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The Importance of Diversifying Your Products and Markets with Karen McSwain of CFSA
121 Plays5 years ago
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we're delighted to host Karen McSwain, Associate Executive Director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA). Listen as Karen shares the story behind CFSA, why their members pivoted to selling direct, and how their FarmShare program was developed.
Show Notes:
https://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/
https://www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction to Farm Success Levers
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the direct farm podcast, the weekly listen for farm selling direct. We'll talk about the four levers for farm success, which are quality, brand, price, and convenience. We'll hear from outside industry experts and producers like you to delight your customers save time and to increase your direct farm sales and business. We're glad you're here.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast.
Meet CFSA and Karen McSwain
00:00:28
Speaker
We've got a terrific conversation for you today with CFSA, also known as the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. I'm delighted to welcome Karen McSwain, the Associate Executive Director for Programs for CFSA. Welcome, Karen. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for being here. So I guess to get things started here, tell us a little bit more about the history of CFSA.
CFSA's Origins and Contributions
00:00:54
Speaker
So Carolina Farm Stewardship Association is a 40 plus year old nonprofit organization working in North and South Carolina. It was started in 1979 by a small group of farmers that needed an opportunity to get together and share
00:01:11
Speaker
experiences and knowledge that they have around sustainable organic production. As you can imagine, 40 plus years ago, that information wasn't readily available on the computer or on an internet. So there was really a lack of sharing of that kind of information. And so small group of farmers got together, they started CFSA. And at that time, CFSA, they hosted field days.
00:01:37
Speaker
is kind of where they got their start and they hosted a conference. Our first sustainable ad conference was about 35 years ago was the first conference. And it's one of the largest sustainable ad conferences in the Southeast and draws about a thousand people every year. We got our start also back at the beginning. We were really instrumental in getting the national organic program regulations going. And CFSA was one of the first organic certifiers.
00:02:06
Speaker
in North Carolina. Started by farmers, for farmers. So what type of farms do you currently support?
Supporting Small Sustainable Farms
00:02:13
Speaker
What types of products do they sell? And how has the organization evolved over the last few years? Sure. Most of the farmers that we work with are diversified farmers and they're growing, you know, sometimes 20, 30, 40 different crops. Our focus is largely to support small, sustainable, organic family farms. And they really range in size from
00:02:37
Speaker
anywhere between an acre. We do work with some larger farms around 200, 250 acres. They're selling at a lot of different markets, farmers markets, community supported agriculture, roadside stands, they're selling to restaurants, institutions, wholesale. So really a very diverse group of farmers. From kind of a resource standpoint, a networking standpoint, that's a benefit to membership as well of
00:03:01
Speaker
having a wide variety of farms that you work with that can share best practices with each other. So for farms who are looking to become CFSA members, what steps do they need to take to apply towards that membership? Sure. Membership is very easy. You can go onto our website. It's a long URL, but if you search Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, you will find lots of links to join CFSA that way.
00:03:27
Speaker
But folks can always call our office and we can get folks signed up that way. We have a lot of different membership levels where farmers or businesses can join at.
00:03:38
Speaker
And we also welcome individuals joining CFSA as well. And so for the farms, they go through the registration process, they go through the application process. They are now a CFSA member. What have you found to be some of the most beneficial aspects of membership?
Technical Assistance and Membership
00:03:53
Speaker
Once you're a member, you have access to three technical assistants, one on technical assistants that CFSA offers.
00:04:00
Speaker
And so we offer those in a number of different programmatic areas. And so right now we're focused on food safety, helping farmers either implement basic general food safety practices. And we also help farmers get GAP certified. That's good agricultural practices. And that's a third party certification that's often required by markets, different market types. So we can help farmers go through that process.
00:04:25
Speaker
We also help farmers implement organic production practices and we also help them through the organic certification process. We provide technical assistance to farmers on high tunnel production. And so that assistance can start, you know, before a farmer has purchased their high tunnel, anywhere all the way up until, you know, production planning in the high tunnel, addressing challenges and obstacles, putting together production plans.
00:04:51
Speaker
We also offer assistance to farmers on accessing different markets. If they're looking to access wholesale markets or direct to consumer markets, we offer all those services and they all include a site visit where our staff will come out to the farmer to farm and walk around their farm and provide one-on-one direct technical assistance. And that was a piece that we felt was missing from
00:05:16
Speaker
The programs that farmers had access to probably about eight years ago, it was a lot of workshops and we continue to do workshops. We would find that we would get to the end of a workshop and a farmer would say, that was great information, but I still don't know how to apply it to my specific operation. And that's why we added this additional component where they can get one-on-one technical assistance specific to their operation.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I think that is a very valuable resource that we offer to farmers. You talked about having those site visits, so being able to have the one-on-one time with the farm, but also those resources from a scenario planning standpoint of how do you work through a challenge or an obstacle to also how do you explore other markets? How do you go direct market? How do you explore other avenues in addition to wholesale? So maybe walk us through that conversation that you've had with some of your members this past year through the challenges
00:06:08
Speaker
that they presented.
