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Growers News
Click a link to view an item:
- What are the nation's most innovatine growers doing?
- Virtual Grower Introduces Spanish Language Support
- Sustainability and Local Food Systems
- CIFT-USDA-ARS Technology Showcase
This message comes to us from Somik Ghose, Environmental Engineer, CIFT.
A CIFT-USDA-ARS Technology Showcase is scheduled on Mar 12 at Hilton, Toledo.
Click here to view the event flyer.
Apart from food and agriculture, biofuels and bio-based products are focus for
this event. Please find detailed agenda and speaker list for the event (in
pdf) on our home page, www.eisc.org.
- Ohio Department of Agriculture Accepts Specialty Crop Grant Proposals
This message is from Cheryl Rice, Natural Resources Conservation Service
(Cheryl Rice, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 419.893.1966 office, 740.396.2855 cell).
REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (Feb. 26, 2010) – The Ohio Department of Agriculture is now
accepting proposals for the 2010 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which will
provide funding for projects that will enhance the competitiveness of Ohio’s
specialty crops.
The department is seeking project proposals that will advance long-term
economic viability and sustainability of the state’s specialty crop industry
while increasing the marketability of specialty crops. The USDA Agriculture
Marketing Service will make approximately $670,000 of grant funding available
to Ohio.
“Specialty crops play an important role in helping to diversify Ohio’s
agricultural sector,” said Ohio Agriculture Director Robert J. Boggs. “By
enhancing the competitiveness of Ohio’s specialty crops with this grant
program, we can strengthen the state’s number one industry – food and
agriculture.”
Specialty crops range in variety from fruits and vegetables to dried fruit and
tree nuts to nursery crops, including floriculture. Grants will range from a
minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000. In addition, all applicants must
provide a minimum match of 25 percent of total project costs.
Parties eligible to submit proposals include food and agricultural non-profit
organizations, cooperatives, associations or commodity groups, universities and
research institutions that represent specific specialty crop sectors.
Proposals must be submitted electronically using the online application by 4 p.m. on April 9, 2010.
For more information, available forms or a copy of the request for proposals,
visit the new Specialty Crop Promotion Program page on the department’s Web
site at www.agri.ohio.gov.
- Followup: Wholesale Growers Meeting
From Joe Perlaky, MVG Project Manager
On March 11th immediately after our regular 8 am MVG meeting, we will be holding our second special meeting exclusively for our wholesalers at TBG. It will begin at 9:30 am for 2 hours with lunch provided.
During the session, Neil Reid will present results from our January 14th SWOT analysis focusing on our area’s wholesale business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
It is our intent to begin formulating meaningful recommendations leading to strategies and possible new opportunities unique to our wholesale industry.
We encourage as many wholesale companies as possible to attend the workshop to gather the best information available.
As before, lunch will be provided. So that we can get an accurate count
for lunch please RSVP to Serenity Carr at 419-530-3954 or serenity.carr@utoledo.edu
Thanks,
Joe Perlaky
University of Toledo
Program Manager, Maumee Valley Growers
419-356-4847 cell
419-530-2841 fax
- State Funded Programs: AgLink and GrowNOW
From Joe Perlaky, MVG Project Manager
This message comes to us from Rebecca singer at CIFT.
Jessica Ford, regional community affairs director, Office of Ohio
Treasurer of State, will present information on the Ag-Link and
GrowNOW programs.
Ag-Link is an annual program that provides an interest rate reduction on
operating loans and lines of credit to Ohio’s farming community ($125
million is allocated annually). The Ohio Treasury places deposits with
Ohio banks at below market rates when the bank agrees to reduce the
interest rate on the farmer’s loan. If an eligible farmer’s application
is accepted, the Treasurer purchases a certificate of deposit at a
reduced rate from a lender for one year – in turn, that lender lowers
the interest rate of the loan given to the farmer.
Through GrowNOW, the Treasury has more than $350 million invested in
low-cost financing for small businesses that creates and retains jobs in
the state. When a business finances a loan with an eligible bank,
GrowNOW can provide a 3% interest rate reduction on their loan. To fund
the program, the Treasury places a deposit with the business’ bank at a
3% interest rate reduction on their loan.
Forum Location
Northwest Ohio Ag-Business
Agricultural Incubator Foundation
13737 Middleton Pike
Bowling Green, OH 43402
Cost is just $10 per person payable at the door (cash or check).
Click here for more information, or contact:
Paula Ray at 419-823-3099 or email at pray@eisc.org.
Make check payable as you arrive to:Agricultural Incubator Foundation
- Alternative Energy Powers Greenhouse
From Joe Perlaky, MVG Project Manager
Members from the Maumee Valley Growers Association
(Wade Smith, Beth Fausey, Tom Creque, Charles Krause, Walt Krueger, Bill Dearing and Joe Perlaky), OSU Extension and
USDA visited Sr. Jeremias' facility in Sylvania on February 04. She has done a
wonderful job blending research with reality demonstrating that a variety of
food products can successfully be grown in our northern Ohio climate.
