Program:

• Food Business Basics
• Marketing: Developing a Strategy, Objectives, Research, and Communication Plan
• Panel Discussion with Local Food Entrepreneurs followed by Questions and Answers
• The NYS Food Venture Center
• Market Trends and Product Development
• Regulatory Agencies and Requirements
• Food Safety, Processing, Packaging and Labeling 

Presenters:

• Jennifer Cunningham-Ryan: Business CENTS Program Assistant, Alternatives Federal Credit Union
• Matt LeRoux: Agriculture Marketing Specialist, CCE-Tompkins
• Dr. Olga Padilla-Zakour:  Associate Professor of Food Processing;  Director of the New York State Food Venture Center and the Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship at Cornell University
• Carole Fisher:  Extension Educator – Food Safety and Consumer Education, CCE-Tompkins

Workshop cost is $95, lunch and refreshments are provided. To register by phone with credit card, call CCE-Tompkins at (607) 272-2292;  or download registration brochure at http://ccetompkins.org/sites/all/files/32/2013-%20RtoM%20Brochure-1.pdf 
and send with payment to CCE-Tompkins, 615 Willow Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850. For more information, contact Carole Fisher at CCE-Tompkins: (607) 272-2292 or crf11@cornell.edu.

This special event features:

• A tour of Cornell’s Hudson Valley regional wheat and barley variety trials
• Dr. Mark Sorrels will discuss Cornell’s initiative to develop regionally-adapted small grains varieties for local and specialty markets
• A discussion of small grains production considerations for the humid northeast
• A discussion panel and Q & A with representatives of emerging markets for:
  • Artisan baked goods
  • Craft brewing
  • Micro-distilleries
  • NYC-metro Greenmarkets

Registration: $25, if registered by 6/20, $30 afterwards. Registration fee includes lunch. Please register by 6/22.  The registration form is available on-line here. For registration information, contact Carrie Anne at 845-340-3990 x311. For more information about the program, contact Justin O’Dea, at 845-340-3990.

Up to $2,500 in grant funding is available for up to 20 farmers in Orange County, NY. A 50/50 match will be provided through this program for projects up to $5,000. Farmers may meet the funding match through cash or in-kind labor services. Applications are due by June 28, 2013. Proposed projects must be completed by March 15, 2014.

All farmers in Orange County are eligible to apply. This program is not limited to farmers participating as vendors at Greenmarkets. Beginning, immigrant and limited resource farmers are encouraged to apply. Farmers applying must be or become members of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County. Technical assistance in designing and implementing wash station projects is available for applicants.

The application is available on the Greenmarket webpage at http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket or by contacting Challey Comer at ccomer@greenmarket.grownyc.org  or 212.341.2254.

Panelists include:

• David Wolfe, faculty member in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University.
• Bianca Moebius-Clune, Extension Associate in Cornell University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
• Dorn Cox, Cornell alum and current Univ. of New Hampshire Ph.D. student, working with his family on a 250-acre four generation diversified organic farm in Lee, NH.

“One of our biggest challenges is educating consumers, so now, more than ever, it’s key to communicate well and get the right message out there,” Walthert said.

She’s not alone. The role of modern-day farmer has evolved to incorporate much more than tilling the land and raising livestock, prompting the Cornell Small Farms Program to host its first media workshop for farmers, agricultural writers and educators. [Read More]

Engaged Learning + Research Seminar
Wealth Creation Approach to Community & Economic Development
Stern Seminar Room 160, Mann Library,  Cornell University
10:30am – Noon

Community Presentation and Workshop 
Food Value Chains: Creating Health & Wealth for All
Borg Warner Room, Tompkins County Public Library
4:00– 5:30pm

Funding support generously provided by Cornell Engaged Learning + Research Center, Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming, Cornell Participatory Action Research Network (cPARN), Food Agriculture and Nutrition Group (FANG), New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG), Department of City & Regional Planning and GPSAFC. Cohosted by Mann Library as part of its ongoing Connected Minds, Resilient Communities programming, in collaboration with Tompkins County Public Library. Cosponsored by the Community and Regional Development Institute (CaRDI), Building Bridges, Cornell Small Farms Program, SCNY Food & Health Network, Greenstar Community Projects, and Sustainable Enterprise & Entrepreneur Network.

With upstate yogurt facilities owned by Chobani and Fage expanding and a new plant coming online this summer in western New York, it would seem demand — and therefore prices — for milk produced by area farms would be on the rise.

