Get started farming with community supported agriculture webinar series
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EmailTo start a CSA it is important that the business side be “buttoned-down” before planting begins to ensure both a sustainable business venture and a sustainable farm venture.
Beginning farmers, and people who are thinking of beginning a farm, start out with many questions about where to start or how to expand, what kind of records should they keep and how to market what is grown. Michigan State University Extension 2014 Beginning Farmers Webinar Series: Getting started with a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm will provide answers during a series of convenient, online learning opportunities in a variety of topics for the beginner.
The USDA defines community supported agriculture this way: “A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or vicariously, the community’s farm.” Some considerations before you start your CSA business: the decision to do so and how it would affect your family, strategic planning, doing a SWOT analysis and updating or writing a business plan. Then consider how good you are at marketing (someone has to sell those shares) and how good you are at growing large amounts of many kinds of vegetables. Decisions should be made about the above before you plant the first seed for the season.
Join us on March 3, 2014 to get an in-depth look at some steps necessary for any beginning farmer and experienced ones in the basics of starting a CSA. Each program begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern time and will last 2 hours. Each webinar is a separate program with registration available at MSU Extension Events website at http://msue.anr.msu.edu/events. There is a $10 fee per webinar, and a high-speed internet connection is required. You will receive the URL for each program when you register.
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Topic |
Date |
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Getting started with soil improvement on your farm |
Monday, January 20, 2014 |
|
Getting started with selling to restaurants |
Monday, January 27, 2014 |
|
Getting started with organic vegetable pest control |
Wednesday, February 5, 2014 |
|
Getting started with selling to schools and hospitals |
Monday, February 10, 2014 |
|
Getting started with selling at farmers markets |
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 |
|
Getting started with hops |
Monday, February 24, 2014 |
|
Getting started with CSA (community supported agriculture) |
Monday, March 3, 2014 |
|
Getting started with organic field crops |
Wednesday, March 12 |
|
Getting started with expanded vegetable production |
Wednesday, March 19 |
|
Getting started with basic business records |
Monday, March 24 |
|
Getting started with Hoophouses |
date to be announced |
Contact Beth Clawson for more information about this program. For more information about community food systems and food hubs contact Michigan State University Extension Community Food System educators who are working across Michigan to provide community food systems educational programming and assistance.