Combining basic geo and solar thermal with a small input of grid power, she is
able to heat the soil of her modest greenhouse operation to a level conducive
to producing yields sufficient enough for cultivation and distribution.
So, the question remains: can this facility be duplicated at other Toledo area
neighborhood garden locations and scalable economically for larger 1-2 acre
greenhouse operations? Time will tell ...
- State Financial Aid Available
- Home Shows - Flowers Needed
From Joe Perlaky:
Growers:
MVG will be participating in both the House & Home Show (Feb 19-21) and the Home/Gardening Show (Mar 12-14) in the next few weeks.
We are in need of plant material to decorate both our shared booth and a potential lobby display area.
This would be a loan so all items will be returned. If desired (some wholesalers prefer not to), your facility will be acknowledged via signage near the display.
- MVG Membership Message
From Joe Perlaky:
These
attachments
come to you from our MVG Board of Directors and Membership
Committee Chairman Wade Smith.
- MVG Spring Advertising Campaign
From Joe Perlaky:
Growers:
The Marketing Committee has been hard at work preparing for this Spring's
(2010) promotional activities. Listed below is the status of several of your
April-May advertising opportunities including Val Pak which is NEW this year.
-
Toledo Blade - Same program as last year. No change in costs at $359 for 2x2
ad. Three growers purchased a 2x4 ad. (This price reflects our non-profit
status and co-op purchasing power including a 25% MVG discount). The Blade
will contact you directly within 2 weeks.
-
$5 off $25 coupon? (FREE, no cost to the growers…just participation
authorization to be listed) Serenity Carr from our office called all retail
growers last week. If she didn't reach you and you have questions or would
like to be a part of this special you can contact her at (419) 530-3954. This
is also the same ad/coupon as last year and will again print and distribute
about 1000 coupons. The coupon will be good until June 1st 2010 and printed on
the “GREEN” card stock. (Cannot be used with any other special ... same
restrictions as before including 1 coupon per customer per visit, etc.)
-
Would you like to advertise in Val Pak this year?
(see
these
attachments.)
This is the first time we are doing this. It will be the same time period as
the Blade (Apr-May). Same $5 off $25 coupon. (plant material only, same
restrictions etc.) It is an envelope size, glossy white, 2-sides. (MVG and
coupon on 1 side / list of grower participants on the other) Each grower will
include their name, address & phone. There won’t be room for anything else.
We will be able to accept the first 20 participants. The coupons will be good
for 4-6 weeks depending on whether we do 1 mailing or 2. This is a citywide
mailer that covers 190,000 households including Bowling Green, Lambertville and
Temperance. The cost to each grower is $250 (x2) if we do 2 mailings and $300
(x1) if we do one mailing. We will confirm this with each participating grower
after we contact everyone next week. Growers need to select one or both of the
following mail dates. This is really a super value! Week of April 12 and
May 10.
Thanks again to the 11 grower members of the Marketing Committee including
Chairman Tom Wardell for negotiating superb pricing and coordination the spring
program.
- Hoen's Greenhouse in TodaysGardenCenter.com
- Bettinger's Featured in GreenhouseGrower.com
- Buy Local Perspective
From Joe Perlaky:
Interesting article offing a variety of perspectives written by Desmond O'Rourke
featured in the January 2010 Vegetable Growers News.
I couldn’t find the article to link to on-line so I scanned it.
A couple of sentences are missing. The highlights are mine.
- Wind turbine powers the way for Ohio produce grower
From Joe Perlaky:
REEDSBURG, Ohio — It may take a few years to pay for itself, but produce grower Monica Bongue has her sight set on wind and what it can do for her small farm in Ohio’s Wayne County.
In early December, Bongue worked with Wind Turbines of Ohio to install a turbine on her farm, which she anticipates will produce a monthly average 400-500 kilowatt-hours of electric.
It won't be enough to supply all of her electric needs — roughly 900 kwh — but whatever it provides is that much less than she has to buy.
Leading the way
"It's clean, renewable energy, and that’s really my goal," she said. "I believe in it enough that I want to set an example."
Although she is not the first in the state,or even the county, to
install wind turbines, she is the first residential customer to provide
wind-produced electric for Holmes-Wayne
Electric Co-op.
Bongue will be paid for the electric she produces, roughly 8-9 cents per kilowatt hour.
Bongue is a certified organic producer for markets in Wooster, Ohio, as well as Akron and Cleveland. She also supplies produce to several Ohio restaurants and operates a Community Supported Agriculture program - a cooperative program in which she provides produce for about 15-20 members each week.
All of the growing, including some that takes place year-round inside her greenhouses, uses a lot of electric. Bongue figured her highest usage is in summer, when she operates coolers to preserve her harvest.
Some investment
Cost of the turbine was $15,000. She predicts it will pay for itself in 10-15 years, possibly sooner, if utility rates continue to increase.
