{"id":712,"date":"2020-03-26T19:18:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T19:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/?p=712"},"modified":"2020-03-26T19:39:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T19:39:13","slug":"ut-extension-identifies-resources-for-direct-farm-marketers-during-covid-19-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/ut-extension-identifies-resources-for-direct-farm-marketers-during-covid-19-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"UT Extension Identifies Resources for Direct Farm Marketers During COVID-19 Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CSAs, Agritourism Operators, Others Changing Their Business Models<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLUMBIA,\nTenn.\u2014Like other businesses and families, Tennessee\u2019s direct farm marketers,\nvalue-added agriculture entrepreneurs and agritourism operators are facing new\nand imposing challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak and by local, state and\nnational efforts to flatten the curve of infections. Navigating the situation\nis a daunting task, so the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture has\ndeveloped a website to support farmers who are making critical decisions and\nbusiness adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The free resource list is available at tiny.utk.edu\/CPA-COVID19<\/a>. The site provides links to resources made available by UT Extension and other universities, government agencies and producer organizations from across the country. Specialists with the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture along with colleagues from the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Food Science, and Plant Sciences have contributed to this streamlined listing. The website will be updated throughout this crisis as new resources are developed and identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan\nBruch Leffew, marketing Specialist in UT Extension\u2019s Center for Profitable\nAgriculture, said, \u201cFarmers who are marketing products and services directly to\nconsumers or to grocery stores and restaurants have had to make significant\nadjustments in the way they are doing business while we are in the midst of the\noutbreak. They will also have to consider how what we are all going through now\nwill impact them moving forward related to potential changes in consumer behaviors\nand finances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agritourism\noperators who typically offer springtime activities on the farm have taken a\nbig hit due to cancellations of Easter activities, field trips, and events such\nas weddings and birthday parties. They are looking toward what also may be a\ntemporary shift in consumer needs and expectations for summer and fall\nactivities such as summer camps, field trips, family fun activities and haunted\nattractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct\nfarm markets selling directly to restaurants have also seen demand from that\nmarket diminish, while demand for local product from grocery stores and from\nindividual consumers has increased. Consumers have been seeking local food\nsources because of limited product availability from other suppliers. Producers\nwith on-farm markets or who participate in farmers markets have made changes to\noffer pre-orders, drive-through markets or curbside pick-up and employ other\nmeasures to protect the health of their consumers, employees and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture\nExtension agents in each of Tennessee\u2019s 95 county Extension offices and more\nthan 3,000 producers and industry partners have received an email notifying\nthem of this new resource from the Center for Profitable Agriculture. Producers\ninterested in adding their email address to one or more of the Center\u2019s lists\ncan send a request to cpa@utk.edu<\/a>. Producers should\nindicate their area of interest: agritourism, farmers market, value-added dairy\nproducts and\/or value-added meats. Producers may also be interested in\nfollowing the Center\u2019s Facebook page for additional information:  facebook.com\/ValueAddedAg<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Center\u2019s everyday focus is to provide information and education to\nhelp our farmers be profitable, although like many other agencies, the way we\ndo that has changed a bit due to COVID-19,\u201d said Rob Holland, director of the\nCenter for Profitable Agriculture. \u201cWe want producers to know that we are still\nworking to support them. We also greatly appreciate the many folks who\ndeveloped and assembled the materials and educational resources that are listed\non the new website.\u201d 
\n
\nOther publications and resources to help families\nnavigate the COVID-19 crisis are available online at utextension.tennessee.edu<\/a> or by contacting your local\ncounty Extension office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through its land-grant mission\nof research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of\nAgriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia-dev.tennessee.edu\u200b<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CSAs, Agritourism Operators, Others Changing Their Business Models<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"articletype":[],"institute":[16],"topics":[138,126,179],"entities":[27,13],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-farm-food","institute-news-release","topics-agri-business-economics-and-entrepreneurship","topics-food-products","topics-value-added-agriculture","entities-center-for-profitable-agriculture","entities-extension"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 02:57:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"articletype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articletype?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"institute","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institute?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"entities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entities?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}