Selling

26Aug 2020

USDA Farmers Market Data Published

August 26, 2020 Susan Beckwith Buying Food, Economic Development, farmers market, Latest News, Money, Selling 0 Comment

Farmer Market Managers Highlights (full report is here) In 2019, Farmers Market Managers operated 8,140 farmers markets. The largest number of markets operated during June through September. The month of July was the highest month of operation, followed closely by August, with 71.9 percent and 71.8 percent, respectively. Twenty-one percent of the markets operated year […]

09May 2019

Austin as a Hotbed of Consumer Packaged Goods

May 9, 2019 Susan Beckwith Buying Food, Economic Development, Food Processing, Job Opportunities, Latest News, Selling 0 Comment

This article in the Austin Chronicle (March 8, 2019) highlights the latest players in the burgeoning Austin consumer packaged goods (CPG) world. We want the best of these companies to locate in Elgin where we have land, farms and a strong labor force. At the Texas Center for Local Food, we’re raising funds now to […]

26Apr 2019

Texas A&M University Stone Fruit Testing Program

April 26, 2019 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Latest News, Selling 0 Comment

We got an email about this tree program and want share it with all of you! Texas A&M has announced its 2020 Fruit Testing Program. Orders are begin taken through May 15, 2019 may order fruit trees to be made available starting January 2020. Dr. David Byrne, director of the stone fruit breeding program at […]

25Apr 2019

Texas Ranches Do a Deal with Walmart

April 25, 2019 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Economic Development, Latest News, Meat, Selling 0 Comment

As Walmart works to build its own beef supply chains, Bloomberg reports that Walmart has made deals with Texas’ 44 Farms (of Cameron TX) and Mc6 Cattle Feeders to supply beef to 500 Walmart stores. Interesting that the pic in the article shows apparently happy cattle on lush green grass. We suspect the reality of […]

23Aug 2018

Meat processing in Texas – A few thoughts

August 23, 2018 Susan Beckwith Business and Financial, Economic Development, Food Processing, Meat, Selling 1 Comment

What are the real opportunities and gaps in the grass-fed beef industry in Texas? This report from New York (2015) may inform our work in Texas. If you have thoughts, please post comments below so we can all hear you. We talk about the need for meat processing facilities, but maybe we need to do […]

19Feb 2018

Chatham’s CRAFT offers (very cool) food workshops

February 19, 2018 Susan Beckwith Economic Development, Food Processing, Latest News, Selling 0 Comment

This sounds like a fabulous example of community development meets economic development .. Is local food the ticket to stronger communities? From “What’s Next for Pittsburgh?”, written by Emily Stimmel of Pittsburgh, PA. Chatham’s CRAFT offers (very cool) workshops with local food purveyors for public and students

04Feb 2018

TOFGA 2018 Presentations

February 4, 2018 Susan Beckwith Economic Development, Food Processing, Selling 0 Comment

We had a wonderful and very productive time at the TOFGA conference this year. Here are links to PDFs of our presentations. Value-Added Production with Jonathan Hogan of Wicked Good – Here’s the link to Jonathan’s PDF presentation slides about Wicked Good and here’s the link to a PDF of our presentation “Finding your Opportunity.” […]

27Jan 2018

Corpus Christi Producers Conference and Farmers Market

January 27, 2018 Susan Beckwith Economic Development, Latest News, Selling 0 Comment

We were honored to present on the topic of collaboration at the South Texas Producers conference in Corpus Christi. The conference was double the size of last year’s and that’s a testament to the dedication of the farmers, ranchers, and healthy food activists in South Texas. Hats off to the folks of GROW Local STX […]

11Dec 2017

Focus on Units Sold, Not Number of Outlets

December 11, 2017 Susan Beckwith Food Processing, Selling 0 Comment

This article from the marketing company, New Hope Network, cautions new products and/or brands to focus first on velocity (the number of units sold per point of distribution) rather than distribution (the number of outlets or ACV). In other words, sell some stuff!