We all want the information we need when we need it. We want it to be easy to find and easy to understand. And we want to know we can trust it. That’s not too much to ask for.
The Texas Food Education & Discovery network (TXFED) aims to help local food producers and farmers markets to increase customers and sales and develop new market opportunities through online, on-demand training. Online courses provide content created by and for farmers & farmers market organizers, along with trusted organizations.
TXFED’s first 9 courses, available with closed captioning and Spanish subtitles, cover topics ranging from whether selling at a farmers market is right for your business and how to make money at a farmers market to using social media to promote your farm. Multi-course series provides opportunities for more in-depth learning. Several additional courses are in development. For a limited time, these courses are free.
Thirteen collaborating organizations provide consistency in creating course outlines and content with input and additional videos and other content provided by more than 50 knowledgeable new farmers and farmers market organizers with different types of businesses and experiences relevant to each course. Courses are relatively short but include assessments, worksheets, and outside resources to help farmers put lessons to work.
TXFED is funded in part by a grant from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Farmers Market Promotion Program. The program is led by the Texas Center for Local Food. Other educational collaborators include the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley Texas Rural Cooperative Center, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the Small Producers Initiative at Texas State University. Business and association collaborators include Farmshare Austin, the Farmers Market Coalition, the Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance, Grow North Texas, Terra Preta Farm, Texas Farmers Market, Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, and Texas Small Farmer & Ranchers Community-Based Organization.
Visit https://www.txfed.org/ to explore courses.
Dudensing, Rebekka. “On a Need-to-Know Basis: TXFED Online Training for Market Farmers“. Southern Ag Today 2(27.5). July 1, 2022. Permalink
