Market Farming

["Rainbow's End Farms & Orchards" <rainbowsend AT swva.net>]

The ability to look at the sites provided has been a blessing in more ways than I could ever express. After a year of planning and implementation as well as the expenditure of countless thousands it is SO refreshing to see the nonacademic, nonpolitical, nonextremeist very real world evidence of those who are doing.

 

After first making the plunge into agriculture via the launching of a brand and marketing concept, for which I incorporated and established a web site, I very mistakenly contacted the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Departments of tourism and trade. Surprise, surprise ..a year later billboards all over the highways of Georgia AND the home page of the web site of the Ga Dept of AG magically display the EXACT tradename that I communicated to the department of AG  and the Georgia good old boy network. My tracking of correspondence concluded that the Department of Agriculture literally stole that which I dared to share with them. Guess what, my letters questioning the theft of intellectual property went totally ignored.

 

Then I moved to Virginia where the words of wisdom of our county agent were roughly...56 acres? You're not really planning on making a living with this! He has since retired and I have found many within the Va Dept of Ag and the state colleges to be wonderful resources. Still, it has been an incredibly challenging few months and the ability to learn from those who are really doing was a wonderful gift.

 

Might I suggest a link exchange. I would be honored to provide a link to the other CSA and market farmers. It seems to me that even for my customers it would add a certain air of community and connectivity to know that there are others out there with similar goals and values and I would be very pleased to list links to sites where there might be kindred spirits and pursuits..Larry Walker