This is the kind of action alert that farmers and ranchers miss when there is no substantial statewide sustainable agricultural organization on which to rely. Again, to take it back to the market organizations-how can we help build the advocacy organizations for our farmers so they have access to programs to grow a better earth?
34 States Shut out of Organic Farm Program by Congress and White House – NSAC.
Living in New Orleans used to mean that I had a mild winter (if any) to deal with each year and January was about celebrating Carnival from Twelfth Night up until Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Now as a market consultant, I spend the winter traveling to conferences and meetings, oddly almost all held in the northern climes!
Even with my aversion to cold, I am excited to be returning to Vermont for my third visit with NOFA-VT, and the second time I will be attending their Direct Marketing Conference held in lovely South Royalton VT.
Beginning last fall, I started work with NOFA-VT and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to study their card and token currency systems in the markets and comparing them to other states’ systems in view of the 2020 implementation of WIC to EBT cards – as well as the new technology that is swirling around like Square and the new upcoming Novo Dia Group smart phone app for cc/debit/food stamps. Also included in this research is the need to ascertain if these systems (which of course include incentives, FMNP coupons, WIC vouchers and in some states veggie prescriptions too) are working well at market level and how to measure them.
I have been calling on my colleagues across a dozen states and networks to hear their analysis which has been shared most generously. Now, I go to Vermont to gather some case studies from farmers and market managers to round out the raw data which then will need to be crammed into a manageable report for Vermont come early spring.
wish me luck.
And, email me or call me if you have data on a network or state level that you wish to share.
Absolutely one of my favorite presentations. I believe in a systems approach to my work so how I decide what I work on has a lot to do with how that project could be replicated or how organizing skills would be furthered with my input. This presentation-a version that I saw at Kellogg F&S meeting 5 years or so ago-was a real eye opener for me as a movement builder. I hope it is the same for you.
Two Loops: How Systems Change from The Berkana Institute on Vimeo.
SO glad that 2013 is finally bringing some good news to the national food movement.
VERY happy to see my New Orleans colleague (and old boss) Richard McCarthy hired as the new E.D. of Slow Food USA. His background is ideal for the job: born in Germany, raised in New Orleans, he spent his university time in the U.K. with his British grandparents. Since founding Crescent City Farmers Market in 1995, his extensive travel (I wish I could find the picture of us at Terra Madre 2008 with our overall-wearing Mississippi farmer in tow) and his deep interest in world movements have continued to benefit the US farmers market movement. Honestly, there is no one that fits the SF job better in 2013; they now have a coalition builder, an outstanding visionary and a good guy.
Can’t wait to see what he can do up there.
RMC and New Orleans Slow Food Founder Poppy Tooker celebrating (well something else, not this news in this 2006 picture.)
The founder of SF USA, me and RMC at the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans’ first fundraiser.
The report from Fair Food Network, Market Umbrella, Roots of Change and Wholesome Wave offers some helpful data and analysis of the incentive programs used in farmers markets. All 4 of these organizations are involved with incentive campaigns at different levels and have begun to see the effects of the many campaigns that they have run. It is clear to me that cash incentives have been successful in reducing the early barriers for markets hoping to attract lower income shoppers. However,the ability of the market organizations to create and manage these campaigns remains a cause of concern in some networks and states.
I am curious as to how incentives could be used in more ways (two examples might be how to attract new vendors or thanking neighbors who live with the impact of the market ) and how other incentives besides a cash match could be developed.
See the report here. FYI- It is only opening on computers; it does not seem to open on tablets at this point.
“The hardest work in building FlashFood from theoretical to actual will likely be the networking itself, although the team has a strong head start on connecting with vendors. “We have been speaking a lot with organizations that already do work with restaurants to cover perishable food,” says Irwin, citing Food Donation Connection as an early partner. “But the difference between us and the organizations that are out there right now is that we account for late at night. Restaurants don’t always know how much they’re going to have left over, so we’re trying to fill this donation market of food that’s unexpected and needs to be transported really rapidly.” That means prepared dishes that can’t be frozen down for storage (unlike, say, leftover chicken breasts), or trays of food from weddings or conventions that were never served. FlashFood intends to find mouths for those leftovers within an hour.”
