Farm Stay Features, Upcoming Conferences

In a food feature for the Memphis Flyer, Sarah Christine Bolton gave a glowing report of food and agritourism in Chattanooga, TN. Bolton says that the city is "embracing artistic endeavors, sustainable business, locally grown food, and a thriving agri-tourism industry."

Photo: Working Horse Winery

Becky Gavigan of Granville Online wrote about the Working Horse Winery Inn in a recent article. The organic, 22-acre horse-powered vineyard and farm stay is an in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, in BC, Canada.

   

Photos: Joy Henkle  

Joy Henkle of whitewaterwarehouse.wordpress.com, a blog about travel, food, river rafting, and hiking in Southern Oregon, recently featured Pennington Farms. The 90-acre berry farm has an "old school" bakery and farm store specializing in berry pie and jam, as well as a 3-bedroom farm stay rental home. The pies look amazing.

Upcoming agritourism conferences and workshops

The 2010 Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism, & Organic Conference will be held in Springfield, IL from January 6-8. Thanks to the Local Matters blog for this info.

Western North Carolina Cooperative Extension is holding The Business Side of Agritourism Workshop from January 27th-28th.

The fifth Tennessee Agritourism Cultivating Farm Revenue Conference will be held in Nashville on Jan. 28-30, 2010, in conjunction with the Tennessee Horticultural Expo.

According to Durham, NY's The Daily Mail, the Durham Agricultural Community Partnership announced a Farmer’s Forum tentatively scheduled for Jan. 28. The forum is meant to update farmers on the progress that the Partnership has made in exploring ways to strengthen local agriculture and markets. Agritourism is one of the Partnership's four primary research strands, which also include forestry, livestock, and maple syrup production. According to local farm stay host Sherry Hull of Hull-O Farms:

Every farm is unique and they each have something different to offer. My visitors tell me how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. They say they don’t want to leave at the end of their vacations. We have to remind ourselves of how it looks from their perspective and appreciate and experience our lifestyle through their eyes.

The Nebraska Governor’s Agri/Eco-Tourism Workshop for 2010 will take place Feb. 3 and 4 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Kearney. The workshop is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s Travel and Tourism Division, along with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

Local officials in Augusta, VA are "buzzing" with talk about agritourism, according to an article by Chris Graham in the Augusta Free Press. From the article:

“The pressure on farmers is clearly there,” county economic-development director Dennis Burnett said. The county economic-development plan includes among its action points the development of strategies to help farmers grow and diversify their businesses ... “It contributes to the bottom line if we can make farming more economically viable. And at the same time, it preserves our rural landscape. It can be a win-win for everybody.”

This and that - news updates

I've been traveling lately, so to catch up, I have a scattered bunch of articles and
blog posts to report on:

The LA Times surveyed its readers to find out their picks for their favorite underrated vacation spots. Agritourism is mentioned in the first section, on Charlevoix, Quebec.

Wendy Redal, a columnist for Gaiam Life, wrote a nice overview of agritourism in a piece called Fall on the Farm: Agritourism Offers Plenty to Savor. She gives details on some Wisconsin farms as well.

The Review Lady blog gave a nice report of Smithfield Farm Bed and Breakfast in Virginia, along with musings on Michael Pollan and some lovely photos like the one to the right.

Southwest Virginia is developing an artisan network of crafts and farms called 'Round the Mountain that will be linked by a trail system, much like The Crooked Road, a wonderful heritage music trail. I love this trail idea as a way to connect people with out-of-the-way artisans and farms.

Western North Carolina farmers can apply for grants, due January 2010, via a program called Ag Options. The original aim of the grant program was to ensure the sustainability of area farms through the decline of tobacco farming. Today, the program supports the long-term viability of farms in the region by encouraging sustainable farm growth and diversification. Farms with goals to increase agritourism or utilize alternative energy are encouraged to apply.
Photo: The McDowell News

Nova Scotia and North Carolina

The theme of the articles I've been posting lately seems to be: you can't make a living from just farming anymore -- at least not the kind of farming in which farmers sell to middlemen who determines the price of the goods. Different strategies are in order, from direct-to-consumer sales to hosting customers on the farm for all kinds of activities.

"A tough row to hoe," by Gordon Delaney of the Halifax Chronicle Herald, discusses Nova Scotia's once booming, but now struggling, hog industry. In Nova Scotia, says the article, "Large retailers can bring pork into the province cheaper than local farmers can produce it."

It sounds much like the dairy crisis.  The cost of farmers producing the goods is greater than the wholesale price that they receive for the goods.

Photo caption: At the age of 53, Gerald Vermeulen is being forced to shut down his Canning hog operation. The lifelong farmer’s eyes fill with tears as he says: ’It’s going to be difficult for me to transition into something else, but that’s what I’m going to have to do.’(Photos by TIM KROCHAK / Chronicle Herald Staff)


From the article:

The hog industry is an example of how farmers have had to struggle to survive in a changing marketplace where large national and international grocery chains rule, and competition from cheap imported food products puts the squeeze on local farmers...There’s been a huge consolidation over the past 10 years among retail chains and other food distributors, putting the primary producer at a disadvantage in negotiation and positioning of prices, relative to the costs involved in producing food.

The article continues to analyze the food security risk inherent in a system in which only 7.2% of consumers' food dollars go to local farmers, down from 10.1% in 1991.

There is now, however, a small reverse in the trend. The local foods movement is changing consumer behavior, and some farmers are diversifying and pursuing agritourism in order to become resilient to the tough market.

Photo caption: Caroline Bishop and her father, Andrew, have branched out into alternate farming methods at their Noggins Corner Farm near Wolfville. Plastic field tunnels allow them to grow things like raspberries that normally couldn’t be grown here this time of year.