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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] consumer perceptions, was free range eggs

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Lucy Goodman <goodows AT infinet.com>
  • To: Barbara Miller <barbmill2 AT verizon.net>, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] consumer perceptions, was free range eggs
  • Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 07:27:10 -0400

Tell them how many hours you work to get produce to market (I have figured out I work 8 hours on the farm for every hour I sell at market). Educate hem to the fact local organic does not mean that your farm incurs no costs and that in reality because you use no/few chems your costs are far higher than farms that use a lot of chems, as human labor costs more than chemical replacements.

get a website and tell your story. Amass an email list of your clients/potential clients and send out informative emails about every week again telling your story. I have been doing this for the past 10 years and it does indeed work.

Hold a farm our annually and again tell your story. once people realize you work long hard hours to provide them with high quality fresh food hey cease to gripe about price.

I have done all these things in an area one might call redneck. I live in an ag county where I am one of 4 organic farms. In the beginning our operation was met with hostility but after 14 years of hard work we have replaced hostility with respect county wide. You do have to prove ha you are not a lazy pagan pot smoking hippie but rather a person who loves country life and farming and just wants to make a living from the farm.

This will not happen overnight but with persistence it will happen. It is very possible to change people's perceptions-major corporations do it all the time. It's called marketing

Lucy Goodman

Barbara Miller wrote:
Bill Shoemaker wrote:
"I think consumer perceptions are the biggest challenge for local growers."
Having just started selling at farmers' markets last year, I have to agree with you Bill. My impression from customers was because we didn't have any middle men or shipping expenses, we should actually be charging less than grocery store prices for our produce. Obviously we have a lot of educating to do... Can anyone suggest the best way to go about educating people? Signs? Handouts?
Thanks,
Barb Miller
Tioga County, PA


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