Monetize your environmental benefits.
Sustainability isn’t just good for the land—it’s good business. Position your farm for premium markets and programs that reward responsible practices with 5–50% higher price points.
From sustainability documentation and certification to value-based storytelling and incentive programs, learn how to turn your ecological investments into market success.
Throughout the world, a wide range of public, state-run, and private institutions provide agricultural extension services. These services are typically related to three core competencies: Technology transfer – helping to disseminate new technologies from research institutions to end-users. For example, helping to expand the use of new, more efficient irrigation systems. Advisory services – providing…
Much of early American history was based on a rejection of what was and creating systems for what should be. The educational system was no different. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was dissatisfaction with the way that university systems continued to cater to the wealthy elite rather than providing services and…
Agriculture has been a part of urban spaces since man began establishing towns and cities. However, as populations grew, agriculture needed to be outsourced to rural or urban spaces to meet the growing demand of urban citizens. While it may still be necessary to produce more calorie-dense and space-intensive crops, e.g. grains and trees, growing…
First introduced in Japan and Switzerland in the 1970s, community supported agriculture (CSA) is a form of partnership between farmer and consumer. They enter into a contract which provides consumers with a certain number of ‘shares’ in the farm. Each share provides the consumer a box (or bag or bucket or …) of vegetables or other products…
Direct marketing is a form of marketing that is drastically different than commodity selling. Where commodity selling is based on a market-determined price and generally focused on standardized, large-scale sales that are impersonal in nature, direct marketing involves 1:1 selling between an individual/group and the seller. In doing so, trust is established and alternative forms of value…
Small farmers are an integral part of society. They produce food, provide rural employment, and contribute to diversity in both ownership and societal structure. However, they are also faced with a number of struggles, particularly when it comes to market entry and competition with large-scale agribusiness. To address these issues and maintain profitability, small farmers must be…
Producing a vast amount of the world’s food, small farms are valuable assets that contribute to long-term economic sustainability and food security. What actually constitutes a small farm is hard to specify as there are extreme variations in societal structure, ergo many definitions exist. In the United States, a small farm is defined as any…
At the most basic level, a network is any connection between different components of a given system. The way by which the connection functions is dependent on the network variety, inclusive of the types of relationships that exist between the nodes, i.e. the people and organizations participating in the network. Relationships that do develop are…
The principal-agent problem is a common problem that arises whenever there is a contractual relationship between two parties – the principal, who in accordance with agreed upon terms, assigns a task to an agent, who then executes the task for the principal. It is expected that the agent will work on the behalf of the principal. Likewise,…
First introduced in 1985 by Michael Porter, the value chain concept is understood as the process by which value is added to raw materials via various production processes in order to generate a final product that can be sold for a higher price. This article reviews what value chains are how how they optimize value….