Food Safety From Farm to Table

May 12, 2016Consumers, Direct to Consumer, Farm Safety, farm-to-school, Farm-to-Table, Farmers, Farmers Markets, Farming Practices, Legal Issues

GUEST BLOG POST By Elanor Starmer  IF you are a farmer interested in selling produce wholesale or direct to a retailer, restaurant or institution, you probably have food safety on the brain. A growing number of buyers require farms to demonstrate compliance with a food safety standard, often through an audit and certification program. That takes … Read More

Member Profile: Crave Food Services

February 11, 2016Cooperatives, Farm to Institution, farm-to-school, Farm-to-Table, Farmer Profile, NEFU Members, Product Marketing, Regional Marketing

What happens when a chef, obsessed with using local ingredients finds he’s spending more time finding and ordering food than actually cooking it? If the chef is Matt Tortora, he starts a tech company and builds an online platform to connect food service workers and chefs directly to local producers. Tortora and his team at Crave … Read More

Direct Marketing is Invaluable for Consumer Education on Agriculture

February 3, 2016Beginning Farmers, Consumers, Direct to Consumer, Farm Bill, farm-to-school, Farmer Leaders, Farmers Markets, Grass Roots Policy, House Agriculture Committee, Meat and Poultry, National Farmers Union, NEFU Members, USDA

GUEST BLOG POST By Katie Fisher, government relations intern, National Farmers Union On Feb. 2, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research held a hearing examining the opportunities and challenges in direct marketing. It provided first-hand accounts from farmers and ranchers involved in direct marketing ventures, such as local farmers markets, direct to restaurant or … Read More

New Toolkit Guides Farm to Institution Procurement

January 28, 2016Educational Opportunities, Farm to Institution, farm-to-school

Farm to Institution New England (FINE) introduced a new resource to help local farmers and institutional buyers connect. The toolkit, “Setting the Table for Success: Increasing Local Food Purchasing by Institutional Food Service Management,” covers the basics of how institutional purchasing works and offers guidance for using the food service request-for-proposal and contract process to … Read More

Convention Paints Strong Picture of Local Agriculture

November 12, 2015Beginning Farmers, Climate Change, Conservation, Consumers, Cooperatives, Country of Origin Labeling, Direct to Consumer, Farm Bill, Farm Bill 2013, Farm Demographics, Farm Economics, Farm Transfer Issues, Farm Workers, farm-to-school, Farm-to-Table, Farmer Leaders, Farmers Markets, Farmland Preservation, Food Hubs, Food Labels, FSA, FSMA, Grass Roots Policy, National Farmers Union, NEFU Members, Regional Food Systems, Regional Policy, SNAP, Trade, USDA

New England Farmers Union’s sixth annual convention, Gearing Up for Success, drew roughly 60 members of the farming community when it met on Nov. 6-8 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, NH. Attendees heard from national, regional, state, and local agricultural leaders on subjects such as federal agricultural policy, food safety, local and regional … Read More

Farmers Union Goes to School

May 13, 2015Beginning Farmers, Educational Opportunities, farm-to-school, GMO

Recently, New England Farmers Union attended two events at western Massachusetts high schools to talk to students about specific policy issues they can get involved in, such as GMO labeling, and to let future graduates know what kinds of careers are available in agriculture. The events presented an opportunity for Farmers Union representatives to spread the … Read More

Secretary Vilsack: $97 Million for New Programs for Farmers

March 16, 2015Alternative Energy, Beginning Farmers, Census of Agriculture, Consumers, Farm Bill 2013, farm-to-school, National Farmers Union, Risk Management, Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Specialty Crops, USDA

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack today announced $97 million in programs to support the continued development of farmers markets, farm to school efforts and rural economies and will also expand risk management tools for specialty crops and limited-resource farmers. “Increasing market opportunities for local food producers is a sound investment in America’s rural economies, … Read More

Krysta Harden: Local Food Movement is Growing Up

March 10, 2015Census of Agriculture, farm-to-school, Farmers Markets, Regional Food Systems, USDA

GUEST BLOG POST BY Krysta Harden, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Recently, there has been a series of media reports suggesting the gangbusters growth in farmers markets is slowing, signaling a plateau in the local food movement. Not so. What we’re seeing is the evolution of the local and regional food movement beyond weekend shopping into … Read More