CRPR External Seminar

A small coalition of farms offering community supported agriculture subscriptions have developed an employee voucher program following an insurance marketing scheme initially utilized in the state of Wisconsin. This program has engaged wellness professionals with leading employer partners to create new market opportunities while also helping meet emerging wellness concerns through new employee benefit programs. There are important leadership roles for agricultural universities that also have strong medicine and public health programs. Research support needs for such efforts continue to emerge, but have included impacts on insurance claims, employee and household food lifestyle, employee retention in these programs, and farm economics.

Another market win-win for local food innovations involves a branding scheme for local sourcing in restaurants that potentially enhances the issue of ‘local-washing’ and introduces a measure of legitimacy that benefits both restaurants and farmers, and the consumers that place a premium on local products in these settings. A pilot branding innovation was introduced in Lexington, Kentucky, setting the stage for a larger consumer choice experiment that demonstrated strong consumer demand for such a program. The issue of legitimacy requires an important role to be played by a third party certifier, potentially suited to a state department of agriculture or new restaurant coalition.