DIRECT FARM MARKETING
Consumers were finding
their local farmers online or
by word of mouth. Direct
Farm Manitoba’s website
lists almost 90 local food
sellers to choose from.
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Photo courtesy of Marilyn Firth
standards. Despite a slow start on the Victoria Day long week-end,
business picked up on ensuing weekends as people became
more comfortable with the process, and as the number of
COVID-19 cases abated.
There are also questions of whether there will be as many
roadside stands this year.
Teri Jenkins, of Brown Sugar Produce, still plans to set up
her produce trailer outside Lady of the Lake Shop and Cafe in
Brandon on Fridays with extra sanitary measures.
Brown Sugar’s weekly deliveries began the first Tuesday
in July and will run until December 24. Deliveries can include
everything from peas, peppers, and potatoes, to garlic, egg-plant,
oregano, parsley, cabbage, kale, squash, rainbow carrots,
and much more. It operates under the Community Supported
Agriculture banner.
There hadn’t been a supply chain issue with produce head-ing
into June, but the general public is still concerned. Brown
Sugar had filled 80 subscriptions by March, as it always does.
Although there were many more inquiries this year from people
wanting to source locally-grown vegetables, says Jenkins.
Obtaining seeds has also become an issue. “The seed com-panies
are all sold out, which is a big impact,” Jenkins said.
Again, the reason is people are worried about their food supply.
So more people are seeding their own gardens or seeding more
vegetables in their gardens.
“My inbox is just full with emails from seed companies say-ing
they’ve had to pause orders to catch up, or that they’re sold
out of various varieties,” she said.
Direct farm marketers welcomed a $160,000 infusion from
the federal and provincial governments for software platforms
to facilitate farm-to-consumer sales. The
money is seed money to help the mar-keters
set up websites, but also is paid
out retroactively in some cases in which
farmers had already spent on online sites.
Veldhuis says the government sup-port
makes sense considering the eco-nomic
spinoffs from keeping dollars in
the community. Economic impact stud-ies
show that for every dollar spent on
direct farm sales versus grocery store
sales, the percentage of dollars that stay
in the local economy is two-to-three
times greater.
“In Manitoba, we pride ourselves
on feeding the world, but we’re going to
struggle to feed ourselves, and we have
to wrap our heads around that in a new
way,” Veldhuis said.
Jenkins is hopeful this will be a life
lesson about supporting local food that
lasts beyond just this year. “It’s not just
right in this moment that it needs to hap-pen.
It needs to happen all the time. We
need to support our local food supply,”
she said. FV
38 § Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Summer 2020
/CanadianFertilizer
