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Sustainable Economy Initiative |
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Home > Our
Programs > Sustainable
Economy Initiative > Research > Best Practices
Summary |
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Best
Practices Summary:
Agriculture Private Ventures
Use the links below to jump to a summary of the example Best
Practice that you want to read. Additional information
about each example is available in the Best Practices Summary
Table
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Research Index...
| Organization/Best Practice/Resource
Information |
Name |
| NY Distributor |
Baldor Specialty Foods Inc. |
| Out of Region Potato Farm |
Peri & Sons Inc. |
| FL Family of companies |
Southern Specialties |
| National Tomato Business |
Sunripe |
| NY organic nut products |
Once Again Nut Butter (OANB) |
| MA Coop |
Our Family Farms |
| IA Coop |
Frontier Natural Products Cooperative (FNPC) |
| NH farm, organic, educational, agri-tourism |
D Acres of New Hampshire |
| NH farm, organic |
Twist of Fate Farm (TOFF) |
| NH Big Dairy |
Walpole Creamery (WC) |
| VT Farms |
Neighborly Farms |
| NE, Big Dairy |
Garelick Farms |
| Big Dairy, ME & NE |
Oakhurst Dairy |
| Big Coop, VT |
Cabot Creamer Cooperative |
| Large yogurt maker, NH |
Stony field Yogurt |
| NY private crops/orchard |
Champlain Specialties |
| VT small to medium farm, Aquaponics & fish
farm |
Laughing Duck Farm |
| VT Cooperative |
Deep Root Coop |
| Maine fish farm |
Mook Sea Farms |
| ME Blueberry farm |
Jasper Wyman & Sons Blueberries |
| NY Vineyards |
Thousand Island Winery |
| NY Winery |
Bully Hill Winery |
| VT producer (large) |
Franklin Foods Inc. |
| NH orchard & nursery |
Brookdale Fruit Farm |
| NY innovative farm (in northern NY |
Kler Vu |
| NH private farm |
Graymist Farm Dairy |
| National resource |
Local Harvest (LH) |
| NH private dairy |
Morrill Farm Dairy |
| NH private farm |
Sherman Farm |
| NH private farm |
Stuart Farm Dairy |
| ME organic, diversified farm |
Hatchet Cove |
| International dairy farm |
Maytag Dairy Farms |
| NH Equine Business builder |
Blue Ribbon Consulting LDO, LLC |
| NY Family dairy farm |
Ronnybrook Farm Dairy |
| NY Poultry Farm |
Giroux Poultry Farm, Inc. |
| International Potato Farm |
County Crest Ltd. |
| International Winery, France |
Chateau Meyre |
| International |
Fermes Gasser Ltee |
| English Cooperative |
Dairy Farms of Britain Processing, Ltd. |
| VT, private crop farm, greenhouses |
Pete's Greens |
| VT Organic Farm |
Butterworks Farm |
| NY Beef Cattle |
Grazin' Angus Acres |
| NY Dairy |
Adirondack Farm |
| MA |
Red Tomato (RT) |
| ME Coop |
Crown of Maine Cooperative |
| ME, diverse farm |
Cooper's Maple Products |
| ME blueberry freezer |
Allen's Blueberry Freezer Inc. |
| VT cheese makers |
Jasper Hill Farm |
| NH Farm w/ slaughter house |
PT Farm, LLC |
| United Kingdom farm and hospitality |
Mill Close Farm |
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Baldor Specialty Foods Inc. www.baldorfood.com
Baldor is one of the largest importers and distributors of specialty fresh produce in the Northeast. They support domestic farmers and international growers worldwide for their sources. A large business, they not only support farmers as a direct resource, but Baldor demonstrates innovation in controlling fuel costs and the creative use of their large space.
Leadership: Pres. Muzyk has taken strong steps for coping with fuel prices by collaborating with the Watershed Agricultural Council & the Catskill Mountain Foundation
Innovation: BSF is known for cutting edge business innovations.
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Peri & Sons Inc. www.periandsons.com
Peri and Sons combines the traditional- handpicking with modern practices- growing with organic and environmentally safe conventional methods and are certified "NutriClean", 100% free of pesticide residue. The company is particularly interested in and works for food safety. To this end they have developed their own safety program.
