University Center for Economic Development partners with Western Nevada College to spread new ideas around selling local meat within northern Nevada communities
FALLON – Booming consumer demand for locally grown food is creating opportunity for new sales models for meat, including subscription programs, buying clubs and collaborative marketing partnerships.
The University of Nevada, Reno University Center for Economic Development and Western Nevada College Specialty Crop Institute are offering a workshop, “Meat CSA and Collaborative Marketing Models,” Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., at Western Nevada College’s Fallon campus, 160 Campus Way, Fallon. Cost is $35 and lunch is included. Seating is limited, and registration is required. The workshop is the first in a series of five to be held through June 2014.
Featured speakers Karin Sinclair, Wendy Baroli, and George Kleeb will share their experiences marketing meat products through variations of the subscription farm model. They will discuss methods for selling meat through collaborative marketing and community supported agriculture (CSA), and strategies for marketing the less popular cuts of meat.
About the featured speakers
Karin Sinclair is a founding member and coordinator of the Sierra Foothill Producers meat buying club, which currently sources products from 12 regional farms and ranches with monthly delivery to four locations. Sinclair, her husband Keith and their children have operated Sinclair Family Farm in Penryn, Calif. since 1992.
Wendy Baroli, owner of GirlFarm/Grow for Me Sustainable Farm, developed and trademarked the Personal Farmer Program, an innovative subscription farm system that provides members with eight months of meat, produce, herbs, and eggs. A fourth generation Nevada farmer, she feeds 25 Personal Farmer families following environmentally sustainable practices on her 95-acre farm just outside Reno.
George Kleeb is the business development advisor with the Nevada Small Business Development Center in Elko. Prior to joining the Small Business Development Center, he spent 28 years in banking with a focus on agricultural lending, during which time he was an observer in Jim Coleman’s experience developing Coleman Natural Meats. George draws from his own experience growing up on and continues to own a farm in Nebraska.
The University Center for Economic Development fosters economic development throughout Nevada by making the extensive resources of the University available to organizations and areas that can benefit from job and income creation and job retention efforts. Funding for this project is provided by the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, the Western Center for Risk Management Education at Washington State University and USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2012-49200-20030.
Information/registration: Maggie Cowee -775-784-8050 or [email protected]
