Vermont Law School: Small Farm Energy Solutions

If you want a greener, more affordable farm, please take a look at this link... It has great offerings to farmers (in all income brackets).

http://www.agenergysolutions.org/site/

Changes in the Law for Produce Growers and Farm Marketers

From the Penn State Hort Report:

Changes in the Law for Produce Growers and Farm Marketers:
Things you need to know!

Steve Bogash, Regional Horticulture Educator, Penn State Cooperative Extension, and Luke LaBorde, Associate Pro-fessor, Department of Food Science, Penn State University

1. The safe handling and production of raw produce is being taken seriously at the Federal level. This act gives the FDA relatively broad powers to create standards for the production, handling and packag-ing of raw produce. These standards must use the best science available, so will change over time.

2. An amendment that was included in the act pro-vides for the exclusion of businesses that do less than $500,000 in sales if they:

a. Sell in-state directly to the public or end user. For example, sell directly to grocers and restaurants.

b. Sell out-of-state if the market is within 275 miles of their operation. This in-cludes farm markets and farmers mar-kets.

3. Included under these new powers is the ability of the FDA to regulate all sales through remarketers. Al-though we’ll have to wait for the final rules, this will probably require that produce auctions require their growers to fall under whatever standards the FDA implements.

4. This will all probably mean that GAP and related food safety standards are going to be part of every grower’s production standards.

5. For certified organic growers, there is provision within the act that prevents conflict or duplicate re-quirements. Organic growers are not excluded from this bill, but are protected from excessive regulation as long as basic GAP practices that protect public health adhered to.

6. Specific fruits and vegetables that are considered riskier or have a history of being linked to foodborne illness outbreaks are considered priority items. Read this as green, berries, melons, tomatoes, herbs, and green onions.

7. The Commissioner of the FDA is charged in this bill with keeping the rules and regulations flexible and practical for all sizes of businesses and on-farm food processors.

8. Although specific purchasers such as Wegman’s may require third party inspections, they are not required under this act. Read this to mean that this will be very similar to maintaining a pesticide license. You must keep certain records as well as grow and pack-age your produce under modern, scientifically deter-mined standards, but FDA will be determining what specific types of inspections will be required.

9. Labeling is a hot issue. Individual produce will not be required to be labeled. However, there must be prominent signage on display at the sales point giving purchasers the business name and address of the pro-ducer.

All farmers market stands that sell food to the public are considered individual food retail facilities and must each pay the $82 annual renewal fee unless considered exempt. A farmers market will no longer be considered the license holder. This relates to prepared ready-to-eat foods, not raw ingredients such as produce. Each stand / booth will now be a license holder.
Unless you’ve avoided talking to any other growers recently and / or don’t read any grower news, you’ve heard about the Federal (FDA) Food Modernization Act. There’s been a lot of scare tactics and confusing information sent out over the web on this act. After reading through the law and related amendment, this is not nearly as bad as some of the stories I’ve read make it out to seem. While the specific rules and regulations will need to be written by the FDA within 1 year of the signing date (January 5, 2011) and implementation sometime after that, there are some things that growers will want to consider now.

For more information contact Steve Bogash (717) 263-9226 or smb13@psu.edu

CSA Business Help is at Hand!!!

We were just recently introduced to some really neat software from SmallFarmCentral.com. The developers have created easy to use spreadsheets and programs as well as website development so that your CSA book keeping can become a lot easier! Take a look to see how they can help you become more accessible and reduce your stress.

http://www.smallfarmcentral.com/memberassembler

From the minds of Small Farm Central:

Top Ten Ways You'll Love the Member Assembler
Posted October 22nd, 2009 by simon.huntley

1. Your own site: It's your own site and it's your data -- customers will never know about Small Farm Central and the Member Assembler. Your online CSA sign-up page is customizable and at your own address, such as http://yourfarm.csasignup.com.

2. Cost-effective: At $1/per member per season the Member Assembler will pay for itself in saved time within a very short period. You are billed as your membership grows, so you don't have to worry about paying for members than you will need. Read more about pricing.

3. Easy to use: The Member Assembler is designed with the needs of the non-technical farmer in mind -- you don't need to know all the technology, you just want to manage your members.

4. No risk: Free for the first 25 members and no billing until January 2010.

5. Payment processing: Automatically process payments through Google Checkout or PayPal -- once payment is made, the payment is associated with the member in the Member Assembler so you can easily keep track of balances and payments.

6. Or no payment processing: Don't like the idea of sending 2+% of your CSA sales to the credit card man? Use our invoice only payment processing (ie no payment is processed online) and take checks in the mail.

7. Integrated: The Member Assembler is tied right in to the Small Farm Central website development service, so you can run your website with the member service right on top of it or you can run the Member Assembler as a stand-alone service.

8. Export Data: Download excel spreadsheets of all your membership data to import into other applications such as accounting, to print, or process in any way you like!

