2008 Farm Community Projects
| COMMUNITY MARKETS | COLLABORATIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES | |
| SHARED EQUIPMENT | SHARED PROCESSING FACILITIES | |
Collaborative Marketing Strategies
Alexander and Iredell Young Farmer Association
Iredell Alexander Nursery and Tree Farm Marketing Guide
This project assisted tree and ornamental plant producers from Iredell and Alexander County to market their products. The project has supported production of marketing materials and field days targeted at urban markets. The goal was to target landscape architects, landscapers, and others in the Charlotte area and to encourage sourcing of product from association members.
Shared Processing Facilities
Foothills Family Farms
Facility Advancement Project
The project supports a cooperative of farmers based in the western piedmont to market organic and sustainably produced produce and livestock. The grant assisted the co-op to acquire a packing facility near Old Fort, North Carolina and to outfit it with the required washing, cooling, and packing equipment.
McDowell Honeybees Chapter
Honey Extracting and Packaging Facility
The project completed a facility that is used by members of McDowell Honeybees Chapter to extract, bottle, and market honey. The facility is co-located with a cattle auction facility and contains the equipment necessary to process and jar honey. The facility will serve a key role in recruiting new members as well as allowing small producers to efficiently process and sell their product.
Community Markets
Wilson County Cooperative Extension
Farmers’ Market Shelter
This project allowed the Wilson County Farmers’ Market to expand their shelter capacity to accommodate more vendors. The farmers’ market had a great year in 2008, and demand from farmers outstripped the capacity of their existing shelter. The project has enabled the market to accommodate eight additional vendors this season.
Wayne County Community Food Systems Initiative
Growing Center
The intention of this project was to establish a growing center that combined an independent market farm with a community garden site to enhance local food availability in a low-income neighborhood in Goldsboro. Due to land tenure issues, the community garden was not able to be located with the market farm.
Shared Equipment
Five Star Cooperative
No-till Drill Shared-use Equipment Project
Many members of the Five Star and Twin Rivers Cooperatives have transitioned from growing tobacco to small grain production. No-till production has well documented benefits in cost-reduction, yield improvement, and to the environment. Unfortunately, few of the co-op members have operations large enough to adequately distribute the cost of a no-till drill. This project enabled the co-op to collaboratively purchase the drill, so that their mid-scale operations could recognize the benefits of no-till.
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