Monday, October 28, 2013

Go Chef Doug!

One of our MarketReady alumni and also Food Systems Innovation Center heros launched some great products at the Incredible Food Show in Lexington.  Great to see Chef Doug finding his niche, ramping up his business, making new buyer connections, and putting all the "book work" into practice.

See Doug on this neat YouTube featurette:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRd6yS3Hfp8&feature=youtu.be

Monday, October 21, 2013

More on-line retailing growth buzz

We keep stressing this in our MarketReady training.  Local foods suppliers (fresh foods, processed products, anything with a local label on it) need to get caught up with the on-line buying trend.  I just loved this recent articel by Marshall Marcovitz in The Gourmet Retailer.  Check it out - quick and fun read - Going Digital is Marketing Magic.  Digital media is here to stay and is being consumed in huge doses.

I love seeing the growth in markets like Penn's Corner, Hoosier Harvest, and Fair Shares CCSA.  Many other great examples, not to endorse any one specifically, where farmers are selling through aggregation on-line sites like these.  And some pretty creative entrepreneurs are connected with each group.  These go way beyond the simple directory of "here's where you can find local food" application of the ecommerce world.  Lower search costs for shoppers can provide a huge boost in market interest.  Ask the autotrade.com folks.

These sites are not a full substitute for the experiential dimension of local foods (visiting the farm market or a u-pick orchard) valued by locavores, but they sure are a nice complement. 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Insurance Basics & FAQs

The MarketReady team gets a lot of questions about insurance, so we decided to pull some information together for you! If you need to learn a bit more about insurance, or if you need to ensure your current coverage is adequate, check out our Insurance Basics & FAQs resource by clicking below.

Insurance Basics & FAQs
  • Click on Additional Resources at the bottom of the page
  • Find the document "Insurance Basics & FAQs"

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Appalachian Grown Regional Brand

Very nice feature about the Appalachian Grown brand here - the ASAP folks do a great job getting this brand out.  Wish we supported it better in KY.

I personally resist rigid definitions of "local".  I like the richness of everything from communities to micro-regions to states to regions of the country to parts of the world.  It all can provide various textures of geographic indication that are meaningful to different consumers.

I mention in the MR training that New Mexico stores defines "local" as anything from within a 4-state area.  Why not?  Shared cultures and food interests aren't bound by narrow food miles definitions.