Whether you’re trying to sell cooking classes, farmstead cheese, CSA shares, a farm stay, or something else, this chapter will walk you through best practices in marketing.

The Sheep Production & Marketing Grant Program seeks to develop solutions for practical problems on a national basis and address the needs of the entire sheep industry, while focusing on the measurable benefits for sheep producers, encouraging partnerships among other sheep industry organizations, and reducing duplication of effort among participating organizations.

The purpose of the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program is to build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, to provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, to support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, fair wages, and new and safe job opportunities.

RFSP offers two types of projects, 24-month Planning and Design and 36-month Implementation and Expansion Projects.

The Organic Market Development Grant (OMDG) program supports the development of new and expanded organic markets to help increase the consumption of domestic organic agricultural commodities. The program focuses on building and expanding capacity for certified organic production, aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, distribution, and development of consumer markets. OMDG aims to increase the availability and demand for domestically produced organic agricultural products and address the critical need for additional market paths.

A good place to start for VAPG is with your state’s USDA Office of Rural Development. The application process varies from state to state, so getting an overview of your state’s process is essential. Find your contact info for your state here.

The Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant (MPIRG) program assists currently operational meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities in obtaining a Federal Grant of Inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) or the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA); or to operate as a State-inspected facility that is compliant with FMIA or PPIA under a respective Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program.

The Local Meat Capacity Grant Program supports independently owned meat and poultry processing businesses with grant funds to provide more and better processing options for local livestock producers by modernizing, increasing, diversifying, and decentralizing meat and poultry processing capacity.

LFPP offers four types of projects, 24-month Planning, 36-month Implementation, 24-month Turnkey Marketing and Promotion, and 24-month Turnkey Recruitment and Training.

The Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) supports the development, coordination, and expansion of direct producer-to-consumer marketing; local and regional food markets and enterprises; and value-added agricultural products.

University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Small Farms Advisors and program staff serve as an information hub connecting small-scale farms to research and education resources of the University of California. We serve a diverse clientele including small-scale and diversified family farms; beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers; and growers of specialty crops not covered by traditional commodity-based extension programs.

Grant offerings plus webinars, how-to-guides, and tutorials on a range of topics including grazing, farm to food assistance, value chain, and more.

Honest insight, and hard-earned wisdom from experienced flower farmers.

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is a decentralized competitive grants and education program, divided into four different regions that operate as separate entities and run grant programs for their states. In addition to grant info, their resource library includes research-based, farmer-driven information about practicing sustainable agriculture on your farm, including soil management, pest management, farm business management, and more.

A Guide to Federal Programs for Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry, Entrepreneurship, Conservation, Food Systems and Community Development.

Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is a membership-based research and advocacy organization working to expose and break the stranglehold of corporate consolidation in our food and agricultural economy.

North Central Region SARE (NCR-SARE) is one of four regional offices that run the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, a nationwide grants and education program to advance sustainable innovation to American agriculture.

Vidoes include a how-to series for NCR-SARE grant appliations, and a Farming Matters series featuring farmers, ranchers, educators, and researchers sharing the stories of their sustainable agriculture research.

A comprehensive guide for farmer's applying for the Value Added Producer Grant.

Learn the ins and outs of VAPG Grants with this informative walkthrough.

National Farm to School Network is an information, advocacy and networking hub for communities working to bring local food sourcing and food and agriculture education into school systems and early care and education environments. Website includes a resource library, newsletters, trainings, and policy info.