But when it comes to milk, the law of supply and demand gets complicated, according to Washington County Farm Bureau President Tom Borden, who milks about 175 cows on his Easton farm.

“Having increased demand is good, and people consuming dairy is good, but yogurt turns out to be a lower-value product to the dairy farmer,” Borden said.  {Read More}

A Bergey Excel 10kW wind turbine installed at Cross Island Farm, NY

Are your farm energy bills on the rise – and are you wondering what you can do to reduce them?  Are you looking for more sustainable sources of energy?  This four-part online webinar series will provide examples of energy conservation measures, solar arrays, wind turbines, compost heat, and a variety of other ecological production techniques and introduce you to farmers and professionals who are successfully harnessing the power of renewable resources to produce affordable, sustainable energy.  Tune in to learn if solar, wind, geothermal, and even compost power are right for you!

This lunchtime webinar series will run from noon-12:45pm every Friday from March 29^th through April 19^th.  All of the webinars are free and open to the public.  The series is now closed.   You will receive an email approximately one week before your chosen webinar(s) providing a link and instructions for you to access the series.

We will be using WebEx to host this webinar series.  To use WebEx, all you will need are functioning speakers  (a sound card in your computer) and a good Internet connection – a cable modem or DSL are preferable, but dial-up, mobile wireless, and satellite Internet connections can also work.  If you have any questions about the Internet or hardware requirements necessary to use WebEx, please contact Hannah Koski at hpk23@cornell.edu.

This webinar series is sponsored by NE SARE (Northeast Sustainable Ag Research and Education) and the Cornell Small Farms Program.  To learn about funding opportunities available from NE SARE, visit www.nesare.org.  To learn more about small farm resources and support, visit www.smallfarms.cornell.edu

March 29: Dreaming of Local Lemons – Solar Energy Virtual Tour.  Noon – 12:45pm
View archived webinar here
with Leo Siemion of Summit Naturals Organic Farm, Summit, NY

Leo Siemion of Summit Naturals Organic Farm will give a virtual photo tour of the sustainable energy features on his 25-acre organic farm.  The farm produces 11 varieties of garlic in raised fields, eggs from heritage Buff Orpington breed chickens, and bottled honey, comb honey and beeswax candles from 12 bee colonies.  Leo and his farm crew have spent the past several years raising approximately 450 pond-bred Koi fish for retail sale.  Their 60×21 foot high tunnel is double walled plastic and excess solar heat is circulated through 250 feet of corrugated pipe 2 feet underground.  The active solar heating system allows Summit Naturals to grow greens throughout the winter.  Their smaller glass greenhouse attached on the south side of the family home has 520 feet of corrugated pipe, 5 feet underground which runs through an insulated stone pit and radiates back up through the concrete floor.  Leo has been able to produce tropical fruits such as oranges, lemons, pineapples and figs in this greenhouse.  In addition, they have two pole mounted solar arrays totaling 10-kW and an evacuated tube solar hot water system. The farm has acquired a restored 40 year old GE Electrak electric tractor to use the excess electricity they now produce and reduce diesel fuel needs.

April 5: Powering Your Farm Off the Grid – Virtual Tour. Noon – 12:45pm
View archived webinar here
with Raymond Luhrman of Fox Creek Farm, Schoharie, NY

Is it possible to operate a farm off-the-grid, and what are the challenges and opportunities? Raymond Luhrman will take us on a virtual tour of Fox Creek Farm and describe how his family operates their 350 member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) operation from electricity produced right on site. The Lurhman’s have installed two 1.3 kW solar arrays and a Bergey XL1 wind turbine on a 100 foot tower.  Raymond will describe how he sited, sized, funded and installed these systems.  He’ll also present some additional energy conservation features of the farm, including the passive solar barn, and the CoolBot regulator that makes his walk-in cooler extra energy efficient. Aside from these technical aspects, he will also share thoughts on the challenges and opportunities that come with off-grid farming.

April 12: Compost Power! Noon – 12:45pm
with Sam Gorton, Compost Power, Systems Engineer and Design Consultant
View archived webinar here

Composting is a sustainable process for transforming farm wastes into a stable soil amendment. But, did you know that an active compost pile may be able to generate enough heat to keep your greenhouse warm in the wintertime, offset your water heating fuel needs or even heat a small-scale biogas digester? Composting is a sustainable process for transforming farm wastes into a stable soil amendment. But, did you know that an active compost pile may be able to generate enough heat to keep your greenhouse warm in the wintertime, offset your water heating fuel needs or even heat a small-scale biogas digester?  Sam Gorton, a PhD student at the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT) and co-founder of the Compost Power Network (Waitsfield, VT) will describe strategies to power your home, greenhouse or barn on the heat produced from high-Carbon compost recipes.

