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    Strength in Unity

           Growing a foodshed to increase brand exposure and farmer support

           By Katie Godfrey Demmer
           Photos courtesy of Driftless Grown and Cannon Valley Grown

           Southern Minnesota has a rich variety of food producers.
           Whether they’re raising pigs or sheep, growing blueberries
           or making cheese, each plays an important role in the local
           foods economy. While this work can be incredibly fulfilling, it
           can also be difficult to manage independently.

           Jack of all trades

           “Not only are we doing our work as farmers, we are also
           forced to be jacks of all trades,” says Sarah Mann, owner
           of Sweet 16 Farm in Houston, Minn., which grows flowers
           and hops and hosts onsite events. “Marketing, bookkeeping,
           infrastructure and equipment repairs: one person doing
           everything leads to isolation and burnout. It is not a
           sustainable business model.”
               To help, Sarah reached out to her fellow Houston     Sarah Mann, owner of  Sweet 16 Farm in Houston, Minn. and
           County producers in 2016. Together, they designed a      member of  the Driftless Grown initiative.
           support network to share skills and market their products
           as Driftless Grown, a new initiative helping producers in   a challenge. Luckily, in 2018, they received a FEAST! Smart
           Minnesota’s Driftless Region.                            Start Grant from Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation
               Around the same time, a group in the Cannon River    (SMIF), a philanthropic organization supporting economic
           watershed—an area covering several counties, including Rice   and early childhood development and community vitality
           and Goodhue—started exploring ways to collaboratively    efforts in 20 counties of southern Minnesota.
           market their products to ease the burden of working alone.   “We had seen the FEAST! grant and decided to go for
           Ultimately, they came up with the concept of a regional brand   it,” says Gwen Anderson, Board Secretary for SFA’s Cannon
           called Cannon Valley Grown.
                                                                    River Chapter. “We put together the proposal and got the
                                                                    grant. A big part of it went toward developing a website for
           What is a Foodshed?                                      CVG and to launch the brand. It moved things forward.”
                                                                    The funds also helped produce a farmer directory and
           Much like a watershed, which encompasses the flow of water   organize networking and educational workshops.
           supporting a particular location, a foodshed is the geographic   Meanwhile, Sarah Mann and Driftless Grown worked
           region where food is both produced and consumed. Branding   with the Houston County Economic Development Authority
           food by the place where it’s produced has become a popular   on a different entrepreneur-focused SMIF grant, which they
           marketing method as more customers choose to buy local.  received and ultimately used to host skill-sharing workshops,
               There was a lot of energy around building these regional   launch their brand, build a website and create a multi-state
           brands—Cannon Valley Grown united under the umbrella     product directory. In total, SMIF invested $28,000 in the two
           of the Cannon River Chapter of the Sustainable Farming   foodsheds to increase the viability of farms and strengthen
           Association (SFA)—but moving forward without funding was   the local economy.
         44  FEAST! Local Foods Magazine

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