This is an encouraging evolution. Technology actually moving the dial to answer issues like late night restaurant leftovers and prepared foods.
How might markets support these entrepreneurs? What about mobile markets? Could this be one of the answers as to how mobile markets can be sustainable and still serve the most needy?
What a treat I had yesterday. Sarah of the Carrboro Farmers Market has been patiently squiring me around the area, meeting to meeting, meal to meal. Hopefully, all of you have made it to this area of North Carolina and had some of their amazing food, centered by the pork, chicken -well, all meat- that they love and know how to cook in so many interesting ways.
Yesterday, Sarah took me a few miles out of Carrboro to a little town called Saxapahaw (pronounced sax-paw the Carrboro native says) for lunch and for a quick meeting. That meeting easily became an afternoon, because of the fascinating Saxapahaw General Store.
Here is what their website says about their beginnings:
The Saxapahaw General Store as it now exists began in June 2008 when Jeff Barney, butcher and self-taught cook, and Cameron Ratliff, teacher and self-taught biscuit maker, worked with former owner Mac Jordan to begin a new life for the convenience store and gas station that had served the community for several years. They imagined a spot where a village could gather for refreshments, meals, and basic home provisions, run by folks whose varied backgrounds have each taught them they can influence their world by collaborating with their neighbors. They hoped to serve the residents of Saxapahaw with a range of products that could allow everyone to feel welcome. They decided to become stewards of local foods, good wine and beer, nutritious snacks, and eco-conscious dry goods.
What I saw was a business model that looked right. Once I met the dynamo farmer Suzanne, I became even more sure. Suzanne took us across the street to the pastures after our lunch
(the picture below shows what is available for lunch-all of the meat is local and much of the produce too)
The turkeys were the last of the year, with these destined for ground turkey in the next week or so.
Much of the poultry production is done herself alongside Saxapahaw neighbors and coworkers; the humane treatment of her animals at the end of their lives is so important to this farmer that she told us she would not use many of the processing plants available to her. And that if that was the only way that they could be processed that she wouldn’t raise animals for food.
She pointed out the ducks that they had only begun to raise for food and the vegetable garden, also beginning. At this point, the store is buying from the very talented growers that surround the area thanks to the Carrboro Farmers Market and its younger sister markets, but the emporia is going to grow some of its own produce across the street. The composting is carefully monitored before being shared with their animals, so as to not waste any of the precious produce.
The store is set up to roam and shop after one has put their order in at the counter. Coca-cola products are lined up near pure ginger root drinks, homemade baked goods and local preserves near the small candy area. Hunting gear and motor oil can also be picked up as well along with some biodiesel or gas for your truck.
The store is both a throwback and a nod to the future. Suzanne talked extensively about the ongoing need for more equipment as well as sharing individual stories of the staff and their talents. Throughout our time there, people of varying ages and backgrounds came and went, bought food, drink and dry goods.
As public health and regional planners look for store models that can offer dignity and inclusion to food producers as an encouragement to sell there (just as the farmers market world has done) this store should become a Mecca. Using around 1500 square feet to offer as many culturally appropriate items as possible (Suzanne dreams of the day she can put out her gizzards and turkey necks next to the stock already offered) and real food choices next to convenience items still necessary to the real world, the Saxapahaw General Store is a food organizer’s dream come true.
Novo Dia Group partners with WorldPay to offer complete payment solution to Farmers Market community
The Mobile Market+ and AprivaPay solution enables farmers markets to accept credit, debit, and electronic benefit cards (EBT), making fresh, nutritious, local produce accessible to families receiving food assistance all on single device.
Austin, TX – November 5, 2012 -Novo Dia Group, Inc., a software development firm specialized in the health and human services industry, today announced an agreement with WorldPay Inc. that will allow its Mobile Market+ product to be available to Farmers Markets and small retailers nationwide beginning early 2013. A combined offering of AprivaPay and Mobile Market+ will offer merchants the most complete payment coverage available. Now on a single device, merchants will be allowed to process Credit, Debit, and all EBT transactions. In addition to a combined offering, NDG and WorldPay have agreed to service merchants seeking EBT only services. Pricing for the combination and EBT only solution is expected in early December, and will offer a flexible combination of connectivity, device, and services.