Leadership: The company is a resource for other produce growers by providing programs and serving as an example. They developed and are willing to share their safety program.
Knowledge: Programs include Good Agricultural Practices (GPA's), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP's), HACCP, Quality Tracking from Field to Consumer, Pesticide Testing-NutriClean, and a Bioterrorism Protection Plan.
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Southern Specialties www.southernspecialties.com
Southern Specialties is involved in growing, importing, processing, and marketing a wide range of fruits and vegetables from the United States. They are innovative and unique in many ways including their cold storage facility and vertical integration.
Innovation: Southern Specialties may be particularly noted for vertically integrated programs that eliminate unnecessary costs and delays from the supply chain
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Sunripe www.sunripeproduce.com
By forming a family of companies Sunripe is able to provide fresh tomatoes and vegetable nationwide all year rather than being dependent on seasons. unripe keeps up with technology which aids in cost reduction and increased productivity.
Leadership: One of the companies, Pacific Triple E Ltd. Rebuilt its entire production line for Roma tomatoes in 2007.
Knowledge: Suripe provides merchandizing tools, health and safety information and much more for others in similar businesses.
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Once Again Nut Butter (OANB) www.onceagainnutbutter.com
OANB began as a three person co-operative producing a fewÊthousand pounds of product and grew to 27 members making millions of pounds of different ofÊorganic nut butters, roasted nuts and bottled organic honeys in a 45,000 square foot facility. They are unique in their products and their focus on the promotion of organic foods.
Leadership: Once Again demonstrates leadership in policy, innovation- developing new product lines and beginning organic crops. It was instrumental in developing the organic peanut growing standards and subsidized the organic peanut crop for the first five years in the U. S.ÊIt introduced the U.S. to Organic Valencia Peanut Butter in 1989 and we subsidized the organic peanut crop for its first 5 years.
Innovation: OANB has started and expanded new products in organics.
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Our Family Farms www.ourfamilyfarms.com
Our Family Farms is a partnership of eight family farms. It an example of the traditional farms working together to serve both the consumer and the farm members themselves. The Cooperative's base is located on a historical farm. Empowered by their collaboration the member farms are able to give back to the community as an organization.
Leadership: Our Family Farm provides fresh product to local consumers from local farms.
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Frontier Natural Products Cooperative (FNPC) www.frontiercoop.com
Frontier Natural Products is a leader in the selection of organic products, support for growers and research. It offers unique products and ongoing development of product lines.
Leadership: Frontier Natural Products offers the world's largest selection of organic products and supports organic growers throughout the world. It gives "The influence of Frontier's organic research farm is still felt through the organic community." One percent of sales go to organic farming causes.
Knowledge: "The influence of our recent work on Frontier's organic research farm is still felt throughout the organic community." Frontier has an organic research farm.
Innovation: "Our business partners share a dedication to environmental and social sustainability, and together we generate lively, innovative solutions for a better world." Frontier has become the industry leader through constant innovation. Frontier-fosters environmental responsibility, employment stresses family and happiness.
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D Acres of New Hampshire www.dacres.org
D Acres combines tradition, technology, education and crafts related to farming all on an organic farm.
Knowledge: Education is part of the purpose. D Acres offers many programs, open houses, information through the newsletter and participates in wellness conferences.
Innovation: D Acres blends producing crops, education, crafts, merchandizing and wellness programs.
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Twist of Fate Farm (TOFF) www.twistoffatefarn.com
The farm is an interesting example of growth. Jennifer & Ray started raising livestock for themselves and because they were pleased with the product they were led to expand and by selling to the public. They sell other local producers and crafters products and added a year round store.
Leadership: Consistent with their goal of bringing the best local products to the farm and hence the consumer, Twist of Fate plans to expand their products in the store . They are looking for a milk, cream, butter supplier, additional cheeses and to market prepared meals. The leadership is in quality and the manner in which the livestock is raised.
Innovation: TOFF's store carries specialty meats, meats for holidays and unique locally made products.
