from rural communities in the Midwest to urban epicenters on the West Coast, colleges and universities are getting creative with how they bring fresh produce to campus. By going straight to the source of the food supply chain to building partnerships with local farmers, institutions are teaching the value of the farm-to-fork connection to the next generation.

“There is a special experience that can be formed by engaging with farmers and creating amazing meals with their harvest,” says Chef Adam Schmith, culinary arts director at Lorain County Community College (LCCC) in Elyria, Ohio, west of Cleveland. “The food always tastes better when you know where it was grown and the dedication and passion that it was grown with.”

Driven by sustainability, unique selections or farm-fresh flavor, there are a multitude of reasons university chefs are seeking farm partnerships. Here are some examples of how schools are working with local produce growers to impact their food supply.

Connecting with local farmers

Since its inception seven years ago, LCCC’s culinary curriculum always included a farm-to-fork course, designed to recognize the contributions of farms surrounding campus. But the class didn’t see enrollment until Schmith became director in 2016 and ramped up the program by strengthening ties to local farmers.

Schmith visited local farms to coordinate which products he could incorporate into the culinary curriculum, the student-run restaurant and the campus dining program. Through this process, he secured partnerships with a handful of local fish, dairy and livestock farmers and produce growers. In addition to supplying fresh ingredients, these partners also provide hands-on learning experiences for students in the program.

“Students travel to farms to meet the growers and learn daily procedures firsthand,” Schmith says. “Last fall, for example, students received a plot of land to plant lettuce and vegetables at Coleman Gardens in Avon Lake. They worked with the owners, Joe and Marcia Coleman, and learned how to prepare the land, seed and harvest the produce, then utilize it in the kitchen as a final project.”

LCCC also partners with Tyler’s Farm, a 6,000-square-foot hydroponic operation in Oberlin, Ohio. Owner Tyler Gogolek grows “lettuce in any leaf shape, color and texture available,” in addition to different varieties of kale, arugula, basil and other herbs. “Because of our selection and diversity, LCCC’s restaurants can provide more than just an ordinary salad,” he says.

Gogolek harvests greens with roots attached, so produce stays fresher longer in LCCC’s coolers. But the ingredients become more than just products on the shelf because students get to engage with the farmers who cultivated them.

“When you can put a face to something, all of a sudden it has meaning,” says Gogolek, a third-generation farmer with a greenhouse production degree. “You understand what goes into it to get it to your table, how it was grown and cared for, and why it’s important to support local farmers.”

After engaging with farmers, Schmith says students treat ingredients with more respect and creativity.

“Partnering with these farms gives the students an appreciation of the product they receive. Engaging in hands-on activities at the farms gives them an insight that they don’t get when a box of prewashed carrots arrives at the dock,” Schmith says. “They’re more resourceful when they’re using local ingredients, which translates into a larger sense of meaning and pride when delivering dishes to guests.”

Farming urban opportunities

Even urban campuses are finding innovative ways to farm. Administrators at the University of Southern California (USC) were exploring options to improve sustainability on campus when Eric Ernest, executive chef of USC Hospitality, suggested growing their own produce.

Ernest worked with Lettuce Grow, a Los Angeles-based urban farming organization formerly known as LA Urban Farms, to develop the USC Teaching Garden in 2015. Located behind the university-owned hotel, the plot consists of about 60 vertical tower gardens that grow greens, herbs and more to supply several restaurants on campus.

“Don’t just accept that you’re a landlocked campus without an agricultural reach,” says Kris Klinger, assistant vice president of USC Hospitality and USC Hotel in Los Angeles. “There are so many ways to improve your sustainability efforts and make a difference. Get creative and find ways to do it.”

“USC Hospitality wanted to find a way to get closer to their ingredients and reconnect people with food,” says Niels Thorlaksson, lead farmer at Lettuce Grow. “We wanted to showcase how technology can convert unused spaces into productive and efficient ways to sustainably grow your own food.”

Lettuce Grow maintains the hydroponic system at the USC Teaching Garden, which uses 90% less space and 95% less water than traditional agriculture. Thorlaksson’s organization grows all the seedlings at nurseries in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Texas, then delivers the young plants to USC and other urban farm locations.