Pandemic Impact on Farming
00:06:09
Speaker
A year ago, the whole world shifted and farmers really felt the brunt of that. There were a number of farmers that woke up one morning and their market was completely gone, particularly if they were farmers that were selling largely to restaurants. Restaurants were closed down, they lost that market. A lot of farmers struggled at the beginning of COVID with farmers markets either shutting down
00:06:35
Speaker
Or restricting the amount of farmers that can bend at that market or restricting the number of people go to that market and obviously people were not enthusiastic about going to farmers markets, a year ago, so a lot of farmers did, as you say, had to pivot overnight.
00:06:51
Speaker
and change to putting online sales systems together. So that was very challenging for a lot of farmers. I think in terms of walking farmers through the decision process of what additional markets, what new markets might fit their operation,
00:07:09
Speaker
There are a lot of questions involved just in terms of, you know, what types of crops are you producing? Where is your closest market? How are you going to get your product to market? It might not make sense for a small farmer to try and access a large wholesale market because they don't have the volume, but it's a great opportunity for them to access a food hub or different grower cooperative that can aggregate that product
00:07:33
Speaker
and then market it to a larger wholesale. Do they have a farmers market in the area that is accepting new farmers? That's a challenge that we find with a lot of new farmers that are entering farmers markets. Our farmers markets have waitlists and they're a little bit maxed out and so trying to figure out other direct to consumer opportunities.
00:07:54
Speaker
Does the farmer enjoy that marketing aspect? Do they enjoy the communication and sharing their story with the customer? If that's something that they're interested in and they enjoy doing, then a direct consumer market at a farmer's market or farm stand might make sense for them. There are some farmers that aren't interested investing kind of that time into marketing and for those farmers, a wholesale market
00:08:17
Speaker
or a food hub market would be a better opportunity for them. And then once a farmer decides which new or different markets they want to get into, sometimes there are different production practices or post-harvest handling practices that they need to be made aware of. They're selling wholesale or to a food hub. They may have to harvest and do post-harvest handling differently. They might have to get bunch sizes, a specific weight,
00:08:42
Speaker
They might have to pack a certain way. If they're selling at a farmer's market, they need to be keeping things in mind. How are they going to present their produce? How are they going to keep the quality up while it's sitting out at two or three hours, particularly in the middle of the summer? Do they have the infrastructure to handle the post-harvest handling and storage and cooling?
00:09:01
Speaker
that might be required? Do they have a diversity of crops to take to a farmer's market or a CSA when customers want a diversity of crops available to them? Or are they more interested in growing a large amount of two or three crops that they grow really well? And if that's the case, wholesale food, how institutional sales might make more sense for them. So there's a whole lot of questions that need to be asked of farmers
00:09:25
Speaker
And it really depends on what they're interested in, what their capacity is, what their farm infrastructure is to help them decide what market is going to be the best option for them. That's great to hear that a lot of these farms were able to explore different options from going online to selling direct to market and getting creative with their business and how they go about providing those convenient options to their buyers and meeting them where they're at.
00:09:52
Speaker
Do you have a farmer success story in mind that you would like to share with us?
00:09:57
Speaker
You know, I'm just blown away by all of the farmers in North and South Carolina that so quickly pivoted to online sales right after things shut down with COVID. CFSA put up a kind of a map to help direct customers to farmers that had just almost overnight pivoted to online sales, home delivery. And it just amazed me at the first week in March that everything was closed down here going to
00:10:25
Speaker
to that map. There was a handful of farmers on there and now, you know, there's just probably 150 farms on that map. So it just blows me away of how quickly so many farmers were able to pivot. I think one success story to share is back in May, CFSA launched a program called Farm Shares.
00:10:45
Speaker
And that was really a program that we kind of wedded to needs. One was unemployed restaurant workers who had been unemployed because their restaurants had closed their doors. And farmers that were selling to those restaurants kind of lost their market sale overnight. And so CFSA rallied and got some great donors to fund this farm shares program.
00:11:08
Speaker
which allowed us to purchase produce from farmers that normally sell to local food restaurants and then provide a box of produce to you know unemployed restaurant workers and that was just a huge success for the farmers because you know they were able to very quickly pivot their market and it's now kind of evolved to
00:11:30
Speaker
really addressing some persistent food insecurity communities and individuals. You know, it was a great project and I think that folks should check out. There's a video if you go to our website you can see a video and really see the impact that that had on farmers and the success story to me is the farmers that were able to take advantage of
00:11:49
Speaker
that program. From having the farms come together to support the community especially with the restaurants closing down and having community is a way that can also help you know the businesses get back on their feet all around across the board too. So what would you say are some of those tactics that those farms have used?
Leveraging Social Media and Local Interest
00:12:08
Speaker
I think really taking advantage of social media has been great. You know, if folks don't know you exist and what you're doing, it's hard to get new customers and new contacts. So taking advantage of social media, I think has been fabulous. Constant communication with your customers, letting them know, you know, what you have and providing recipes, providing, you know, information on how to use the produce that they're getting.