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Walpole Creamery (WC) www.walpolecreamery.com
Walpole is uniquely traditional if that can be said without sounding contradictory. Unlike other "homemade" ice creamer makers WC does not use commercial mix. They describe their product as "cow to cone to packages." The ice cream is homemade, the ingredients are from local farms, therefore the creamery not only supplies consumers with fresh product, but supports family farms.
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Neighborly Farms www.neighborlyfarms.com
Neighborly Farms is an organic farm that takes special care of the land, the animals and product. The farm demonstrates leadership in stewardship and quality in its award winning cheeses. Visitors are invited to tour the barn.
Leadership: "The family-owned company, which has been making cheeses for less than five years, came away from the annual conference of the American Cheese Society with two second place ribbons for their specialty cheeses." (www.rherald.com/news)
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Garelick Farms www.garelickfarms.com
Garelick as the largest dairy in NE, employing 1600, cannot be overlooked. The products contain no artificial growth hormones. The Dairy supports 1000 farms. It educates concerning health on an extensive website.
Leadership: The Dairy is able to support many community organizations including, the Local Food Bank Support, Foster Family recruitment and Red Brick School.
Innovation: One of the innovative approaches was the introduction of new milk jugs, more easily recycled.
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Oakhurst Dairy www.oakhurstdairy.com
With 240 employees Oakhurst is a large dairy. It actively supports many community resources and organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs. Other demonstrated means of supporting Maine community needs are that 80% of the Dairy's supplies come from Maine, 10% of profits go to children and the environment and the products carry the Maine Quality Seal.
Leadership: Oakhurst is a notable leader in quality and number of products as well as support of its state. Its products include more choices of low fat milk products than any other dairy. Leadership is seen also in stewardship of the environment. Oakhurst has taken innovative measures to protect the ozone from CFC refrigerants.
Knowledge: There is a comprehensive website with interesting programs. The virtual dairy adventure is a particularly innovative idea. The Virtual Library for Dairy Production is an interesting resource. There is a Dietitian on staff available to public.
Innovation: One of the particularly interesting innovations was the converting of the trucks and trailers to non-CFC refrigerants. Other innovations are that the dairy converted its boilers to a more environmentally friendly fuel and reuses truck lubricants as fuel for a garage heater.
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Cabot Creamer Cooperative www.cabotcheese.com
Cabot is credited by different sources and awards as the making the world's best cheddars. The cooperative has thousands of members and therefore supports and sustains farms. The company combines traditional family farm quality with state-of-the-art facilities and adventurous creativity. As a large and successful business it is able to give back extensively to the community.
Leadership: "Cabot cheddar has won every major award for taste."
Knowledge: Cabot has a variety of health educational tools available such as a video, website resources, education programs in schools and activities for children.
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Stony field Yogurt www.stonyfield.com
Stonyfield, the world's leading yogurt maker, stresses the simplicity of the product and focus. The ingredients are organic and produced without the use of antibiotics, artificial growth hormones, chemical fertilizers, and toxic and persistent pesticides. The organization is active and intentional in its support of farms and the environment. To help reduce global warming they offset all of the C02 emissions from the facility energy use. They have a nonprofit called ÒClimate CountsÓ which shows people how they can help fight climate change.
Leadership: Stonyfield is a leader in stewardship. They were able to offset the C02 emissions of their facility's energy use. They started "Climate Counts," a nonprofit organization to show people how to shop and invest in ways to help against climate change.
Knowledge: Stonyfield began as an organic farming school. The farm continues to educate through a variety of means : the web site has educational sections, especially under "Earth Actions," Programs such as Have-a-Cow, news letter and resources such as a Menu for Change Library. Links on web site direct people on how to support family farms.
Innovation: Stoneyfield was the first US manufacturer to offset 100% CO2 emission from facility use. It is NH's largest solar electric. It's leadership in environmental stewardship is demonstrated also by the donation of 10% of profit to protect & restore the earth. In part the yogurt's unique quality is in the use of 4 probiotic cultures when other yogurt makers use 2.
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Champlain Specialties www.northcountrychamber.com/directory
Champlain Valley Specialty, Incorporated was established in 2004 and sources only New York State apples, which are sliced into wedges and sold in a variety of different sized bags. It sells these healthy snack alternatives to New York City Schools, thus supporting both good health and the producers of the Champlain Valley. Champlain Valley Specialties procures fresh fruits and vegetables with DoD funding.
