permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] direct marketing, value-added, agritourism 
survey--please forward to entrepreneurs
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:38:24 -0400
From: Maetzold, Jim - Washington, DC <Jim.Maetzold@WDC.USDA.GOV>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Please take a  moment to look at this survey request. It will get us 
some badly needed information to tell local, state and national people 
how important direct marketing is in this Nation and how it contributes 
to food security.

Jim

James A. Maetzold
National Alternative Enterprise and Agritourism Leader
USDA/NRCS
PO Box 2890
Washington, DC 20013
202-720-0132
Email:  jim.maetzold@wdc.usda.gov
www.nrcs.usda/technical/RESSD/altenterprise

Dear mover and shaker, NAFDMA member, service provider, farmers' market 
organizer, colleague,

The North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association is engaged in 
an extensive survey of farm direct marketers and agritourism operators. 
We are partnered with Ed Mahoney and his survey team at Michigan State 
University to accomplish this. We invite you and the entire North 
American farm direct marketing community to help make this the most 
comprehensive survey our industry has ever seen.

It's important that we include your region in the makeup of the farm 
direct marketing and agritourism analysis of North America. We are 
asking our friends who have association, Extension, state or provincial 
department of agriculture, and similar lists to blast out e-mails or 
send notices to their members and invite them to participate in this 
survey. Any farmer or rancher on this continent who sells at farmers' 
markets, operates an agritourism destination, does PYO, has a farm 
stand, or engages in any related activity on their farm or ranch should 
be counted!!!

Please be sure your region is represented. Forward this e-mail to your 
direct market association decision maker, send it to farmers and 
ranchers directly, or do whatever else it takes to ultimately get this 
internet survey link into the hands of farm direct marketers everywhere.

This is a serious effort and confidentiality is protected under all 
appropriate laws as indicated in the web site. The survey is 
specifically applicable to farm and ranch operators. You, as a service 
provider certainly can view the entire survey by clicking on the link 
provided and by clicking on the "print survey" button.

The survey data base driven. So if we get enough responses from any 
given region to provide critical mass, we can sort statistics by your 
state or region and do some comparative analysis with the results of the 
entire continent. The power of this tool to help us all is nearly endless.

Please take action now.

Please contact me by e-mail if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Charlie

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The North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) is 
helping sponsor and strongly endorses the most comprehensive survey that 
has ever been commissioned relating to the continental farm direct 
marketing and agritourism industry. Please take the time to participate. 
The survey is designed to help the operators who are currently engaged 
in farm direct marketing and agritourism enterprises.

The results of this survey will:
ü      help revolutionize our industry,
ü      provide a realistic look at current impact of this industry,
ü      make available broad based benchmarks that have never been 
captured before,
ü      help you and other farm direct marketers in the areas of zoning 
and insurance,
ü      document accurate facts that help represent your interests and 
resolve issues in our industry,
ü      give agricultural communities and urban centers alike with a 
realistic analysis of the importance of farm direct marketing and 
agritourism.

This can't be accomplished successfully without your participation! 
We're so serious about this we are providing an incentive. The first 777 
 COMPLETED surveys will be entered into a drawing to win your choice 
either of a $1900+ USD value to attend the NAFDMA Convention in San 
Antonio and Austin, Texas, or $1000 CASH.  Feel free to contact me if 
you have questions about your eligibility for the drawing.

This email is being sent to over 2000 farm direct marketing and 
agritourism operations that have had some connection to NAFDMA or their 
local associations in the past five years.

To complete the survey, go to http://www.farmmarketresearch.com.  You 
will need to register first by providing your email, zip/postal code and 
name of the ranch/farm.

Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. 
We hope that you will complete all the questions, but you are under no 
obligation to do so. As soon as we receive your information, your name 
as well as the name of your farm and ranch will be automatically 
separated from the answers that you provide.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact Dr. Ed 
Mahoney by email (rirc@msu.edu), phone (517-432-0285) or regular mail 
(131 Natural Resources Bldg, East Lansing, MI 48824).  If you have any 
questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or 
are dissatisfied at any time with any aspect of this study, you may 
contact - anonymously, if you wish - Peter Vasilenko, Ph.D., Chair of 
the University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) 
by phone (517-355-2180), fax (517-432-4503), email (ucrihs@msu.edu), or 
regular mail (202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI  48824).

Please, click the link provided below to complete the Farm Market Annual 
Survey.

http://www.farmmarketresearch.com/

Sincerely,

Charlie Touchette, Executive Director
North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association
62 White Loaf Road
Southampton, MA  01073
phone:1-413-529-0386
email: nafdma@map.com