Author: Tim Woods

A recently updated national study of Google Search terms highlights the importance of “Local Food.” Food supply chains are complicated and vary substantially across products and places. Still, several trends in people’s online searches are striking and may have important implications for farms and food businesses looking to position their products in the U.S. food market.

While “Local Food” had been experiencing a steady upward trend before the COVID-19 pandemic, search interest spiked significantly during the past three years. Similarly, “Cottage Food” experienced an even more significant spike in search activity, reflecting high interest in artisanal and specialty foods. Cottage foods are specific types of foods made in an individual’s home kitchen. Because many of these foods must be sold in person directly from the producer to the end consumer, they are also often locally produced and sourced. Over the past two decades, “Local Food” and “Cottage Food” reached their peak popularity in 2024 (Figure 1).

These trends may follow and motivate efforts undertaken by state departments of agriculture to promote local farm and food products in their respective retail settings.  While not identifying the values driving these search choices, they point to potential opportunities for local food merchandising strategies that convey an authentic local connection to consumers.  

Searches for “Online Groceries” and “Home Gardening” saw an uptick in 2020 as consumers sought a better handle on how and where to get food. Interestingly, the search interest for these terms has not continued, as consumers return to in-person grocery shopping, and time, financial, and other constraints continue the trend away from home gardening.  

The underlying drivers motivating these searches may be inflation-conscious consumers’ desires to get the most out of their food dollars. The positive trend and recent popularity of “Food Waste” searches also point to potential opportunities for farms and food businesses to continue or improve their messaging around efficient production, upcycling, gleaning and food bank donations, and other efforts to help people access high-quality and nutritious foods.

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Woods, Tim, and Alba J. Collart. “Where Does My Food Come From? What Google Searchers Want to Know.” Southern Ag Today 5(4.5). January 24, 2025. Permalink

A cooperative grocer is a store format that has been around for many years and plays a unique role in community food systems.  These stores are shopper owned, shareholders that capitalize the stores initially and receive a patronage based on the amount of shopping the do.  The National Cooperative Grocers Association reports 165 member co-ops managing 240 storefronts in 37 states – a combined sales over $2.5 billion (NCG, Oct 2024).  While more stores tend to be located in the upper Midwest and coastal states, there are strong co-ops across the South.

Stores typically place a strong value on local sourcing, sustainability, wellness, and bulk buying – many had roots in older community buying clubs.  And while they tend to be much smaller than regional or national chains, they are quite nimble as they seek to serve the community and local shopper-owners.

Table 1.  Food Values from Different KY Shopper Segments

A recent study of shopper values in Kentucky reflects a common difference in food values seen in many food co-ops – a stronger emphasis on community, the environment, and wellness.  This generally translates into unique retail product offerings and merchandising around these concepts, including a high value for local and sustainable food connections.  Many of these stores, with their smaller size, are better suited to work with smaller supplier vendors and serve as great entry points into wholesale markets.

These grocers, while technically independent, often work together through the National Coop Grocers on issues like governance, capitalization strategies, and advocacy issues.  Their commitment to their shopper-owners, vendors, and communities provides a unique platform for these ventures to bring value to the food world not generally found through other store concepts.

You can learn more about the National Cooperative Grocers Association and some of the food co-ops near you at their website: https://www.ncg.coop/about-us

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Woods, Tim. “Cooperative Grocers Positioning Strategically to Deliver Community Value.” Southern Ag Today 4(51.5). December 20, 2024. Permalink

Farmers markets represent a unique market channel with specific implications for specialty crop production support systems.  The vast majority of vendors are small scale producers, but increasingly require production and management skills quite different from their commercial scale counterparts.  Farmers markets play important roles within many communities as the face of food and agriculture to many who are otherwise disconnected.  Food access and nutrition are key issues, but these markets also provide vendors with an important platform to develop attractive niche enterprises, value-added products, and connect with consumer groups holding shared food values.  