The Teaching Garden has grown everything from cucumbers and melons to chilies and tomatoes, although the towers primarily produce fast-growing, high-yield greens like kale, lettuce and arugula, and herbs like basil, parsley and cilantro. The year-round operation harvests about 3,000 plants each week, which are delivered to kitchens within minutes.

“There’s a dialogue between the chefs and the urban farmers, where we’re always playing with new ingredients,” says Ernest, who meets with farmers regularly to plan different varieties. “From that perspective, it’s a great collaboration.”

Teaching the value of farm-to-fork

Although the volume of produce that comes from the USC Teaching Garden can’t meet the demands of the large residential dining halls, the urban farm helps the university save money and improve sustainability by sourcing certain ingredients hyper-locally. But the program’s impact far exceeds the fresh greens it supplies.

“We called this The Teaching Garden because our goal is to educate people about how produce is grown,” says Kris Klinger, assistant vice president of USC Hospitality and USC Hotel. “It puts them in touch with it and allows them to touch it, as opposed to just having ingredients show up in a truck.”

Since USC started its Teaching Garden four years ago, more than a dozen other universities across the country have launched similar farms.

“Seeing an institution like USC embrace a program like this brings more awareness to sustainability issues,” says Thorlaksson, whose organization operates urban farms for corporate, academic and residential clients around the country. “It paves the way for others to start making changes of their own.”

Whether colleges cultivate relationships with local produce growers or find ways to grow their own, there are plenty of opportunities to strengthen the connections between farmers and culinarians and teach the next generation the value of local produce.

“It’s so important to understand where your ingredients are coming from and how much effort goes into growing,” Thorlaksson says. “When you have that connection with your food, you’ll appreciate it more.”

Welcome to the fourth annual Produce Grower State of the Industry report. Inside this issue, you’ll find the latest exclusive research on revenues, market trends, operational challenges and new technology.

Growers are really starting to embrace new tools more than ever in 2019 as they work to improve operations and sales. We’ve seen an uptick in the use of tracking software (13 percentage points over last year), and for the first time this year, we asked growers about the use of e-commerce as consumers continue to embrace online shopping and direct delivery.

You’ll also find new statistics on supplemental lighting as growers look for new ways to improve production. Nearly half of growers aren’t using any kind of supplemental lighting, but 38% have implemented LED lights in their operations.

Growers are also taking note of the latest culinary trends. From gourmet mushrooms to edible flowers to other specialty crops, operations all over the U.S. and Canada are working with chefs, restaurants and ‘foodie’ customers to cater to demand for increasingly diverse foods.

But some things remain the same. Throughout the Produce Grower State of the Industry survey, tomatoes, lettuces and cucumbers have remained the top choices for growers, with herbs moving between the third and fourth spot over the past couple of years. And this year is no different.

As part of the report this year, you’ll also find updates from operations across the U.S. and Canada on how their businesses are faring and how they’re changing with the times. While one grower is moving into the cannabis market, another is specializing in gourmet ginger and yet another is carving out a niche in baby leaf greens and edible flowers.

We hope you’ll find this information helpful as you plan for the coming year and beyond. And we always want to hear about changes you’re making to your operation. If you have a story to tell, please contact us at kspirgen@gie.net. We’ll be happy to hear from you.

Photo © thruer | Adobe Stock

When it comes to keeping up with trends, are you in the driver’s seat or a passenger hanging on for dear life? Reacting to trends in the marketplace can feel like riding a roller coaster. By the time you can tap into a new foodie trend with your produce, the trend may have already passed. So, what are produce growers to do? Acknowledge the current trends you must respond to but resolve to get behind the wheel to drive the future trends.

Taking an assertive approach to marketing and trend-making can be a tough order for many produce growers. You have plenty to do on your plate already. But in today’s market, there’s really no way around getting involved with direct marketing to your end consumer. Ultimately, you are in control of your brand perception, and you must find ways to differentiate your product to improve margins and net profit. Now’s a great time to dive into market trends to make sure you’re not missing out on key opportunities.

