Collaborative and Alternative Marketing for Farmers - Learning from Those Who are Doing It
Event Details
Date
March 25, 2024
Time
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Location
Online via Zoom
Cost
FREE!
Pre-register to obtain the Zoom link.
Host
CCE Cornell Vegetable Program and NOFA-NYRobert Hadad
585-739-4065
email Robert Hadad

Join us for a virtual panel discussion meeting where panelists will share their marketing enterprise, why and how it came to be, and what it takes for groups of farmers to work together to improve their marketing opportunities. Then the floor will be open for Q/A and discussion with the audience. The goal of this effort is to learn about these types of marketing alternatives, what it took to put them together, and maybe get interest enough from those attending to explore new collaborations.
Featured panelists:
Stick and Stone Farm - Full Plate Collective, Ithaca, NY
Owned by Stick and Stone Farm and Remembrance Farm, two of the Ithaca area's largest organic farms. Each farm maintains their own independent business, wholesale, unique specialty crops and more, coming together to create shares and community as the Full Plate Farm Collective! Each farm contributes about half of the weekly CSA shares; together they produce about 90% of the food for the CSA. They don't do it alone! It is Community Supported Agriculture, after all: "The collective model allows us to work with and support many more great fellow-producers in the Ithaca area! We commit to buying crops early in the year, much like our members do for us. Their contributions enrich share variety and support crop security, backing each other up when yields are down."
Earth's Palate Farm + Northwest Connecticut Food Hub - Renee Giroux, Warren, CT
Earth's Palate Farm is nestled on 40 acres which includes 4 greenhouses with a small plot of field production for heirloom vegetables and honeybees during the summer months. Tender greens and vegetables are grown year-round in the greenhouses. In addition to the produce, they raise 100 egg layers, meat birds on pasture and heritage pork: "We have embraced the concepts of regenerative agriculture at the onset of beginning our farm. Let this time bring us closer together as a community of friends and neighbors. As farmers we are bred to stoke confidence and resilience. It's important to know - more than ever - where your food comes from. …The Northwest Connecticut Regional Food Hub works with farmers all over northwest Connecticut picking up their fresh, locally grown produce and delivering it to happy wholesale customers such as schools, grocery stores, and restaurants. Proud to collaborate with Connecticut Veteran owned and operated farms."
Deep Root Organic Cooperative - Bruce Kaufman, Johnson, VT
Founded in 1985, Deep Root Organic Cooperative is one of the oldest co-ops of organic vegetable growers in the United States: "The co-op exists to promote local, sustainable, and organic agriculture through its small, family-owned farms. Due to our size and the variety of our member farms, we offer a wide range of products available throughout the year. We thank you for your support with the purchase of our products. We connect the farmer and the customer, delivering the best local organic produce and value-added products to retail establishments, co-ops, restaurants, and institutions."
COST: FREE!
REGISTRATION: You must pre-register to receive the Zoom link to this event. To register, email Robert Hadad (include your name and farm name). The Zoom link will be emailed to registrants prior to the meeting.
This event is organized by Robert Hadad, CCE Cornell Vegetable Program, and Elizabeth Henderson, NOFA-NY. For more information, contact Robert Hadad. We don't sell or give away contact information. We do occasionally send out information on programs, alerts, or questions pertaining to marketing.


Upcoming Events
2025 New York State Potato School

February 11 - February 12, 2025
Waterloo, NY
This year's program will feature speakers covering critically important topics like disease management, updates in storage techniques, new varieties, and other production management practices. New for this year will be the Processor Panel where guests will have the chance to interact with some of the major chip processors in the northeast. Your participation will also earn you DEC and CCA points.
Remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Training
February 12, 2025
Join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange and Oneida Counties, the Cornell Vegetable Program, Harvest NY, and the Eastern NY Horticulture Team on Feb. 12 for a remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training. Good Agricultural Practices is a voluntary food safety audit program requiring minimum standards for the production, handling, packing, and storing of fresh fruits and vegetables, and is required by some buyers. Trainers will cover food safety best management practices related to worker training, preharvest assessments and wildlife management, water testing, postharvest handling, hygienic equipment design and efficient wash-pack setups, how to write a farm food safety plan, and more. The training will follow the USDA GAPs audit checklist so that farms will be prepared for an audit. A NYSDAM GAPs auditor will join us to discuss audit logistics and answer questions from participants. Following the course, we will offer a series of virtual office hours to follow up with course participants to assist them with writing their farm food safety plan, which is mandatory for the GAPs audit. Participants will receive a certificate of course completion after the training.
Food Safety Lunch and Learn Webinar Series
February 11, 2025 : Part One: What's Going on with Food Safety?
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets FSMA inspectors are expected to step up farm visits this season. Why are they showing up on the farm asking about FSMA? Aren't we exempt? This noontime hour we will discuss the purpose of the farm visits and what produce farmers need to know.
February 18, 2025 : Part Two: What Counts as Food Processing?
In this session, we will discuss what counts as processing and what doesn't. Stories of inspectors coming to farmers markets and auctions telling some growers certain products can't be sold usually without much explanation. We will try to make some sense of things and clear up some misunderstandings so hopefully the upcoming season goes smoothly.
February 25, 2025 : Part Three: Traceability - Benefits for Food Safety and Beyond
Can having a traceback process for your produce (and other farm products) make good business sense regardless of FSMA regulations? We will (try to) make the case for farms to have some sort of traceability mechanism in place.