Business of Agriculture: Winter Greens
We’re experimenting with growing greens like kale and spinach on our farm this winter, and right about now, I’m thinking I should have my head examined. If the door to the greenhouse isn’t frozen solid on a typical morning, I know my fingers soon will be. Despite an occasional frozen thumb, the experiment is showing signs of life, not just on our farm but on farms across the valley and the country. Primarily this is thanks to the...
Cage-Free, the Egg of the Future
Will the next egg you crack come from a chicken raised in a roomier barn? Foodies and farmers are in unusual agreement on the answer: If not now, then soon enough. Both say McDonald’s recent decision to transition to “cage free” eggs for its McMuffins and other menu items was a tipping point in the $9 billion egg industry, which still produces 96 percent of its eggs in barns full of stacked wire cages. It will be increasingly hard to...
The Business of Agriculture: Farmers Market Phenomenon Is Here to Stay
Over the past decade or so, agricultural leaders in both Vermont and New Hampshire have been effusively lauding the expansion in numbers of farms and the increase in volume of commodities moving into market channels within the states. Major drivers in both statistical areas have been the growth in the number of local farmers markets and of farm enterprises adopting the community supported agriculture, or CSA, model for connecting with...
Women and Business: Women-Powered Farms
Women have been farmers for as long as there have been farms. But data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the percentage of farms operated principally by women nearly tripled — to 14 percent from 5 percent — between 1978, when the USDA’s Census of Agriculture began recording the gender of principal farm operators, and 2007. The percentage of farms with women as the principal operators is highest in the West and in New...
Organics Do Well in Produce, but Struggle in Meat, Bread Aisles
Washington — Organic foods are seizing shelf space in the fresh-foods sections of grocers but struggling to break into the bread and meat aisles. Organic-product sales farmers made to businesses including Dean Foods and Wal-Mart Stores totaled $5.5 billion in 2014, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of organic growers. The total is 72 percent higher than the last time a similar survey was conducted in 2008. Sales so...
