Is Your Market Low-Income Friendly?

Feb 17, 2015

MFFM is offering a new workshop about increasing low-income access at your farmers’ market. Thanks to a grant from the Sunshine Hill Family Fund, the cost to register is just $10, which includes all materials and lunch. We’ll be offering the workshop in Bangor March 2nd and again in Brunswick March 4th. Learn more about WIC, gleaning, and EBT programs at farmers’ markets.

If your market is wondering whether to take on EBT in 2015, this program will help you think through the pros and cons. Find out about wireless equipment options to process SNAP payments (as well as credit/debit) There will also be representatives from the USDA on site to help with applications for FNS numbers (the first step necessary to start accepting EBT). If your market has a new EBT program that you hope will grow, or if you’re interested in increasing WIC usage or in starting a gleaning program, there will be information for you as well. Email for more information or to register via email, or Register Online.

Get your farm or farmers’ market authorized for SNAP (formerly food stamps) and receive you FNS Number the very same day! USDA staff will be on site to walk you through the process and assist with your application. If you intend to get an FNS number at the workshop, please bring copies of the following documents (required for the application):

Picture ID (driver’s license or passport)
Social Security Card (or other official document with your name and SSN)
Copy of voided check for bank account you will use to deposit funds.

Source:umaine.edu

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.