“It's the Amazon World”: Small‐Scale Farmers on an Entrepreneurial Treadmill

Abstract

From the vantage point of northern Illinois, this article considers how the availability of organic, heirloom, and other specialty foods through a wider variety of grocery stores and online venues is affecting local food systems. Farmers concerned about these new forms of competition develop coping strategies to woo customers, but many of these strategies demand new skill sets and drain farmers’ time and resources away from the fields. How sustainable are local food systems when small‐scale farmers must be not only skilled producers, but marketing gurus, gregarious spokespeople, and public educators as well? More contextually grounded qualitative and mixed‐methods research is needed to help local food advocates and farmers understand and ease this entrepreneurial treadmill. [local food systems, direct market agriculture, small‐scale farmers, competition, United States]

Gaining and Maintaining a Competitive Edge: Evidence from CSA Members and Farmers on Local Food Marketing Strategies

“…Providing ways to bring members face-to-face with the major characters and the work of the farm (in-person or using visual media) and letting members know how their participation creates impact in the areas that matter to them may result in greater member satisfaction leading to long-term commitment. This differs from how 'community' was initially conceived in CSA [20,51,52], but may help cultivate the connections necessary to compete in an evolving local foods marketplace [21,23]. Investing in this storytelling effort will require finding ways to save time and labor on other activities or hiring someone with this expertise.…”

“…For CSA pick-up 10 or 15 min closer than the supermarket, members were willing to pay any level of premium for their share, suggesting that convenience may be a lucrative pathway. However, what is less clear is whether endeavoring to reach these two categories of consumers simultaneously is spreading farmers too thin as found by McKee [21] and Galt [14,20]. Of note, even among members who valued farm experiences, there was little interest in helping with manual labor and farmers were reluctant to have unsupervised volunteers.…”

“…Low et al [18] hypothesize that the plateau in DTC food sales that has been observed in recent years could be in part due to displacement by local foods sold through intermediated marketing channels like grocery stores or institutions. These trends threaten the economic viability of CSAs [14,15,[19][20][21] with many farmers leaving CSAs [15,22]. As a result, CSAs are coming under increased pressure to find more effective ways of competing [15,20,23,24].…”

“…Indeed, we know little about these two aspects despite the mounting evidence of competitive pressures that will likely have important implications for farmers. Recent studies indicate that farmers participating in local food systems face an "entrepreneurial treadmill", requiring the continuous development of new strategies to entice customers [21] and use "bricolage" (improvisation with scarce and often eclectic resources at hand) to maintain self-sufficiency [39], which raises important questions about the social and economic sustainability of these enterprises.…”

Spatial Considerations for Implementing Two Direct-to-Consumer Food Models in Two States

“…Like all entrepreneurs, DTC farmers must continually adapt to changing market conditions to remain competitive [16]. In recent years, the number of local producers has increased, but DTC sales have plateaued [1,3,4], due to competition within and between DTC market channels, growth in intermediated market channels, and sales of local foods through supermarkets and online food delivery services [1,17].…”