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Laughing Duck Farm www.laughingduckfarm.com
Laughing Duck is a leader in environmental stewardship and innovation. It is a rare type of farm offering special products. Laughing Duck Farm Aquaponics maximizes the efficient use of resources making its own eco system, requiring less energy and producing no waste. The Laughing Duck system protects the environment because it uses no chemicals, requires one tenth of the water used in field planting and much less than the usual used for fish culture. The Farm has very little waste and the fish waste is used to make "the richest organic compost available."
Leadership: Laughing Duck is an example of leadership by its unique nature of a fish farm and aquaponics.
Innovation: LAUGHING DUCK FARM has its own AQUAPONICS SYSTEM, which is beneficial to the fish and plant products and furthers sustainable and ecologically friendly farming.
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Deep Root Coop www.deeprootcoop.com
Part of the Washington Fish Growers association and considered Aquaponic Pioneers, the Mook Sea Farm is the operation base for oyster growing. It demonstrates leadership and innovation with its special product and raising techniques.
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Mook Sea Farms
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Jasper Wyman & Sons Blueberries www.wymans.com
Jasper Wyman and Sons is the leading U.S. grower packer and marketer of wild blueberries and other berry fruits that are flash-frozen, canned and in juices. It is a family owned business and maintains a commitment to the best quality berries. It is particularly of note as the founding member of the Wild Blueberry Association of North America.
Leadership: Rated Superior by American Institute of Baking every year since 1996, the business demonstrates leadership in quality. It supports environmental events such as a local recycling event. Also in regards to environmental stewardship it has been awarded the SYSCO certification for intergraded Pest Management, which promotes environmental stewardship. The business has a remarkable international educational supportive program for educating farmers in Chile.
Knowledge: Wyman and Sons reaches out nationally and internationally with education and developing educational programs. The company works with farmers in Chile using its program for sustainability in farming. Within North America the company is a member of the sustainable Food Lab. for anyone interested in health, the health benefits of blueberries and stewarding natural resources and sustainability.
Innovation: There are many examples of innovation within Wyman's and in conjunction with the other Wild Maine Blueberry companies, particularly in technology. Wyman and Sons has four state-of-the-art freezing tunnels. It has completed the IPM Farm practices and the sustainable Agriculture Program. It has Laser-sorting for ultra-clean, uniform products and employs HACCP programs for processing plants.
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Thousand Island Winery www.thousandislandswinery.com
The Thousand Islands winery must be noted as New York State's most northern winery. Its wines have won many awards. It is interesting in its combination of a vineyard, winery and tourist attraction. Many public events are held on site, concerts, weddings and more. The Pavilion/Courtyard, which will comfortably accommodate 150 people and the Barn's Upstairs Banquet room, which will accommodate approximately 100 people are available to rent.
Leadership: TI Winery has earned many awards from NY Food & Wine.
Innovation: Thousand Islands Winery combines the production of high quality wines with informational and entertaining tours as a stop on the Thousand Islands Seaway Wine Trail.
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Bully Hill Winery www.bullyhill.com
Bully Hill was incorporated in 1970, but the family has been growing grapes since 1878. It has been a leader its nature as the first winery in the region and a pioneer in grape development. It is a combination of a traditional winemaker and an interesting tourist historical destination. People may become members of the "Happy Herd Club." As member they enjoy special discounts, news and gifts.
Leadership: Bully Hill was the first small estate winery in its region after prohibition. The winery was a pioneer in hybrids of American and French grapes.
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Franklin Foods Inc. www.franklinfoods.com
Franklin Foods is traditional in producing cheeses using fresh milk from local farms. It therefore supports local farms. It demonstrates innovation in the expanding selections which include products that are organic, rBGH free. It also expands marketing, reaching out to NYC schools with award winning cheeses.
Leadership: Franklin Foods products have earned many awards including 2007 American Cheese Society award, 2007 World Dairy Expo Awards.
Innovation: Franklin Foods has brought healthy cheeses to NYC schools since 2007.
