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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Programs

Picture of barn and peach tree

The programs we offer:

The Direct Food and Agricultural Marketing Team provides a variety of educational programs to assist Ohio’s local food producers. These include:

MarketReady – Created by Dr. Tim Woods of the University of Kentucky, we have been offering MarketReady piloting the program with Dr. Woods in 2010. The training focuses on assisting producers understand the various business functions required to direct market to consumers, restaurants, institutions, and schools. The Ohio Direct Marketing Team provides research and educational resources to improve marketing knowledge, practices, performance, and connections. MarketReady is designed to help producers:

  • understand how various customers think about and purchase food and agriculture products
  • add value to products through proper selection, development, supply, packaging, and pricing
  • select locations and utilize distribution as a marketing advantage
  • create awareness, engage, and grow a target customer base
  • develop a plan that addresses risks, resources, and a competitive advantage

 

AgritourismReady – As the number of farms in Ohio that offer on-farm experiences for consumers has increased, the Direct Marketing Team has developed a curriculum focused in seven units, comprised of chapters specific to risk management and addressing potential emergencies. Chapters within each unit strive to educate the farm management team to develop their emergency plan, including the details needed to print a detailed emergency preparedness plan for use in their business. AgritourismReady aims to increase the overall emergency preparedness capacity of agritourism and direct marketing enterprises, which in turn increases the preparedness of the communities in which they exist.

In addition to the curriculum, we hold an annual AgritourismReady conference to allow for peer-to-peer learning, gain updated information from industry experts, and learn about trends happening in agritourism across the country.

 

DeviceReady - The DeviceReady program helps entrepreneurs learn how they can gain a degree of control with their owned, earned, and paid online presence that accurately reflects their brand and connects with their customers. See how consumers:

  • Find and view your business online
  • Use social media to access your content and special offers, as well as to post comments, photos, videos, reviews, and location-based check-ins
  • Utilize apps and GPS devices to find and navigate to your business
  • Use technology to make is easy to pay you

 

Farmers Markets Ready – The Farmers Markets Ready program helps market managers learn best practices and resources available to develop a thriving market, assist vendors and producers that direct market their products through farmers markets to create appealing displays, effectively communicate via signage, and allow ease of payment by customers. The program also assists farmers market with acceptance of food assistance benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), Women’s’ Infants and Children Farmers Market Nutrition Program as well as incentives and veggie prescription program benefits.