January 2026 Farm Marketing News
We’re excited to kick off the new year by sharing information about the USDA’s Value Added Producer Grant program, as well as a few resources to support you in your grant writing process. VAPGs are a fantastic way to fund large marketing projects as well as other projects that are otherwise out of reach for small farms, so we highly encourage our clients to check out this opportunity.
Read on for this and other funding opportunities, plus a guide to choosing images for your website that provides some helpful information about which photos work best, both in terms of content and technical specifications.
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Grants
2026 USDA Value Added Producer Grants
The grant cycle for the 2026 USDA VAPG program opened this month, and will close April 15. We have worked with many farms who used these to fund large marketing projects, resulting in significant sales increases.
Along with Stephen Ussery from Stewards Unlimited we’re hosting a webinar on Tuesday, January 27th at 9 am PST where we’ll be discussing the VAPG and how grant funds can be used to support farm marketing projects.
We’ll cover:
How marketing can help you increase sales
Marketing projects Grapevine can support for VAPG awardees
What the VAPG is, what’s changing in 2026, and how to apply
How to write a compelling application and effectively include marketing in your budget
How Grapevine and Stewards Unlimited can support you throughout the process
This webinar has now passed. Sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop about upcoming webinars, grant opportunities, and more, and consider signing up for Stewards Unlimited’s grant alerts that are designed to give you timely grant opening notifications tailored to your goals.
We’re lucky to partner with Stepwell Strategies as well, another wonderful resource to consider if you need assistance with project management, grant research and writing, and strategy advising. Their window for new VAPG clients is closing fast so be sure to reach out to them by the end of January! Learn more about these grants.
Natoora Farm Fund Grant
Natoora Farmer Fund grants are available to farmers under the age of 35 who are looking to fund a project that reinforces soil health, cultural & identity, biodiversity, innovation, accessible scale and education. There are 3 reward levels:
One $30,000 Transformation grant to facilitate a seismic change
Four $15,000 and seven $8,000 Resilience grants to help reinforce young farmers at ground level
Learn more about these grants from NATOORA.
Healthy Food Access Grant (Michigan Only)
This grant from the Midwest Independent Retailers Association (MIRA) awards funds to small businesses for projects that improve access to fresh, affordable, high-quality food in Michigan’s underserved neighborhoods. These grants can be used for a variety of projects, including marketing materials, social media activities, and website improvements that inform consumers of new healthy food options. Learn more about these grants from MIRA.
Financial Guidance Resources
Webinar: Sources of Capital from the Food Finance Institute
Join FFI Founder and Innovative Finance Expert Tera Johnson for a webinar on January 29th answering key farm financing questions. This webinar is designed to give food and farm business owners a clear, practical framework for understanding their funding options and making informed capital decisions. Learn more and register with the Food Finance Institute.
Podcast: Price for Profit: How Smart Packaging & Pricing Boost Farm Sales
This 25-minute podcast from The Independent Farmer takes a deep dive into pricing and packaging strategies that farmers have used to increase average order value and improve their profit margins.
How to Choose Images for Your Farm Website
Having impactful, high-quality images for your farm website is an important step to creating a site that looks good, draws people in, and shows off your products, but you also want your images to be small enough that they won’t bog down your site’s load time. It can be tricky to meet all of these criteria, so we’ve put together a resource to help guide you through selecting photos that are high quality, impactful, and appropriately sized.
Project Highlight: Website for Yellowstone Valley Food Hub
We developed a new Squarespace website for Yellowstone Valley Food Hub, based in Montana. The new website provides visitors with more information about the food hub and how it works, introduces the team, shares news and recipes, and serves as a companion to the food hub’s Local Food Marketplace storefront.
Farm Marketing Updates
Google is retiring Q&As from Google Business Profiles, but you may still see these sections on your profile until they are fully phased out. If there’s important information in your Q&A you don’t want to lose, consider creating or adding to an existing FAQ on your website — and check out these tips.
Shopify released their Winter Editions update, which included lots of improvements to AI features, and a few quality of life improvements, such as:
The return of the “chat with a human” button in the Help Center
The ability to duplicate collections
More view and control options in Shopify Analytics
Adding payment links and improved quick sale orders
A new POS Hub for Shopify POS
Find more details about Winter Editions improvements
Square now allows you to bulk edit from your dashboard. Save time by updating multiple items at once right from your dashboard. Learn more about bulk editing on Square.
Square has made inventory management simpler for Plus and Premium users. These users now have access to the new Stock Overview page on the Square Dashboard, allowing them to see stock numbers and edit quantities from your point-of-sale or computer. Learn more about inventory management.
Mailchimp will lower the cap on contact and send volume limits for free accounts starting next month. Free accounts will now be limited to 250 contacts, 500 email sends per month, and 250 email sends per day. Check out Mailchimp’s pricing page for more details.
What We’ve Been Up To
The Grapevine team has been sharing their bread (and bread-adjacent) creations in our team chat, and we couldn't resist spreading the deliciousness!
🥖 Emily has perfected her rosemary sourdough loaf
🍌 Natassia will hopefully be getting her cottage license soon, so she can share her delicious recipes, like this marbled banana bread, chocolate chunk sourdough, honey oat sourdough, and sourdough double chocolate chip muffins.
🍩 Brooklyn baked amazing gluten-free vanilla-glazed donuts and a milk & honey loaf
🧇 Gabi made a bulk batch of Belgian waffles to enjoy over the holidays, as well as rye grissini for her baby's first birthday.
🧄 Mary baked delightfully fluffy garlic sage focaccia.
🍕 Sarah Dasher cooked up a crisp sourdough pizza – a favorite of hers and her husband!
🍪 Jacy baked yummy gluten-free choc chip cookies, honey oat bread, and sourdough.
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