Tipsheet: Harvest time

It's county or state fair time in much of the country--a great time to dig into some related business stories. If the fair has come and gone, consider some "almost fall harvest time" stories.

Is fair business fair or better this year? There doesn't seem to be a national trend, but in some areas, fair attendance has hit record levels. What's driving business to the fairs? Could be that the precarious recovery has people staying closer to home and looking for entertainment bargains.

Check in with farmers at the fair or on their farms for a snapshot of how their businesses are doing. According to the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, meat and dairy farmers should expect to see prices recover this year.

The record hot weather this summer has been great news for some farmers. In Minnesota, corn and soybean farmers are expecting their biggest harvest ever. Other farmers have been bringing in a bumper crop of super-sweet fruits and vegetables, as CBS News reported.

Melissa Preddy at BusinessJournalism.org, who pointed out that CBS story, suggests checking with your state agricultural agency, farm bureau and growers’ associations about the outlook for this year's harvest and the impact that could have on the state's economy as a whole. Check her tipsheet for more story ideas.

This could also be a good time to look into the local food movement, if you haven't already. In case you missed it, a recent op-ed in the New York Times challenged the increasingly popular notion that eating locally is more sustainable, and drew a bushel of pro-locavore responses.

Comments

Add Comment