2 pages., Posted online February 12, 2020., Brief news item announces that during December farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson (WGN Radio, Chicago, IL, and "This Week in Agri-Business" television program) marked his 45th year of doing a live year-end TV-radio interview with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. It was conducted, as traditionally, in the office of the USDA Secretary in Washington, D.C.
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.
Online from publication., This report describes a petition by 11 Southeast Alaska Native Tribes to create a "Traditional Homelands Conservation Rule." It is a new strategy in tribal nations' ongoing efforts to hold the federal government to its legal responsibility to consult with them on projects that impact them. It includes case examples of past failures to do so.
17 pages, Little is known about how farms and markets are connected. Identifying critical gaps and central hubs in food systems is of importance in addressing a variety of concerns, such as navigating rapid shifts in marketing practices as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and related food shortages. The constellation of growers and markets can also reinforce opportunities to shift growing and eating policies and practices with attention to addressing racial and income inequities in food system ownership and access. With this research, we compare network methods for measuring centrality and sociospatial orientations in food systems using two of America’s most high-producing agricultural counties. Though the counties are adjacent, we demonstrate that their community food systems have little overlap in contributing farms and markets. Our findings show that the community food system for Yolo County is tightly interwoven with Bay Area restaurants and farmers’ markets. The adjacent county, Sacramento, branded itself as America’s Farm-to-Fork capital in 2012 and possesses network hubs focused more on grocery stores and restaurants. In both counties, the most central actors differ and have been involved with the community food system for decades. Such findings have implications beyond the case studies, and we conclude with considerations for how our methods could be standardized in the national agricultural census.
21 pages, via online journal, How an agricultural organization handles the way the media reports a crisis can have an impact on the public’s perceptions of the organization, and sometimes the industry as a whole. The popularity of social media outlets as a venue for disseminating and gathering information and news makes the use of social media surrounding agricultural crises an important topic to investigate (Glynn, Huge, & Hoffman 2012; Hermida, 2010). A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the use of social media tools during an agricultural crisis. The participants – communications directors, social media managers, and individuals with a close connection to the crisis under study – reported that social media was a major component of their communication efforts surrounding each crisis. Participants felt social media was very effective in these situations and had a major impact on their communication efforts. Although no participants reported using a structured social media strategy or crisis communication plan, they stated a need for such guidelines in the agricultural industry. From the data analyzed in this study, a model for using social media during a crisis situation, aimed specifically for use by those in the agricultural industry, was developed. This project was funded through the USDA's Beginning Farmers & Ranchers Project.
9 pages., Article # 1RIB4, Via online journal., Food hubs represent a business model through which farmers can collectively market product to access new supply chains and buyers can efficiently access locally sourced foods. Many farmer marketing cooperatives fit within the food hub definition and have existed for decades. Accordingly, much can be learned from them to support food hub business planning efforts. We developed and synthesized case studies of three successful cooperatives in order to match key food hub operational challenges with recommended best management practices. Such information is useful for Extension education efforts supporting the development of economically viable food hub businesses.
1 page., Via IFAS Extension, University of Florida, These flyers, written by Natalie Seymour, Mary Yavelak, Candice Christian, and Ben Chapman (NC State University Extension), provide quick, digestible information regarding prevention of COVID-19 and procedures for food service, grocery stores, and other food-related businesses. This flyer in particular provides guidance regarding takeout and COVID-19. Published by the UF/IFAS Food Science and Human Nutrition Department.
