It has been a fun (and busy) holiday season this year shipping good, organic food to people all across the country. There is nothing quite like a gift of our delicious honey in a beautiful painted Weck jar to send a message of thanks and love to new and old friends alike. Along the way we have had some great discussions with friends and family regarding Firefly Fields and Jennings Family Farm and how exactly the farm is able to bring all of this yummy food to market. One common question that we get is if we only sell wholesale. The short answer is no, but I will go into a little more detail about how we sell our products and also why we think it’s important to sell across a variety of scales.
Food from the farm needs to be made available across multiple scales and pathways so that we can better link communities and individuals with the farmers that produce their food.
–Firefly Fields–
In an earlier post Virginia shared some graphics which highlighted a general pathway food might take from the farm to the consumer. Within what we called the “traditional” food system you see a stepwise process, starting with the farmer and eventually ending with a consumer. The primary sales for the farm rely largely on market-based sales of commodity crops on a large scale to companies which aggregate crops from a certain locale and forward along for further processing somewhere else.
This type of pathway has pros and cons, as any pathway does, both to the farmer as well as to the consumer. For example, organic market prices and commodity premiums allow organic farm operations security in scaling up to produce more food on more acres because they know they can sell that food in large quantities to product aggregators. At these larger scales food prices for the consumer can be reduced while maintaining profitability for all involved in the food system. However, farms become disconnected from consumers as the crops that are grown locally are whisked away immediately following harvest, and if they return it’s as a product that is often unrelatable by most to the original crop that was grown to produce it. As an example, think about a slice of pizza or even a loaf of bread from a local shop…how many ingredients come from a local farm? Also, as farm products proceed down this pathway, each step along the way is a potential stumbling block that can impact the quality of that product for the consumer.
So, are we stuck with this type of pathway for our food? At Firefly Fields we think the answer is a resounding NO. There are ways that we can diversify the pathway to provide additional benefits and options to both the farmer and the consumer.
Direct local and regional sales are a way for farm operations to more directly connect with consumers through retailers such as grocery stores and businesses such as restaurants, caterers, and cafeterias. These types of sales and interactions can reinforce the connection between farms and food and provide opportunities to ingrain farming and rural families into the fabric of growing communities. We believe that connecting school and hospital cafeterias, shops, businesses, and restaurants to the farm can create stronger, more resilient, and healthier communities.
Individual sales are the most direct and intimate way for farm operations to connect with their consumers, and vice-versa, through farm markets, on-farm sales, and now online sales. For the farmer, there is no better way to connect with consumers and your local community than through individual sales. For the consumer, there is no better way to ensure the highest quality food products than to go directly to the farm.
Each of these pathways present rewards and obstacles to both the farmer and consumer. However, this is exactly why Firefly Fields and Jennings Family Farm work to make our products available across all pathways and promote alternative food system models to more tightly link farms with communities and individuals. So, as you are out and about this holiday season shopping for holiday meals, take a moment to think about the farmer behind the food when you buy. And if you’re in a pinch don’t forget that throughout the rest of 2018 Firefly Fields has several deals on raw honey and comb honey ($15 off 1/2 L or 1 L), Bee Butter ($10 off 1/5 L), and $25 off the Queen Bee’s Stash Honey Sampler!!! Enjoy 😊
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