Bongue and her husband, David Francis, learned about the turbine during
Green Energy Ohio's solar tour, which featured the Nussbaum dairy in Wayne County, where a wind turbine had also been installed.
She hopes that as the technology catches on, more people will make the investment, making more “green” energy and possibly bring down the cost of installation. She anticipates a 30 percent federal tax credit, which would bring the cost down to $10,500.
Because Holmes-Wayne is a member-owned co-op, she is not eligible for any state grants, which she said go to members of public utilities.
Catching wind
Robyn Tate, public relations for Holmes-Wayne, said a pilot wind program
is in place at Indian Lake High School, in Ohio’s Logan County. That
unit, supported by Buckeye Power, is 100 feet tall and produces a monthly average of 583 kwh per month.
Tate said wind can be a good supplemental source of power, but encourages homeowners to weigh the costs with returns, as well as their own unique wind conditions, which may or may not provide adequate speeds to operate the turbine.
An estimated 8-12 mph wind is necessary to keep them going.
"What we're encouraging our members is to make sure that they do all of their research," she said.
But with a elevation and lots of flat land below her, Bongue is
confident she’ll get her share of wind. And so is Greg Courtney,
president of Wind Turbines of Ohio. He said the wide-open landscape should help winds come up through the valley, giving Bongue’s turbine the punch it needs.
Courtney said his company has installed nearly 100 turbines over the last 18 months, with his most recent turbine erected in Ohio’s Ashland County, Dec. 18.
More about Wind Turbines of Ohio is available at www.windturbinesofohio.com.
- Items of Interest: Economic clusters, Flowers & Website Data
Check out this article about the value of flowers in Austin, Texas.
The graph below shows the increase activity of the MVG website during the Blade ad this past Fall.
Lastly, the article below was provided by Dr. Neil Reid from the University of Toledo.
How to Take Advantage of Business Clusters
Locate your company near its competitors. The benefits are more numerous and
attractive than you might think, says entrepreneur-academic Richard Mammone
By Richard Mammone
Winemakers
know that the best wine starts with grapevines that were planted just close
enough together to be forced to compete for nutrients in the soil. Stress
causes the plants to put more energy into their reproductive processes,
increasing the quantity and quality of the grapes. It turns out that similar
businesses located together in what are known as business clusters or industry
clusters also demonstrate better results. Numerous studies show that on average, a business located in a cluster
has a stronger growth and survival rate than those located outside it.
This
is partly because the physical proximity of the companies facilitates exchanges
of information and talent among the competing firms. Clusters normally include
highly specialized vendors, service providers, investors, analysts, students,
university faculty and staff, trade association members, consultants, and other
useful specialists. In addition, industry-specific equipment is often more
readily available within a cluster.
The
benefits aren't just derived from the private sector. Government agencies, both
federal and local, tend to offer industry-friendly incentives and regulatory
policies to companies that locate in clusters. The government's motivation is
not purely altruistic. It has learned that a cluster can help the economic
growth of a region by increasing job creation and tax revenues. Indeed, the
federal government's 2010 budget
supports entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional innovation via direct and
indirect investment mechanisms. In addition to these investments, Commerce
Secretary Gary Locke on Sept. 24 announced plans to create an Office of
Innovation and Entrepreneurship within the Commerce Dept. and launched the
National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The council will
include entrepreneurs, innovators, angel investors, venture capitalists,
nonprofit leaders, and others who will identify and recommend solutions to
issues critical to the creation and development of ecosystems that will
generate new businesses and jobs.
- CIFT Presentation
- Northwest Ohio Greenhouse Industry Survey
From Joe Perlaky:
Several months ago, the University of Toledo’s Urban Affairs Center
under the direction of Neil Reid conducted a survey focusing on two
items:
1. Obtain information on the characteristics and motivations of persons
buying greenhouse products in northwest Ohio, particularly in terms
of the competition between greenhouses and "big box" or chain stores.
2. Measure consumers awareness of the Maumee Valley Growers brand.
Here are the results of that survey.
- Interesting "Combined Heat & Power" Technology
Join the MVGA
» MVG Growers: click here to indicate your interest in joining MVGA «
Would You Like to Lower Your Natural Gas Costs?
MVG members can join a program to help reduce their energy costs: the MVGA Natural Gas Program.
Click here to find out more about this program.
Growers Online Links & Resources
Check the following links to online resources for greenhouse growers:
Maumee Valley Growers Economic Cluster Project
The purpose of this research project is to assess the competitive challenges facing northwest Ohio's greenhouse nursery industry.
Click here to go to the Maumee Valley Growers economic cluster research web site.
MVGA Meeting Minutes
Click here to view meeting agendas and minutes for the Maumee Valley Growers.
Beth Fausey
Cluster Champion
Maumee Valley Growers |
Joe Perlaky
Project Manager
Maumee Valley Growers |
Neil Reid
Director, Urban Affairs Center
University of Toledo |
Michael Carroll
Director, Center for Regional Development
Bowling Green State University |
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