“We’re pleased to partner with Novo Dia to bring a full service smartphone offering to Farmer’s Markets and non-traditional retailers nationwide. We believe the combination of NDG’s innovation and our best of breed processing capabilities brings a full service solution to a market that is quickly expanding, and also serves a vital role in the retail community.” Steve Eyring director of sales WorldPay
The Mobile Market+ application, which was recently recognized as a finalist in the Verizon Innovation Awards, is a solution specifically developed to service merchants seeking a mobile POS solution or ones with no access to phone lines, networks or electricity. The handheld device is battery operated and communicates wirelessly via Wi-Fi or the cellular network. The Mobile Market+ application is approved by Apple and USDA. Approved vendors can download the app directly from the App Store.
Novo Dia Group is a full-service software development and consulting firm based in Austin, Texas. It specializes in the Health and Human Services industry with focus on processing benefit delivery systems for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and debit transactions.
Please visit http://www.novodiagroup.com for more information.
PR Contacts:
Josh Wiles, Novo Dia Group, Inc T: 512-371-4134, mail to: josh@novodiagroup.com
Steve Eyring, WorldPay T: 801-302-9924, mail to: steve.eyring@worldpay.us
It is true that we still await a major city seriously investing in community food systems as their economic bridge to a new renaissance – sure, it could be Chicago. It would be great if it was Chicago.
Chicago Urban Farms Initiative: Englewood Could Become Major Agribusiness Hub.
My checkered past includes a long stint as a field canvasser on consumer and environmental issues in the very state of Ohio that has secured the win for the Democrats. I find door-to-door canvassing almost as fascinating as my current work of devising strategies for direct-marketing community food producers, so I have read a great deal about ground strategy this fall. Having friends who knocked on doors in this campaign season up there, I was privy to some of their pre-election training as it is laid out in this NYT article and it strikes me that there are lessons in here for the community food movement.
First is the awareness that how people poll is not the whole story. The primary reasons that the Repubs say they thought they had this election won was that they believed that the minorities that had carried the Dems last time were surely not going to vote that strongly this year and that they believed that the white vote would be theirs at a larger rate. All of those assumptions may have been true at the beginning and maybe with their antiquated general polling it seemed very true throughout.
Ultimately though, the sophisticated approach that the Dems used to get out the vote in a massive field campaign and Facebook style messaging worked wonders: it allowed them to focus on training their field campaign workers to then spot and communicate with likely voters and to encourage connections between neighbors to get them out to the polls. And on the media end, to offer a combination of positive (sometimes very localized) campaign messages and then to switch up those message regularly. This was the one-two knockout punch that the Repubs did not see coming. And maybe the media too: since except for 538 blogger/analyst Silver, most misjudged the final numbers. In other words, established centers of decision makers and analysts misjudged the effect of individuals making decisions based on real facts about their wealth and health.
Any of that sound familiar to community food organizers?
These very strategies would be useful for the food movement to study and to adopt (oh, I don’t know, maybe during the Farm Bill negotiations?) such as doing in-depth social science studies of our likely shoppers and to make more connections between those early adopters of ours and their “strong” and “weak” social ties to then reach more potential community food activists, shoppers and producers. I understand that many organizers are slightly appalled by the idea of using sophisticated scientific and marketing methods to support regional food systems, but something else the Dems have shown is a win is a win friends, and action from those emboldened winners will surely follow this historic day.
Let me also point out what many of you may have also noticed: the excitement and engagement from citizens on all sides – even in states that had no contest and therefore no campaign – was impressive.
Even though we’re probably not going to raise and spend a billion dollars to win on issues that benefit our movement, if we were to simply embed what seems to me a level of respect and follow through in identifying and understanding on a one-to-one level who the 21st century idiosyncratic citizen is and how they make decisions as the Dems did in this election, I can only imagine the deep ties we would create.
‘Dream Team’ of Behavioral Scientists Advised Obama Campaign – NYTimes.com.
This is a good overview of the work Wholesome Wave does and how it came to be. Their impact is certainly being felt and the partnerships that they have created with markets and market networks are crucial to the goal of building the community food system.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 