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Brookdale Fruit Farm www.brookdalefarms.com
Brookdale Fruit Farm is an excellent example of leadership, stewardship, sustainability and tradition. Through the transfer of development rights under the state Land Conservation Investment Program the property will remain a farm for future generations. It was one of the first orchards in New Hampshire to adopt Integrated Pest Management strategies to reduce pesticide use and enhance environmental quality(www.brookdalefarm.com). While maintaining the traditional the farm continues to expand technique and product.
Leadership: Brookdale was one of the first NH orchards to adopt Integrated Pest Management Strategies. It was a 2000 recipient of Earth Partnerships Millennium Farm/Ranch family Award, which is given for stewardship.
Innovation: Brookdale diversified and grew in techniques for raising apples and better use of the land.
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Kler Vu
Tom Gillette speaks for the Cornel Cooperative Extension on the Successful Dairy Modernization: Plan, Implement and Reap the Benefits programs. He not only is a speaker, but his farm is an example of successful expansion. He converted his 60 cow tie stall farm to 150-cows and added a modern milking parlor. He serves as an excellent example of an innovative, yet traditional farmer and an educator.
Leadership: Tom Gillette speaks at conferences and other events on cost effective modernizing for farms.
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Graymist Farm Dairy
Graymist is a farm of 500 acres, half of which is tillable and there are about 80 milking Holstein cows. Nestled in a beautiful valley the farm is an excellent model of a mid sized farm for management practices on many levels. Graymist grows its own forage and replaces its own herd, which saves costs and creates less reliance on outside sources. Nancy and Gordon use recycled newspaper for bedding for the milking cows (the heifers eat it). They have worked with NRCS to create a lined manure pit. Waste is converted to certified organic compost. The demand for this compost is such that they sell 500-600 yards a year. The alley scrapers keep the barn clean and save time and man-power and the new robotic milker is expected to increase milk production.
Leadership: Gordon is on the Agriculture Advisory Board to the commissioner of Agriculture. He and Nancy worked with the Department of Agriculture for a conservation easement when they purchased the farm. They both studied animal husbandry in college, and Gordon has a Master's Degree in reproduction, which often eliminates the necessity of a veterinarian call.
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Local Harvest (LH) www.localharvest.org
Local Harvest is a service that encourages consumer to support their local economy because through LH they are able to buy directly from family farmers. This will also support the local farmers. It is an easy to use web source for farmers to reach consumers and consumers to locate farm products.
Knowledge: Local Harvest is a resource for family farms to find markets and for consumers to find sustainable grown food. It also provides news, information on forums and events regarding farms and products.
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Morrill Farm Dairy www.morrillfarmdairy.com
It is an old family farm of breeding cattle, with embryos of the strong lines available. The farm has expanded to other products of interest and serves as link for the public to view and learn about farms, therefore promoting local family farms.
Leadership: Morrill Farm Dairy has won premier breeder and exhibitor banners at the International spring R & W show for the past 7 years.
Knowledge: The dairy conducts school tours and takes interns to share knowledge of farming.
Innovation: The farm includes the public with open barns, school tours and other events.
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Sherman Farm www.shermanfarmnh.com
Sherman Farm uses modern technology such as computerized feeders and Boumatiac computer equipment, but it is also recognizes value in the traditional practices. For example, it is going back to traditional glass milk bottles for better stewardship of the land. The farm supports other local farmers, selling their meat, wools and other products at the farm stand. They have a bakery which uses the from-scratch farm ingredients to create more products.
Knowledge: Educating the public about farms and promoting farming is important to Sherman farm. It takes interns from agriculture schools. The public are invited to events such as sleigh rides and the corn maize.
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Stuart Farm Dairy
The Stuart Farm Dairy is an excellent example of a best practice on many levels such as stewardship, growth, education an leadership. The site was a farm since 1964, but was abandoned. It could have been lost as farming land, but the owners renovated and restarted it as an active and ever expanding enterprise. It has been recognized by the American LandTrust for land stewardship. The farm actively promotes education. It partners with the University of New Hampshire for agricultural research and teaching programs.
Leadership: The Stuart Farm Dairy was a 2003 Steward of the Land winner, awarded by American LandTrust
Knowledge: The farm partnered with UNH to promote agricultural and environmental research and teaching programs.
Innovation: The farm stays current with technology and shares the farm culture by inviting the public to such events as barbecues and farm breakfasts.