A place to start

A good place to start is an audit of what you are already growing, and how you’re growing it, to see what matches up with current growing trends. There are a few current trends that will most likely continue to be key factors for produce growers for many years to come. If you haven’t already responded to these growing trends, you still have time to leverage them and integrate the messaging into your marketing long-term:

• Flavor; Consumers prioritize flavorful produce
• Organically grown produce + “clean” ingredients
• Food as medicine — health and wellness
• Convenience — produce size and portions
• Transparency + traceability
• Locally grown food
• Online ordering + home delivery

Using these key trends, you can make any changes needed to your processes or production. Then fine-tune your customer targeting and your brand messaging to help you stand out in your market — today, and in the future. With all produce growers adapting to these trends, the key for you will be to differentiate your produce from everyone else’s.

Less meat

Another important and growing trend is the reduction of meat in American and European diets. As more Americans either go meatless or reduce the amount of meat they eat, they’re turning to more creative uses for fresh produce. To keep up with these culinary trends, pay attention to popular diets, such as Keto or Paleo diets, but also many new emerging diet labels that guide consumers toward or away from specific produce.

Hyperlocal

Demand for fresh produce is growing and that’s a good thing. But increased demand will put strains on produce growers, especially in the form of both labor and trucking shortages. Hyperlocal food is already a growing trend with consumers, but a hyperlocal market may become much more of a necessity for growers. So why wait? Now is the time to invest in growing your local sales.

Going hyperlocal with your produce sales requires you to take a deep dive into your local market resources. How closely do you work with nearby chefs? Do you have any relationships with local foodies or influencers? Do you participate in, or run your own, local farmers market? What about local school food programs?

When it comes to local restaurants and chefs, they are looking for highly perishable produce they can get delivered in 24 hours or less. Farm-to-table freshness plus great flavor is the peak differentiator. Restaurants and chefs want growers they can rely on for consistent yet unique availability and quick turns.

Ultimately, you are in control of your brand perception, and you must find ways to differentiate your product to improve margins and net profit.

Seasonality

Growing under glass can also afford you the opportunity to offer availability of key produce year-round to your hyperlocal market. 365 availability will most likely become a bigger customer demand, if transport issues continue to be challenging. 365 availability can also be a huge differentiator for you as a grower.

Breeding

Produce consumers rarely know the difference between different varieties of fruit or vegetable. But they do know flavor, timing and convenience. Consumers who want these choices and improvements will continue putting market pressure on both breeders and growers. To stay on top of — or ahead of — flavor, size and convenience preferences, you need to monitor the market continuously. If you are breeding or working directly with breeders, make sure you’re tailoring for consumer preference — not just what you think is cool!

Respond faster

You might not be able to shift production or packaging quickly, but you can quickly pivot your content and market voice. If you’re investing in creating quality content around your product — which you should be — then you can at least respond quickly to changing trends on that front. Blog posts, recipes, social media engagement, and videos about your produce that incorporate a current or upcoming trend is a great way to stay relevant.

Stay ahead

Keeping up with and staying ahead of consumer trends will require you to get a little technical. Ever used Google Trends? If not, get online and search it now. You’ll see an application come up that allows you to enter keywords and phrases to track their search popularity by location. It’s quite fascinating. Also, set Google Alerts for specific keywords or phrases (including your company name and brands) to be sent to your inbox regularly. These alerts will keep you up to date on key trends and events that you may never know about otherwise.

Keeping up with — and driving — trends is certainly no easy task. To tackle it, think of your customer as your partner. Unless you know what they’re thinking and what’s important to them, it’s tough to have a successful relationship.

This year’s Cultivate was full of sessions covering everything from leadership to email campaigns to sustainability. Here are some of the best educational pieces we found during the show.

For full versions of these articles and more coverage of Cultivate’19, click here.

Too boring, too complicated and too irrelevant. Does that sound like the foundation of a great message? Rafael Mael, marketing strategist, public speaker and founder of Maelstrom Marketing, said the message behind most companies are all three of these things. During his educational session at Cultivate’19 in Columbus, Ohio, he gave advice on how to overcome these challenges and create an irresistible message.

“It all comes down to the art of messaging,” Mael said. “You can call it branding, you can call it marketing and more, but they’re all the variation of the same thing, which is the ability to connect and get stuff done.”