April 19: Ask an Installer: Wind, Solar and Geothermal. Noon – 12:45pm
with Conor Kays, Alternative Power Solutions
View archived webinar here

Energy prices are rising, and who knows where they will be in 10 or 20 years.  Investing in renewable energy now can turn a variable cost into a fixed one over the life of the system.  Conor Kays from Alternative Power Solutions of NY will talk about how to choose between geothermal, solar or wind (or all three), how to size a system, current financial incentives and offsets, and services that installers will provide.

Registration for the following training is full.  Contact Violet at vws7@cornell.edu to be added to a waitlist.  

Are you an agriculture educator or service provider who tells stories of the farmers you work with to the public?  Do you write articles, profiles, blogs, essays, take photographs, or produce podcasts about farmers?   Are you a farmer writer or blogger?  If so, an upcoming workshop called “Telling Better Stories” to be held Thursday, April 11^th from 10:00 – 3:00pm on the Cornell University campus is for you.   This full day workshop series will offer you professional journalism training on how to improve your communication to the public.  Learn how to fine-tune your interview skills, use style appropriately, find reliable facts and sources efficiently, develop engaging narrative, take better photographs and create podcasts.  Two concurrent tracks allow you to choose what is most interesting and helpful to you!

“Telling Better Stories” is a free training and a complementary locally sourced hot lunch is provided.  Come prepared for interactive, experiential learning in small groups.  Pre-registration is required and limited to the first 50 sign-ups.  All attendees will be required to submit one article/photo/podcast to the Cornell Small Farms Program for consideration in the Small Farm Quarterly magazine or to be posted at www.smallfarms.cornell.edu For more information, see individual workshop descriptions and instructor biographies below.   This free workshop is made possible by the Cornell University Small Farms Program Work Team.   Questions may be directed to Violet Stone at 607-255-9227 or vws7@cornell.edu. Jump to Instructor Biographies | Workshop Schedule

Concurrent Workshops: Choose 1 of 2 workshops per session!

