Nebraska Food Cooperative Provides Means for Direct Marketing of Produce.
Are you interested in gardening or the production of other food products, but are concerned about the marketing of these products. A co-op may help to solve your problem. The Nebraska Food Cooperative is a marketing and distribution service designed to improve market access for farmer producers and local food access for consumers. By doing so, the cooperative brings together producers and consumers who care about the land, share an enjoyment of simple food, and seek equitable relationships.
As a producer, why should I join the Nebraska Food Cooperative? According to the Cooperative Web Page, there are a number of reasons. Some of these include:
- Your farm will retain its identity. Your products, tomatoes for example, will be marketed as coming from your farm. The cooperative may offer for sale tomatoes from 12 different farmers. The consumer chooses from whom they are going to purchase their tomatoes based upon quality, price and/or customer-farmer relationships.
- You may set your own prices for all of your products.
- You will benefit from the marketing activities of the Nebraska Food Cooperative.
- The cooperative will be operating in a market area with over 1,000,000 consumers.
- You will reduce the time and cost of marketing and distributing your products to consumers.
- You will be working alongside consumers and other producers from across the state to increase the awareness, availability and quality of local foods.
As a consumer, why should I join and buy my food through the Nebraska Food Cooperative?
- You will gain access to a reasonably priced, wide variety of safe, fresh, frozen, and processed food and non-food products grown and/or produced in Nebraska.
- You will be able to shop product offerings, such as meat, from multiple producers to compare prices, types, and the production practices used by each producer to find a product that meets your needs.
- You will gain access to foods free from growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms.
- You will learn new ways to prepare food including many new delicious recipes.
- You will get to know the people who produce your food. There is a story behind every product the cooperative offers.
The co-op initial target service area is the eastern one-third of Nebraska. However, wherever sufficient numbers of members originate from a geographic area, that area has the potential to be served by the co-op.
Further information, including membership information both as a consumer and as a producer or both, about the Nebraska Food Cooperative can be found on the web at http://www.nebraskafood.org/ . Their address is Nebraska Food Cooperative, P.O. Box 94691, Lincoln, Nebraska 68509-4691. The telephone number is (800) 993-2379.
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