From boring to interesting

According to Mael, the biggest way to overcome a boring message is by evoking curiosity. “Somehow, you have to make them curious. You have to make them want to know more about you,” he said. To do this, he advised “wrapping the message.”

Some ways to wrap your message is by using testimonials as teasers. “Testimonials are tremendously underutilized,” Mael said. “A short and sweet testimonial makes people wonder, ‘Why are you so good?’ “Why are they so happy?’” Other ways are showing your company’s impact by stating the number of customers you have and giving them an inside look by sharing your team and origin.

From complicated to clear

“Your job is to figure out what your underlying message is and how you can relay it to consumers,” Mael said. “The amateur move to is spill it all out; the professional move is to say it short and sweet.” By “short and sweet,” Mael referred to the idea that companies must share every service they offer, instead of a shortened overview. “When you simplify a message, when you streamline a message, you don’t lose, you gain,” he said. “When you incorporate more, the message degrades.”

To ensure a clear message, Mael advised to share it with a child between the ages of 7 and 9. “Kids don’t know fancy jargon,” he said. “If they don’t get it, the problem isn’t them, it’s you.” For a clear message, Mael said to “do surgery,” which means to dissect your original message, throw away unnecessary words and keep the important ones. “You have to be really clear about your message,” he said. “Work it until it’s less.”

From irrelevant to relatable

For a relatable message, Mael suggested finding ways to connect with customers. According to him, mentioning partnerships and suppliers will appeal to an already established relationship, and enhance trust and marketability, which is the goal of any business.

By following these three tips, Mael is sure that any message will become unforgettable, worthwhile and long lasting. “We all love stories, but we have a misconception that a great story is a huge story. A great story doesn’t have to be big, it has to valuable, memorable and finally, good enough so they can pass it along,” Mael said. “We must be able to communicate with our customers if we want to retain them and grow our shared wealth.” — Sierra Allen

Having trouble thinking of catchy subject lines, promotions or newsletter topics? Leslie Leach, head of marketing and operations at Plantt, an e-commerce solution for garden centers, shared her expertise on email marketing basics and fun campaigns at Cultivate’19 in Columbus, Ohio.

Email basics                   

“First, it’s important to understand the five steps to a great customer email,” Leach said, “which are the subject line, body, CTA (call to action), timing and mobile."

For a strong subject line, she suggested using numbers and avoiding salesy language. For the body, Leach advised focusing on benefits, writing in third person and personalizing the message. For the call to action, Leach said it should be easy to spot and thoughtful and should avoid the overused, “shop now” language. She also advised to send emails any weekday between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m.., and to always test emails on mobile phones to ensure device adaptability.  

According to Leach, open rate is dependent upon how strong your subject line is, but the click through rate is equally important because it shows that consumers are digesting the information. “Click through rate is how well you deliver on what you promised in the subject line,” she said. “You want to bring those two things together for a great email.”                                                                                               

Email campaigns can fall into the welcome, promotional, social, automated, special and newsletter category. Leach suggested using an assortment of campaigns for creativity and personal touch.

Welcome email                 

A welcome email is used when an account is first created. It can incorporate a generic “thank you” to new users or the return policy to establish confidence for online shopping. “Any way to just make people feel comfortable about shopping with you,” Leach said.

Building trust   

Email two is a follow-up that is intended to build trust between the company and consumer. According to Leach, using testimonials is a good way to connect and establish trust. “Sharing what people think of you makes you more credible in their eyes,” she said.

Abandoned cart                                                                                                       

The abandoned cart email is used when potential shoppers move items to their cart, but never finish the checkout process. This email reminds consumers about their items and shows them that you care. “A re-targeting ad is when someone visits a particular item on an e-commerce site and neglects it, but sees reminding ads afterwards,” Leach said. “This is the same but by email.” This is also a good chance to suggest similar items that may complement a purchase, she said.

Segmented emails 

Segmentation is sending the right email to the right person at the right time. Some e-commerce behaviors that can be segmented are average order value, purchase frequency, previous purchases, products browsed, geographic location and personality.

