Any marketing method whereby farmers sell their products directly to consumers. Examples include roadside stands, farm stands, U-pick operations, community supported agriculture or subscription farming, farmers' markets, etc. Growers who market their products directly to customer usually receive a higher price than those who sell wholesale.

On the Web

• The Key to Successful Direct Marketing: Use Your Head! by Laura Sayre. New Farm (2003).
  Full text: http://www.newfarm.org/depts/talking_shop/0104/food_farm.shtml (accessed 8/8/05)
  Description: Report from the 5th Annual Future of Our Food and Farms Summit, advanced course in direct marketing.
  
  
• Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers. Revised edition. Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), 2003. Note: Also available with accompanying PowerPoint presentation on CD ROM. Full text: http://www.sare.org/publications/marketing.htm
  
  
• Farm Direct Marketing: Guide to Educational Resources, by David Chaney, Gail Feenstra, and Jeri Ohmart. University of California, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP)/Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), 2004. Full text: http://wsare.usu.edu/pub/index.cfm?sub=mktsearch (accessed 8/8/05)
  Description: “This annotated listing includes practical, high quality resources such as print publications, videos, and Web resources...”
  
  
• Direct Marketing of Farm Produce and Home Goods: Direct Marketing Alternatives and Strategies for Beginning and Established Producers, by John Cottingham et al. University of Wisconsin Extension, undated. 28p. Full text: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/agmarkets/publications/documents/3602.pdf
  
  
• Direct Farm Marketing Resources. USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service.
  State-by-state directory of contacts. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navid=DIRECTORIES&parentnav=CONTACT_US&navtype
  
  
• Horticultural Business Information Network. A Guide to strategically Managing
  Green Industry Firms. http://hbin.tamu.edu/HBIN-Direct%20Marketing.htm
  
  
• Gary Bullen Home Page. Topics include: Creating Business Opportunities,
  Direct Answers for Direct Marketing and Putting Small Acreage to Work.
  http://www.ag-econ.ncsu.edu/faculty/bullen/bullen.htm
  
  
• AcademicInfo
  Founded in 1998 by Mike Madin, a librarian coordinator, and is now maintained by multiple contributors. It is an online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information. Their mission is to provide free, independent and accurate information and resources for prospective and current students (and other researchers). http://www.academicinfo.net/busmarketing.html
  
  

Publication

• A Marketing Decision Tool and Guide for Grass-fed Beef - EB374, By Ginger S. Myers, Regional Marketing Specilist, University of Maryland Extension and Director of the Maryland Rural Enterprise Development Center.
  
  A resource guide that will assist grass-fed beef producers formulate profitable marketing strategies. It is a decision tool to assist individual producers in making marketing decisions about what to produce; where/how/in what venue(s) outlets to market their product; and practical risk management strategies. View online (PDF)
  

Please contact Ginger S. Myers for permission to reprint or reproduce materials.