The Walton Family Foundation invested in a Honduran lobster fishery, targeting its sustainability and touting its success. Ten years later, thousands of workers have been injured or killed.
January 8, 2010
The Imperial Stock Ranch, which began in 1871, faces a new and serious challenge to its very survival: how to create new markets for its products to compensate for longstanding existing markets that have declined or shifted overseas. Some bold steps were needed to rethink what to do with the wool from the sheep they raise on their 30,000 acre ranch in Eastern Oregon. Their solution? Direct, value-added marketing to yarn retailers and apparel designers.
Jeanne Carver is following in a long tradition of farmers striving to distinguish their product in the marketplace—first and foremost by its quality, but also through processing, product enhancements, packaging, and suggestions for how consumers can use the product. As you watch the video, note the four key areas where producers focus their efforts in order to achieve success:
This video was funded by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and produced by Cooking Up A Story. SARE provides grants to farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators in order to advance food and farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities. SARE is proud of its connections to farming communities across the country and encourages those who wish to learn more to visit their website www.sare.org. SARE is a program of the USDA Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service.
Photo Courtesy of Imperial Stock Ranch. All Rights Reserved.
Originally published on Cooking Up a Story
December 6, 2023
The Walton Family Foundation invested in a Honduran lobster fishery, targeting its sustainability and touting its success. Ten years later, thousands of workers have been injured or killed.
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These Social Marketing tools can supply much of the delivery muscle for a farmers marketing message.
Writer/Blogger Bonnie Powell (the Ethicurean) has done something like this with 2 CSAs. She says she traded her new media services for years for pastured meat, eggs, and milk. She'll be leading a 'social media for farmers' session at the upcoming Eco-Farm's preconference in Northern California.