Personalized emails

Personalized emails can also fall into the segmented category by separating consumers into potential customers, website shoppers and repeat shoppers. For potential shoppers, you can offer first-time only coupons, suggest products based off previous purchases for website shoppers and offer loyalty coupons and request product reviews from repeat shoppers.

Product promotion  

Promotional emails are good for announcing new products and services or highlighting on-sale items. According to Leach, purchase rates are higher when a “click here” link is included.

Category Sale                                                                                                                              

The category sale email focuses on one department and includes a set time frame of when the sale begins and ends. According to Leach, this campaign can be fun by leveraging psychology. By using FOMO inducing language, or the fear of missing out verbiage such as “limited time only” or “just a few days left,” Leach said consumers are more likely to purchase items they think they cannot get any other time. Flipping language is another way to leverage psychology. “Instead of saying ‘$10 off,’ say they have $10 to spend to make it sound more like a gift or credit, rather than a percentage off,” Leach said.

Website-only offer

These campaigns are ideal for getting rid of leftover or excess items. They’re also a good way to get consumers to shop online and browse extra items they may be inspired to purchase.

Special occasions                                                                                                                 

Special occasion emails are great for capitalizing from birthdays, holidays and seasons, Leach said. Birthday emails can suggest personalized items, while holiday and seasonal emails can suggest themed gifts that are contingent upon on the time. Leach suggested building a 12-month calendar to stay organized.

Social engagement

“This is something you can do to strengthen your social media presence and following,” Leach said. “You can ask consumers to invite friends to sign up, take a photo with success stories and use special hashtags for your garden center.”

Educational emails

Educational campaigns can be a mixture of curated and written content to inspire purchases and share knowledge. “It’s a much lush way of educating and encouraging them to buy something,” Leach said. She suggested doing an email round-up of information that’s helpful to certain regions, seasons and popular purchases.

While Leach suggested using the campaigns that work for you, she advised using a mixture of emails, like these 11 campaigns, to keep consumers enthused, involved and looking for more. — Sierra Allen

Supply chain waste can drive up prices and cut into profit margins. But by considering some changes to shipping, you could find a way to keep those costs down. “If you’ve got air in a trailer, you’re wasting money,” said AJ Lambert, director of sales and account management at Container Centralen, at Cultivate’19 in Columbus, Ohio.

Some of the biggest problems simply come from the labor associated with shipping. If you’re using corrugated boxes, there’s a lot of handling, from putting boxes together to loading, unloading and breaking down boxes.

By simply making a switch to racks, growers can save on labor, but that conversion isn’t going to give you the same payload.

By considering a central distributor, growers can consolidate materials into one semi-truck. A localized box truck can pick up products at various stops and bring them to a distribution center where they’re packed on a semi-truck and shipped out.

“Then the trailer is fully loaded and on its way, whereas drivers in the previous process are spending two hours at each location,” Lambert said.

Transportation regulations

Gary Cortes, founding partner at Flowvision, said growers are also facing issues with touch loads, especially when using deck or California stacking. “The quality of plant is going down when you do that,” he said.

He said that many growers are moving away from touch loads to rack loads because of new ELD laws, which limit drivers to 11 hours of driving and 14 hours of work. “There’s a lot of rules and regulations on it,” Cortes said.

“Transportation regulations forced carriers to reconsider current operating practices,” Lambert said, noting that multi-stop linehaul runs with two- to four-hour load times at each pickup and four hours of unload times meant increasing costs for customers.

“Many carriers stopped this service offering altogether without a dock-to-dock pickup and delivery,” he said. “Having a central spot will save the shipper and the driver a ton of time loading the racks and unloading the racks. Then the driver can turn faster and get that load. That typically equates to lower prices.”

Here are a few solutions the pair offered for shipping:

1. Convert from corrugated to racks. It eliminates multiple touches and the need for boxing

2. Decrease overall transportation spend. Smaller growers can blend their products with other growers. A full truckload means less cost per plant being shipped for every grower involved

3. Drivers have more drive time due to dock-to-dock moves. “If you can drive the cost of transportation down, your profit margins with skyrocket,” Lambert said.

4. Greater load and rack optimization means less labor. It’s less handling by the shipper, the driver and the receiver of the product. — Kate Spirgen