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Hatchet Cove www.hatchetcovefarm.com
Hatchet Cove is a MOFGA-certified family farm in Midcoast Maine. It is a Community Supported Agricultural farm with a farm stand as an amenity, an apprentice program for educating farmers and purpose of promoting local products.
Knowledge: Hatchet Cove has an apprentice program for the development and dissemination of knowledge, a newsletter and informative website.
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Maytag Dairy Farms www.maytagdairyfarms.com
Maytag stresses tradition. It is an example of success through loyalty to tradition. The cheese wheels are handmade in Maytags "caves."
Leadership: Maytag cheeses have many awards. The Maytag Blue Cheese is ranked among the world's best.
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Blue Ribbon Consulting LDO, LLC www.horseconsulting.com
Blue Ribbon provides services for equine business owners to improve their ventures. Blue Ribbon assists in expanding, planning and marketing businesses. This business solutions and training for the equine industry is a new field. In the past equine business owners relied on tradition, love of horses and connections within the horse community. Now business education is available to them through these relatively new companies such as Blue Ribbon.
Knowledge: Blue Ribbon has programs and resources for developing business plans from ideas to implementation.
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Ronnybrook Farm Dairy www.ronnybrook.com
The Ronnybrook Farm Dairy is an example of vertical integration. The products are supplied by the farm's own herd and one other local family farm. Ronnybrook "pasteurizes it [the products], bottles it, then trucks it." (www.ronnybrook.com) There is a dairy farm and a creamery. There are no hormones no antibiotics no additives of any kind in the products.
Knowledge: Ronnybrook Farm provides nutritional education on the website, as well as learning games.
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Giroux Poultry Farm, Inc.
Giroux Poultry is a third generation family farm. The largest egg producer in NY, it packs more than one million eggs a day. It is evidently a good practices by success, but also for stewardship. The farm was recognized by the Lake Champlain Basin Program as a 2007 Farm Year. It has demonstrates innovation and knowledge development with its Nutrient Management Plan.
Leadership: Giroux was awarded 2007 Farm of the Year by the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
Knowledge: Giroux's nutrient management plan demonstrates knowledge development.
Innovation: Giroux has a Nutrient Management Plan.
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County Crest Ltd.
County Crest Ltd. is a leader in innovation. They develop new potato brands, increased customer choices and expanded packaging including the packaging sizes and sales of par-cooked potatoes. They are customers of Tresco Ireland, a large distributor.
Leadership: County Crest demonstrates leadership its new developments such as the new potato brand, new packaging and par-cooked potatoes.
Innovation: County Crest is innovative in new forms of packaging and new product lines.
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Chateau Meyre www.chateaumeyre.com
Chateau Meyre is interesting because of its age compared to the ages of American vineyards. It has been a vineyard for three centuries. As historic as it is, the vineyard moves forward with the times. It incorporates international agri-tourism and up to date technology. The public may stay in its three star rated facility and tour the vineyards. The vineyard is remarkable in its technological advances regarding new wine cellars.
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Fermes Gasser Ltee
Fermes Grasser is an international award winning dairy & steer farm, remarkable for its innovation. F. G's innovation is found particularly in its trial methane system using cow manure, its manure spreading program to reduce soil erosion and protect the waters and planting of shrubs for windbreak efforts to also protect water quality. It was the first company farm in Quebec and participates in to the Drive Away Hunger Program.
Leadership: The Dairy leads in the field of innovation to protect the natural resources.
Innovation: The Dairy is particularly innovative in its methane system.
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Dairy Farms of Britain Processing, Ltd. www.dairyfarmersofbritain.com
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Pete's Greens www.petesgreens.com
Pete's is able to sell greens year round by using greenhouses and root cellars. The business was recognized as a Model Farm for Winter CSA Model.
Leadership: Model farm for Winter CSA Model
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Butterworks Farm www.butterworksfarm.com
The farm is interesting as a totally self-sufficient, closed herd farm. It is active in pursuing policy, innovative in nurturing the soil and readily available to share information.
Knowledge: Butterworks is very willing to share knowledge. They encourage questions.
