25 pages, The 2020 growing season presented new and significant challenges for farmers and farms across the United States as they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. The rich and diverse agricultural landscape of Washington State offers a valuable microcosm in which to explore the experiences of farms in the U.S. during the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on directly marketing small farms in western Washington State, with a focus on farmers’ experiences with resilience. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 farmers and used thematic analysis to explore the influence of the pandemic on overall experiences, responses, and values and perceptions related to small farms. Interviewees provided insights on the impacts of the pandemic on their daily farm operations, production costs, marketing channels, demand, and revenue. Farmers also reported shifting personal and public attitudes towards small farms during the pandemic. Product diversity, flexibility, multiple forms of support, values, and access to resources emerged as drivers of COVID-19 impacts and farm adaptations. When compared to existing frameworks on farm resilience, farms in this study are seen to demonstrate resilience via buffer and adaptive capabilities, which enable them to absorb and adjust to shocks. Farmers also discussed resilience via transformative capability, the potential to create new systems, leveraging the collective power of small farms to shape future food systems. Future research on the resilience of small farms should focus on ways to both promote resilience attributes and facilitate the ability of farmers to act on resilience capabilities.
2 pages, The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the operations of many farm and food businesses across
Louisiana. Producers had to adapt to changes or closures of market outlets, including farmers
markets, farm-to-school programs, and restaurants. Using data collected from an online survey,
this research examines pre- and post-pandemic marketing channels and challenges faced by food
producers.
16 pages, We use a sales database of farmers market vendors in the Washington, D.C., area to estimate how first half 2020 sales were impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We use 2019 data as a counterfactual for sales that would have occurred in 2020 in the absence of COVID-19. For neighborhood weekend markets that were able to remain open during the pandemic, the change in 2020 average sales between the winter and spring is between 75% and 79% lower than in 2019. Other farmers markets, particularly weekday markets in business districts, experienced delayed openings or were closed for the entire year.
24 pages, The popularization of social media and an increased interest in local food has led to the need for an online presence of direct-to-consumer agricultural producers. The COVID-19 pandemic quickly pushed the transition from traditional marketing practices to digital marketing practices, further emphasizing the importance of an online presence for small businesses. To better understand the perceptions of direct-to-consumer agricultural businesses, this study sought to understand the current use of social media and online communication and the challenges faced, related to social media and online communication, among these producers. Ten direct-to-consumer agricultural business personnel were interviewed to examine their social media and online communication use. Direct-to-consumer agricultural businesses are using Facebook as a primary social media platform and finding time to focus on social media and online communication is a challenge for agricultural personnel. A website is important to direct-to-consumer agricultural businesses, however many do not currently have a website. Direct-to-consumer agricultural businesses believe social media and an online communication are important to the growth and success of the business and are interested in educational materials and professional support to improve their online presence.