Workshop 1a: Focus on Fact-Finding (Nuts & Bolts Track)
Learn how to gather facts to make your stories informative and interesting. Bring your topics to the table and we’ll brainstorm together on public factual resources at your fingertips. Evaluating the information you gather is the most important part of any reporter’s search strategy. We’ll explore techniques for validity checks. Facts are what fill the stories about small farms and excite readers (and listeners). The specifics, the details, the nitty gritty. From using more first personal observational methods to satellite images from Google Maps, you will gain new ideas for fact finding and new skills in  using internet search tools such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Workshop leader:  Jill D. Swenson  Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 1b: Can you Picture It?  (Multi-media Track)
Photos: the Most Valuable Tool in Your Communications Arsenal
A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure the photographs you are taking or using tell a good story. In this work shop we will go over basic photography techniques, free editing and organizational tools, and how to use them effectively. Workshop leader and professional photographer, John Suscovich, will share examples of photographs he has taken while working on the farm, looking at techniques such as framing, perspective, and lighting.  We’ll also talk about how to use photographs to enhance written narrative. As an interactive group activity we will view and discuss several photographs, taken on farm, to pick out the strengths and weaknesses. Attendees are invited to bring 1-2 photographs of their own for group discussion.  Workshop leader:  John Suscovich Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 2a: Show AND Tell (Nuts & Bolts Track)
How to Make a Story Both Compelling AND Informative
Mud. Tractors. Escaped Cows. Hailstorms. Amber waves of grain. Readers love learning about farming, and the work that farmers do to make sure the rest of us are well fed. But making that story compelling and interesting means getting off the phone or e-mail and going to the farm. Drawing on his background in local newspaper reporting on agricultural issues and also as a vegetable farmer, Aaron will give a sense of how to not only how to interview and glean interesting information from busy farmers, but also how to conduct interviews when they may be too busy to sit down. In addition, he’ll discuss finding the most interesting parts of a story and using that to create a lead to a story or article. Finally, he’ll discuss how to show readers what the farmer is doing instead of telling readers about it, using techniques like dialogue, description, and action.  Workshop leader:  Aaron Munzer Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 2b: Do You Hear What I Hear?  (Multi-media Track)
Basics of Podcast and Audio Clip Production
Some stories are better received out loud.  A study performed by “eMarketer” projects that by the end of 2013 there will be 37.6 million people who download podcasts monthly, more than double the 2008 figure of 17.4 million. In this intro session to audio communications, you’ll learn about basic equipment and editing software needed to produce audio clips and podcasts.  We’ll listen to a few farmer-themed podcast examples and talk about the components needed to prepare, record, edit and produce an engaging audio clip.   Learn how to conduct an interview or create a script, add music or other sound layers, convert to accessible sound formats and get your audio stories out to the public!  Workshop leader:  John Suscovich Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 3a: Interviews, Quotes, and Writing Dialogue Style (Nuts & Bolts Track)
Learn who to interview to make your story interesting to readers, how to prepare questions in advance to get the best leads, and how to write up your interview when you return from the field.  Who you interview depends on the questions you’ve got to ask. Who provides you with answers also depends upon who they are and what motives they may have in going “on the record” for a magazine article. Eyewitnesses, participants, first-hand experts in the farm practices, and farmers made for good interview sources. There may also be institutional sources  in business, government or the non-profit sector who can answer your questions. Asking the right person the right question is the role of the writer. Planning your interview in advance is a technique you’ll learn more about in this practical workshop. The mechanics of journalism writing style for quotations and attribution will be covered; including grammar and punctuation. Finding the right characters and voices to include in your research and reporting will lead you to the heart of the story. And help you identify the most powerful quotes from your interview. This hands-on workshop involves using examples of actual interviews, quotes, and attribution of sources.  Workshop leader:  Jill D. Swenson Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 3b:  Reincarnation: Adapting Your Story for  Multiple Audiences (Multi-media Track)
 The stories you tell as a writer have immeasurable value and can often be adapted to many different audiences. Learn how to find a story, craft it to fit an audience from a specific venue, and then keep it alive by reshaping it for other outlets. In this session, you’ll also learn to find different stories within a single interview, and then to take these on the road to different writing outlets. Finally, you’ll discover how to find magazines and other venues to pitch your work to, and then to use this knowledge to extend the reach of your writing.  Workshop leader: Kara Cusolito Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Workshop 4. Big ideas. Small words. Short sentences.
What Online Readers Want, and How to Write for Them
Today’s readers don’t read – they scan.  To reach them, you need the content they want and you need to present it in a style that they can easily digest.  This session will include easy writing and design tips you can put to work immediately to make your websites, social media, newsletters and other publications more user-friendly.  Workshop leader:  Craig Cramer Instructor Bio | Workshop Schedule

Agenda: Choose 1 of 2 workshops per session

 Instructor Biographies

	Jill D. Swenson, Ph.D., taught journalism for 20 years, first at the Henry Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia and later in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. She is president of Swenson Book Development, LLC and assists authors write, publish and market their books; specializing in narrative non-fiction and memoir.
	John Suscovich is the Founder of Farm Marketing Solutions. A media rich website geared toward strengthening the marketing efforts of fellow farmers. As host of the Growing Farms Podcast he hosts weekly podcasts interviewing farmers from across the country, on the business of agriculture. He also runs a Pastured-Chicken and Culinary Herb CSA in Connecticut. John is happy to report he has a daughter due July 12th of this year!
	Kara Cusolito is a freelance writer and farmer based in Mecklenburg, NY. She has written both locally and nationally for newspapers and magazines, including the Ithaca Times and The Nation, among other publications. She owns and runs Plowbreak Farm, a 2.5 acre, 50-share vegetable CSA with her partner Aaron Munzer, and is also garden manager at the Ithaca Children’s Garden.
	Aaron Munzer is a former reporter for the Ithaca Journal. He currently farms 2 1/2 acres for a vegetable CSA with his partner Kara Cusolito at Plowbreak Farm, and is the assistant manager of the Ithaca Farmers Market.
	Craig Cramer is the communications specialist in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, where he develops and maintains websites, blogs, writes articles and news releases, shoots and edits photographs and video, and more.  He was an editor and editorial director of The New Farm magazine from 1984 to 1995, and developed one of the first websites for farmers in 1997.  You’ll find his personal garden blog at ellishollow.remarc.com.