Experienced farmers as well as beginners often need access to capital and financing if they plan to expand their farm business or buy new equipment in pursuit of new opportunities. Websites, such as the Vermont’s New Farmer Project created through a SARE Grant, serve as popular clearinghouses of general and state-specific information. The learning curve is steep, so reliable information-on production planning, risk and resource management, and accessing land, capital and markets-is critical to their success. Starting a farm presents many challenges, and in fact the number of beginning farmers dropped 20 percent from 2007 to 2012, according to the U.S. Whether you are a beginning farmer or have been in the field for years, use SARE’s manual, Building a Sustainable Business(free download), for developing and writing a business plan. And farm to school programs, part of local food systems, aim to help kids make healthier food-purchasing decisions as they grow up. More consumers are buying local out of a renewed interest to know where their food comes from and how it was produced. They keep more food dollars in local communities and, in rural areas, offer new business opportunities that have the power to bring young people back home. Local and regional food systems improve the vitality of communities in many ways, both rural and urban. The Farm to Table: Building Local and Regional Food Systems topic room has such tools-resources produced by farmers, ranchers, educators and other community members who are working to make local food more accessible to consumers. In addition to having the tools to grow crops, they need the tools to build a strong business that capitalizes on local sales opportunities. Local and regional food sales totaled an estimated $6.1 billion in 2012, and the movement is now one of the USDA’s funding priorities: In 2014 alone, the Secretary of Agriculture announced that hundreds of millions of dollars would go to economic development in rural areas, small businesses, value-added market growth, food hubs and more.įrom crop production to business management to marketing, farmers wear many hats. Growing in popularity on dinner tables and in restaurants, food banks, schools and grocery stores around the nation, local food has become more than a buzzword. The content on this page is available as a topic brief (PDF download), Building Local and Regional Food Systems. Use the green Order button on this page to order free hard copies. ![]() Discover a wealth of educational materials for farmers, ranchers, ag professionals, community organizers and others who are striving to reconfigure the nation's food system so more value stays in food-producing communities.
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