey, B.; Nixon, K.; Ellingsworth, A.; Buller, T.; Millsap, R.; Gawron, M.; and Rivard, C. (2020). "Scaling-up beginning farmers for wholesale production," Urban Food Systems Symposium. https://newprairiepress.org/ufss/2020/proceedings/9
Scaling-up beginning farmers for wholesale production
With nearly 15 million people that live within 250 miles of Kansas City, the demand for local food is increasing. Local beginning farmers in the region want to reach an emerging wholesale market. However, selling directly to consumers demands different skills than the wholesale market requires. There are many educational programs offered in the region that are focused on direct to consumer sales. Unfortunately, there is a gap in educational programs that are offered to support beginning farmers that wish to expand into wholesale markets. In 2018, the Beginning Farmer Wholesale Project was started within the Growing Growers Kansas City program in congruence with the overall mission to improve the skills and livelihoods of the region’s growers. The project offers support and training to beginning farmers as they begin to navigate new market opportunities. It provides on-farm technical assistance, mentorship, opportunities to connect to wholesale buyers, a workshop series, a manual and an extensive foodshed GIS map. The ongoing project has seen several contributions to improving farmer access to wholesale markets. As of 2020, six workshops have been conducted that have covered a variety of farm production and marketing skills. Six farmer mentees have enrolled in the mentor program which enlists nine farmer mentors from across the region. Over twenty farmers have utilized the technical assistance service on their Kansas and Missouri farm operations and the farmer buyer matching program has resulted in thirteen beginning farmers gaining access to new markets. The project highlights the value of collaboration among organizations and the importance of offering multiple farmer services in order to improve wholesale access.
