I'm talking to Ben Boyles. Ben is Agra business
agent with Clemson Extension. And Ben first
tell us what part of the state you are stationed
in. Sure I'm based in York County, South
Carolina. So I'm basically in the Catawba region
between kind of Columbia and Charlotte. And you are
trying to help small farms grow? Right! Right!
We're trying to help them develop new business
strategies, new marketing channels, any kind of
professional development that would help them
create more revenue streams that will help
them, their businesses become more profitable and in
turn more sustainable. So some of the things that
traditionally happened as farmers markets? Right,
right, right! We work with a lot of our farmers, our
playspace farmers markets, where you would go on a
Saturday morning or Thursday night and you
would have that really sense of community. But we
found a lot of people can't make it to the
market. So in my area, I helped start the Catawba
Farmer's Food Coalition, a nonprofit, that's mission
is to support the local food system of our region.
And one of our projects as an online farmers
market. Whoa! Yes, yes! So farmers can put their
products on the on the website. Customers can go
online, pick out what they want, fill their cart cart
up and make a purchase. And it's delivered weekly
to customers throughout my region. So do you go to
a central location and pick up your order or how
does that happen? We have seven locations in the
region. Yeah! We partner with small businesses, a
bakery, or a pet store. And it really helps to
make those increase connections between
producers and consumers. And it also helps the
little store that's participating because somebody
gets and then they're like, Well I need one of those.
You got it. So you're you're when you make your order
and it's delivered on Thursdays, like I said,
you walk in and you pick a bag with your name on it, and off
you go. But while you're in there if let's say
you're in a bakery, you might buy a brownie or two.
So its economic development on both sides.
And it means that your farmers know exactly how
much to bring in and... Exactly! ...dramatically expands
the number of people that they're reaching with
their products. For sure we have a farmer in Union, South
Carolina selling products in Charlotte, North
Carolina, crossing the state border it's really
cool to see those connections being made.
And that's that's the retail side. We're also
strengthening our wholesale side. We
developed a food hub in the region to be able to
sell small farmers for farmers products into
or institutions or restaurants that need
larger orders, larger quantities. Also you may
have like a half an acre of tomatoes and
you may not be able to sell to a restaurant
because you don't have enough. Yeah! But if I
partner my tomatoes with your tomatoes and your tomatoes
and you'll have enough to be able to meet
that demand. And we're talking about farmers who
aren't selling through, they're not selling
their tomatoes in Ohio?! We're, They're trying to find a
local skilled, local markets for sure. And when
that happens sometimes you can get a premium
because often these people are growing things that are
slightly more, have a story behind it, right?
Right! What's the vegetable of the year
What's the tastemakers wanting this year? Okay!
It's it's finding out that it's getting that
feedback from chefs and restaurateurs and then
using that as a way to educate our farmers on
what they could be planning to make the make
make the higher margins that they need to make.
And these restaurants like, they like to tell
where the things are coming - They love to see
the face with the food. Aha! They love us when we
put a poster together with a farm
name and where it's coming from. And really
letting their consumer know that
that they're supporting local. So the
farmers let you know what they have and y'all
provide a list to...? Exactly, yes! So the
farmers controller inventory, they set their
prices. They put into our software system that we
have. And then a list is prepared and sent to our
chefs and institutions. And the order weekly and
that's just our little local area. But we're really
taking it to the next step. Now we're able to
partner with other food hubs in the state of
South Carolina through the South Carolina Food Hub Network.
We're a founding member of that, which is exciting. So
now when I mention the farmer in Union, selling
something to Charlotte, that farm's products are
also on a plate in Charleston as well. So it's it's
produce and protein going all across South Carolina.
So the farmers are taking their products to
one hub... Right! ...instead of driving all over? Exactly so
instead of driving from Union to Charleston,
they're just driving to Chester to our food hub site
and then off it goes from there. So it's a rich,
farmers want to be on the land. They want to farm.
That's what they do. They love that. They don't
wanna be driving a van around. So this is hopefully
taking that burden off of them and allowing
them to increase their their yields. And you have
to add some cost then. I guess you have to add
something to cover the cost of - For sure! For sure!
for fuel and and the and the website maintenance,
we had twenty percent to the price to cover those
margins, in the margins. Yes for sure! And are you
hearing good news. Are the farmers excited about this.
Very excited I mean we have a farmer that had no
email address last year, now selling on the web. I
mean how cool is that? So it's not it's not
only connecting produce to the consumers,
it's it's professional development
education for our farmers as well. I think this is
exciting. We have so many people who want to do
things on a smaller plot of land. Right, right! They want
but they want to be profitable. Exactly right!
And they it's hard to do without support and so
Clemson's agribusiness team is providing the
support. We're trying to do what we can help them
make better informed decisions and providing
them the infrastructure and the technology and
innovation to be able to reach the markets and
grow their business. Well I'm excited because I
want South Carolina to remain an agricultural
state. Thank y'all for seeing to it that we are
going to. Well I appreciate that very much.
Thank you very much