Nationally, we have seen farmers markets demonstrate considerable resilience in production, organization, and distribution, becoming nimble and creative in an effort to help their community patrons access their products.  Farm markets, like other food retailers, were deemed essential businesses early during Covid because of their role in providing many food access.  Covid has sparked a lot of change and innovation, to be sure.  While many markets and vendors struggled with the economics of Covid, there has been a strong resilience and resurgence; now over 9,000 farm market sites are active nationally.

The growing complexity of farmer-vendor and consumer interactions is a major point of concern, but also an opportunity.  Darlene Wolnik, Program Director for the Farmers Market Coalition, provided five broad themes to think about regarding emerging challenges facing farmers markets, specialty crops, and the U.S. South.  We can relate them to our experiences with farmers markets in Kentucky in connection with the Center for Crop Diversification.

1. Very few (any?) states in the U.S. South have an organized state farm market association.  These have been critical in other parts of the country (WA, IL, MI, NY) to close the gaps for market innovation, create a voice for policy/research needs, and operationalizing data/program sharing across a network of markets.  Some coordination work has been attempted through LFPP and FMPP projects across the South, but this kind of coordination does not substitute for strong grassroots member-driven organizations.  States with active state associations were in much better position to coordinate during a time of crisis, but also can speed market innovation, lead vendor advocacy, coordinate around data sharing and aggregation, can support wide vendor business development, and pursue various grants as a collective.
2. Climate adaptation for specialty crops is especially acute in the South both for farms, markets, and market infrastructure.  This is becoming a key issue as it relates to new plant pests and diseases, but also season extensions and climate zone plant viability.
3. Many state agencies across the South have maintained a focus on commodity agriculture.  Programs for direct marketing of specialty crops, value-added products, and direct meat marketing require very different expertise.  New regulatory/certification issues, marketing programs, technical assistance with small-scale production systems, and community engagement facilitation are required.  Many “new farmers” in direct markets have less ag background and more experience in marketing or other first careers and their needs are different. Many respond well to social media but have no idea how to use enterprise budgets or where to look for small scale production management questions. Commodity producers looking to diversify into direct markets are often in the opposite situation.  
4. Markets have many diverse needs for technical assistance, including bringing on youth and new vendors, learning how to build collective appeal to the market through season extension, new products and varieties, and value-added products.  Many of the needs of young and beginning direct marketers don’t fit as well with traditional publication and basic lecture-based trainings familiar to extension and technical assistance providers—they require more tailored education and support like the ‘Marketing for All Program’ which allows them to choose their own needs and path, but even that program is not as flexible and individualized as it could be to meet these very unique needs.
5. Pricing for markets is not always intuitive.  Input costs are certainly higher and these costs are compounded by the lack of scale economies connected with small farms.  Other costs, like management and risk, are difficult for many vendors and consumers to understand.  More farmer education and consumer public relations are needed to recognize these costs.  There are many different types of markets and even different types of consumers that may shop within the same market.  Helpful work is emerging exploring different market taxonomies, but, like many markets, research needs are growing with increases in data, shopping formats, digital sales, and patron demographics.  The price reports we offer through the Center for Crop Diversification are very helpful to many producers, but there is a great need for a supporting base of knowledge and education to be able to apply them accurately, and setting prices based on the reports is certainly not a guarantee of profitability.  This is especially important in the current environment when there is so much input cost volatility and risk.

The farmers market space will continue to create opportunities for farmers of all kinds of products as a key platform in the direct-to-consumer marketing model.  New technical assistance needs relating to the issues above will need to be developed in support of this growing community.  These markets will continue to be a high profile interface for agriculture with the public and will evolve.  The opportunities to facilitate stronger collective market performance remain, especially in the South, through a variety of approaches that can help both vendors and community patrons.

Some related links

https://www.uky.edu/ccd/

http://farmersmarketcoalition.org/

https://www.ams.usda.gov/market-news/local-regional-food

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Photo by Mauricio Borja: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-pickup-truck-parked-in-front-of-farmers-market-9272296/