00:12:31
Speaker
I've seen a lot of folks with direct sales also providing opportunities for their customers to give back to the larger community. The business that I get home delivery from, they're always asking, donate a box to your neighbor, give back to your community. I think that really shows that that farmer is part of the community and it makes the consumer, the customer, people like me feel like I have an ability to give back to the community. Not only am I supporting the farmer,
00:12:59
Speaker
But when I donate a box of produce, I'm supporting other members of my community. So I think it tightens up that kind of community. Kind of looking ahead, we're in the middle of spring. We're quickly approaching summer. Many farms are looking to plan ahead, not just for the season, but looking to end of this year into next year. What are some tactics, best practices, or advice are you sharing with your members as they're looking to build more certainty with their business online?
00:13:24
Speaker
Well, one of the things that I saw during the beginning and even still in the pandemic is there's been an increased interest in local food. And maybe people are coming to it because they saw that farmers were struggling and needed different alternative markets to sell their produce at or folks were going to delivery services because they didn't want to leave their house. But I think that there has been definitely an uptick in interest and support of the local food system.
00:13:53
Speaker
I think that farmers need to take advantage of that and figure out how do we keep that enthusiasm going? How do we keep those new or increased customers in a local food system there? I would be thinking about ways to entice or continue to hold onto those consumers. If the home delivery online service is working for your business, for your farm, farmers invested a lot of time into making that shift.
00:14:22
Speaker
And they want to keep that momentum going. And so I would figure out what is it that your online customers want? Things have settled down a little bit and you're in the swing of this new market, this new kind of delivery system. Are there things that you can add to that that will kind of keep people coming back? Or can you add recipes? Can you add other products that
00:14:42
Speaker
You might not sell, but if you can add jams or baked goods or cheeses or even things that you don't produce or grow yourself, but your neighbor does, how do you make it more of a one-stop shop for folks so they're not having to go to multiple places? What little things can you add? I would say also communicating with your customer or your consumer, letting them know the impact, the positive impact that their business has had on your operation.
00:15:09
Speaker
Because then that makes them feel like they're more part of their community. And they really did make a difference when they were buying produce from you every week. It really had an impact. And I think sharing that with the consumers would be beneficial. I think one thing that COVID-19 showed is it's challenging to have diverse markets.
00:15:31
Speaker
But if you have diverse markets, when one market shuts down or slows down or there's an impact to that market, you already have your process, your setup to be able to increase what you're selling to a different market. So I think we talk a lot about diversity in agriculture, about production and crop production and make sure that you're growing a diverse number of crops. But I think if you can,
00:15:55
Speaker
Having a diverse market that you're marketing to is helpful because all of your eggs aren't in one basket. You touched on a lot of great insights there from product diversification to partnering with other farms. You don't have to produce everything right on your farm and sell it directly from your farm, but finding a way to make it convenient for your buyers if they're interested in purchasing
00:16:17
Speaker
produce from you and you have another farm down the road that does jam or something you know that's a great way to have those value-added products and have them interact and support the community too and then you touched on delivery as well which i think is important to know that that's an option it's what buyers are looking
Adopting New Sales Models
00:16:33
Speaker
for
00:16:33
Speaker
And in addition to that, I think of subscriptions or CSA boxes too, because I think thinking ahead and how can you build that recurring cashflow as well? Have you noticed some farms are looking into adding in subscriptions or CSA boxes into their business model as well? I think they are for that reason. Having a known customer, having known cashflow.
00:16:56
Speaker
that is very helpful, but it's also very helpful when you're doing crop planning. You know that you're going to have X amount of customers that are going to want, you know, a pint of cherry tomatoes every week or, you know, a pound of potatoes. And so I think, yes, I think they are looking more into CSAs to have that known market. Well, before we sign off, is there one final piece of advice that you'd like to share to farmers who are looking to build more certainty for their business throughout the rest of this year and even looking ahead to next year as well?
Increasing Business Resilience
00:17:26
Speaker
Well, if you're in North or South Carolina, contact us and we can provide you with some technical assistance. I would say, you know, talk to your neighbors, talk to farmers in your community, find out what other farmers are doing in your location that's been successful.
00:17:43
Speaker
Diversity is really kind of the best approach moving forward. I'm hopeful that we're moving in a direction where things are opening back up again and we won't close down again. But there is still that chance that things might close back down again for a little while. So I would say, maybe not implement what you need for that to happen, but be thinking about it. Do I have a diverse markets that I can sell my crops to so I don't find myself in a situation where
00:18:10
Speaker
I don't have a market, and I have this beautiful crop that I can't sell. Thank you, Karen, so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.
Resources and Closing Remarks
00:18:17
Speaker
I also want to extend my thanks to the entire membership at CFSA. At Barns Door, we are delighted to partner with CFSA to support local organic farms in North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as farmers in all 50 states. For more information on CFSA, you can visit their website, carolinafarmstewards.org.
00:18:37
Speaker
And to learn more about Barn to Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, you can go to barn2door.com slash resources. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you next time.