9. Small Farm Central: We are the leading web services company geared only to the needs of the direct marketing farm -- with over 250 sites and 1 million views per month we are always improving our services and provide personal, understanding customer support.

10. Mailing Lists: Quickly send out blast emails to your membership with our mailing list tools -- even send specific messages to individual pick-up locations

A one day workshop to explore business decisions Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers need to make to be successful, addressed by experienced CSA farmers and agricultural professionals.

When: Monday, January 24, 2011, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: Berks County Agricultural Center, 1238 County Welfare Rd., Suite 110, Leesport, PA 19533

Cost: $ 30.00

Schedule

8:30 – 8:55am

Registration

8:55 – 9:00am
Welcome & Introductions

9:00 – 10:00am
CSA Planning: Budgets, Equipment & Labor
Mike Ahlert, Red Earth Farm
Peggy Fogarty-Harnish, Penn State Cooperative Extension

10:15 – 11:15am
Management Strategies
Tianna Dupont, Penn State Cooperative Extension
Heidi Secord, Cherry Valley CSA

11:30 am –12:30pm
Promotion, Communication & Planning
Stina Vosburgh, Robyn Van En Center
Lisa Kerschner, North Star Orchard

12:30 – 1:30pm
Lunch

1:30 – 2:30 pm
Exploring CSA Models - Multi-farm CSA’s
Alex Jones, Greens Grow
Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative

2:45 – 3:45 pm
Exploring CSA Models
John Good, Quiet Creek Farm
Mike Ahlert, Red Earth Farm
Jill Landis, Living Hope Farm
Eric Benner, Wilson College CSA

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Brian Moyer, Penn State Cooperative Extension (610) 391-9840 in advance of your participation or visit. For more information visit: http://www.agmarketing.extension.psu.edu/ CSA School

How does time fly? It's the season's end already?

It seems that September and October have flown by and all of a sudden we have stumbled into the month of November. In that time, many CSAs have wound down their growing season and are now working on winter preparations. Perhaps you as a CSA farmer are wondering what you can do to make next year better or maybe you are completely thrilled with the way this season went. Either way, it can be very beneficial to ask your CSA members if they agree with you. Emailed, hardcopy, or web based surveys can be very helpful to see what you can do even better in future seasons.

Resources:

Check out other CSA surveys online - Google "CSA Surveys" and you will be able to see sample questions of what you might want to know! Ex: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=P_2brYcqlWrp1oSEfd_2bre2CA_3d_3d

Survey monkey is very beneficial for web based surveys. The downside is that you are only allowed 10 questions.

Another option for email or blog based surveys is that you can ask as many questions as you want... and people can post/email/ or print and mail their responses. See the survey below from Oakhill Organics in Oregon:

"What about the CSA program so far has been especially positive for you and
your family?
What about the CSA program or season was less positive for you?
Do you have a suggestion for changing it that might be applicable?
Overall, how would you rate the quality of the vegetables you received this season?
Overall, how did you feel about the quantity of vegetables provided?
How did the amounts work for you and your family?
At this point, do you plan to participate in the CSA again next year? YES / NO
… if no, why not?
Is there anything you would suggest we change to accommodate your needs differently?
Any other comments?
Finally, we’re collecting CSA member ‘testimonials’
to share in our 2010 season materials. In one to four sentences, what would you
want to tell a potential new member about your Oakhill Organics CSA experience?
May we use your name with your testimonial? NO / YES: "

Survey Style:

One thing you must be wary of is asking members too many questions. If you have ever answered a really long survey you will understand that a survey that is too long may just end up forgotten by the wayside. Try to limit your survey to 1-2 pages typewritten.

Anonymity in survey giving can be very helpful for getting honest answers but also leave a space for members names if they so choose so that you can know who to contact if you decide to make changes that might affect their decision to stay.

At the end of the day, handing out a survey is often rewarding to the Farmer... While there may be one or two grumpy or disgruntled members, most are pleased with the benefits of the CSA. That is part of the beauty of the CSA contract: the members know there are risks and rewards when they sign up, and many are left feeling rewarded for the experience.

Till next time,

-S-

We are Ba-a-a-ack!!!

After a few changes in the office and some updates to our programs, the Robyn Van En Center is very happy to be back and running full steam! I, Christina, am your host for today's blog experience!

The summer was a quiet one here at the Robyn Van En Center, but we are pleased to have over 85 new CSA's join our ranks this year! While we are excited at the growth, we would love to see even greater numbers so that local foods are more readily available to all areas of the country.

We have some new ideas for outreach and support that we would like to offer to our CSA farmers and hope to make these available in the near future. We also would love to hear feedback on how we can better serve you - whether you are a farmer, a CSA member, or just interested in finding out more about CSAs and farming.

I'll be back to share more with you soon!

Keep on supporting fresh, local food!
-C-

http://buylocalscpa.blogspot.com/