The USDA's National Organic Program (NOP), with its unified definition and labeling requirements, holds great promise for increasing commerce in and decreasing transaction costs associated with purchasing organic food. However, the label and its meaning must both be well understood and reflect...

Many scholars and activists are interested in the potential for school-based childhood nutrition programs to positively impact the U.S. agri-food system. This paper explores efforts of a national K–12 school food collaborative to procure more sustainably grown and healthful food products....

Farmers must earn revenues that both cover costs and provide adequate returns. The goal of this research was to understand how diversified farmers measure their cost of production and determine prices. We conducted in-depth interviews of diversified Vermont farmers and used the constant...

Farmers markets can play an important role in enhancing farm profitability, particularly those farms choosing to differentiate their products by appealing to consumer preferences for “locally grown†food or gain a larger share of the food dollar by marketing directly to consumers...

The length of the growing season can limit sales of locally grown foods despite increasing demand. Season-extension technologies such as passive solar greenhouses ("hoop houses") have potential to address this constraint. This paper reports :findings from the first year of a project which...

This paper examines the current state of the market for the locally grown organic food in the Northeast U.S. Based on a series of interviews and discussions with key players, as well as information from government and private agencies, the overview, situational analysis and research needs for...

As organic agriculture evolves from a movement to an industry, the organic label is increasingly disconnected from the founding spirit of organic, which is now more associated with the broader term sustainable agriculture. Increased competition due to the "commodification" of organic agriculture...