Limited Resource Growers
Limited-ResourceGrowers Profit from Value-Added Ventures
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| A national kitchen catalog will advertise this "garland" of peppers, grown and strung by farmer members of Appalachian Sustainable Development as part of a value-added enterprise that is helping improve quality of life in the region. Photo by Dick Austin |
Farmers in the Appalachian region of Virginia and Tennessee have benefitted from new marketing opportunities created by a coalition working to improve quality of life in the traditionally poor, underemployed region. Aided by a SARE grant, Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) members have convinced an area grocery store chain to carry locally grown organic produce, boosted direct-to-restaurant sales of vegetables and landed a value-added pepper product in an upscale national kitchen catalog. With ASD's help, farmers are forming community-supported agriculture enterprises that gain consumer investment at the start of a growing season in exchange for supplies of fresh produce. A new commercial kitchen in Sneedville, Tenn., should help others create value-added farm products such as herbal soaps and garlic jellies. Finally, an on-farm research and demonstration project shows producers ways to avoid tomato blight and raise livestock on pasture. [For more information about this Southern Region project, go to www.sare.org/projects/ and search for LS97-084.]
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