Posts Tagged: farmers

Small farmers find new marketing opportunities in San Francisco

Being a small-scale farmer has its advantages, including a certain cachet in today's modern marketplace, where high-end consumers are clamoring for fresh, locally grown foods, reported Stacy Finz in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The story focused on a tour last week organized by UC Cooperative Extension and the UC Agricultural Sustainability Institute intended to help small growers find new avenues to sell their products.

"Everyone wants to do business with them," said David Visher, a project analyst who helped organize the workshop.  "We're not advocating that they choose processors over farmers' markets. We're just trying to show them their options and introduce them to the right people so they can make their own choices."

One of the growers on the tour, Emma Torbert, told the reporter she returned to her farm near Davis with a head full of possibilities.

Read more about the tour in the UC Food Blog post Cultivating connections between farmers and food buyers.

Fair weather leads to clean air and farmer dispair

This year's mild summer temperatures - which follows a cool, wet spring - has been a curse for San Joaquin Valley farmers, according to an article in Saturday's Fresno Bee.

On the bright side, a companion story said this year's spring and summer weather is also responsible for cleaner air than usual in the Valley.

In the farm story, reporter Robert Rodriguez devoted significant space to the Valley's raisin crop, which must reach specific sugar levels before an army of 25,000 workers clips grape bunches and arranges them on paper trays in the field to dry.

"The pressure is really going to be on because we will have a shorter amount of time to pick," the article quoted raisin farmer Pete Gonzalez. "Everybody is going to want to go at once. And that's not going to be possible."

Processing tomatoes are typically planted in stages so processors aren't inundated with the entire crop at once. However, the cool spring delayed the first planting. That means some tomatoes may become overripe before processing, reducing their value, the article said.

For the part of his story on cotton, Rodriguez spoke to two University of California Cooperative Extension experts. UCCE farm advisor Dan Munk told the reporter that cotton growers are hoping for a warm fall to finish the crop.

"The more we go into November, the more opportunities we will have for days on end of fog, and that means more moisture and wet cotton," Munk was quoted.

UC integrated pest management advisor Pete Goodell said he is advising growers not to wait too long to harvest.

"Our approach is to go for the shortest season you can," Goodell was quoted. "The later a grower goes, the greater the chances of losing everything."

In the article about clean air, Bee staff writer Mark Grossi reported that the cool spring and mild summer, paired with other factors - such as wind - created poor conditions for the formation of ozone.

"If the San Joaquin Valley violated the federal ozone standard every day for the rest of the summer, this still would be the cleanest season on record," Grossi wrote.

Sacramento farms sell direct at high rate

Fourteen percent of Sacramento-area farms market directly to consumers, compared to just nine percent of farmers nationally, according to research by Shermain Hardesty, UC Davis Cooperative Extension economist. The study was publicized in a UC Davis news release, and picked in the Sacramento Business Journal.

Hardesty found that farms in the Sacramento region averaged $19,518 in annual income in direct sales - at such outlets as farmers markets and roadside stands. California farms' direct sales income ranged from an average of $6,924 in Placer County to $66,568 in Yolo County.

“We were especially interested to find that, even after deducting the added costs of transportation, distribution and selling at the farmers market or other point of sale, the farmers are still able to net a greater share of retail prices in local food supply chains than they would had they used conventional marketing chains,” the news release quoted Hardesty.

For example, mixed greens growers in Monterey County receive on average 79 cents per pound by marketing through conventional channels. One Yolo County grower netted seven times that price at a farmers market.

The full report, “Comparing the Structure, Size, and Performance of Local and Mainstream Food Supply Chains,” is available from USDA.

Yolo County farmer sells direct to consumer.

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