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Grazin' Angus Acres www.grazinangusacres.com
It is an eco-friendly farm of 800 acres. The cattle are grass fed. The farm demonstrates innovative leadership in protecting resources.
Leadership: Grazin' Acres was the first farm in the region to have windmills.
Innovation: Grazin' Acres will not use petroleum based fuels to ship around the US.
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Adirondack Farm
Adirondack farm has 2400 acres and milks 1400 Holsteins. It is a complete farming operation. The owners raise their own forage and animal replacements. The barns are modern, free stall facilities. All waste is accounted for, tested and applied for proper nutrients. Rocky Giroux emphasizes that care of the animals makes happy animals who produce high quality milk.
Leadership: "Adirondack Farm is remarkable for managing much acreage in environ-friendly way." Anita Demming, Essex County NY Cooperative Extension
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Red Tomato (RT) www.redtomato.org
Red Tomato is a nonprofit organization that markets fresh fruit and vegetables from family farms in the northeast and southeast US to supermarkets and others throughout New England(www.redtomato.org.) For funding RT partners with foundations, state and federal government agencies, individuals, corporations and others. Red Tomato is a model of growth, policy activism, education, support of family farms, ecological, organic methods of farming such as IPM, and biodynamic farming. It provides a easy resource for farmers to connect to markets and consumers to find fresh, local fruits and vegetables. It employs means of marketing, logistics, distribution and education to this purpose.
Leadership: Red Tomato is the founder of the Fair Trade Company.
Knowledge: Education is an important aspect of Red Tomato. Some of the means applied to education are consulting for marketing and community outreach.
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Crown of Maine Cooperative www.crownofmainecoop.com
COMOC's term for itself as a "distribution vehicle" is apt. It is an important connection center for farmers and consumers with an expansive website that serves both. The coop intentionally and systematically supports local farms and the unique qualities of Maine and its products.
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Cooper's Maple Products www.coopersrhf.com
What makes Cooper's an interesting practice is the diversification. They raise and market AMHA miniature horses from a strong line, produce award winning maple products and operate greenhouses. The plants are started with plugs from some of the top greenhouses in North America.
Leadership: Cooper's maple products have won awards at the Fryeburg Fair and from the Southern Maine Sugar Makers Association.
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Allen's Blueberry Freezer Inc. www.allensblueberries.com
Allen's Blueberries is another of the strong Maine blueberry producers. Allen's is notable as the first blueberry grower to use the IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) method that blueberry producers agree revolutionized the shipping of their product.
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Jasper Hill Farm www.jasperhillfarm.com
Jasper Hill Farm's owners describe their venture as "our adventure in sustainable agricultural development." They make three high quality varieties of raw milk cheese. Their intention is" to serve as a business model that can be replicated by others interested in making a transition to value-added production." (jasperhillfarm.com) Cheese making is their value-added product that they discovered to help sustain their dairy farm. The farm's first in the nation aging facility is available for other producers.
Leadership: Jasper Hill Farm demonstrates leadership in quality and as an intentional model. The cheeses were featured on an episode of the Today Show, a national television program.
Innovation: An important part of the infrastructure is the 22,000 sq. ft. first-in-the-nation cheese aging cellar for ripening of natural rind cheeses.
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PT Farm, LLC www.nhfarms.com
PT Farm is a family owned farm of 100 cattle and 100 hogs. The farm is an interesting example of vertical integration of production and processing. The farm has found a way around the difficulty of finding a slaughter house by having their own. Because of the vertical integration the farm is able to sell fresh meat that staff cut and grind every day of the week. Ê
Innovation: PT Farm has its own USDA packing plant.
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Mill Close Farm www.millclosefarm.co.uk
It is interesting to compare the differences in how farms outside of the U. S. strive to maintain sustainability. A distinct difference is of course the age of family farms in countries much older than the U. S. Mill Close farm is a centuries old working farm. While maintaining the daily work of a farm, like some farms in the US Mill Close includes Agri-tourism opportunities in its functions. It serves as a Bed and Breakfast located in Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Leadership: Mill Close has earned many awards. In 2007 it was a finalist for the Yorkshire Tourist Board's White Rose Award for Excellence and earned the 5 Stars Gold Award. It was featured in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine's 100 Finest Places to Stay in England.
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