A Message From The Food Alliance (TFA)

The Food Alliance (TFA) is dedicated to promoting expanded use of sustainable agricultural practices using market-based incentives. We do this by recognizing and rewarding farmers who produce food in an environmentally and socially responsible way, while simultaneously educating consumers about sustainable agriculture practices.

The sustainable agriculture movement has been building toward mainstream acceptance and adoption for the past two decades. During this early era of development, production practices, environmental concerns, policy considerations and quality of life issues have all received much-needed attention. Recently, however, many have come to believe that the marketplace may hold one of the most important keys to moving sustainable agriculture into the mainstream.

In fact, when farmers at the 1998 national Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) 10th anniversary conference in Austin, Texas were asked to comment on SARE’s accomplishments, they noted the need for more marketing information and support. SARE was quick to respond, explicitly encouraging the submission of marketing projects in its latest requests for proposals. SARE’s recent collaboration with USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provides yet another example of the importance associated with building marketing expertise and capacity within our community.

Founded in 1994, The Food Alliance has quickly established itself as a leader in the field of sustainable agriculture marketing and consumer education. For example, in the midst of increased attention toward marketing of sustainable agriculture products, The Food Alliance commissioned the first comprehensive analysis of consumers’ attitudes toward food and the environment. This research was published as The Hartman Reports: Food and the Environment. A Consumer’s Perspective (Phase I and Phase II). The reports present overwhelming evidence that American consumers, if given the choice, will support the many men and women who practice sustainable agriculture on their farms.

In 1997 The Food Alliance set out to give consumers that choice. In partnership with producers, researchers, consumers, retailers, and others, The Food Alliance developed a farm evaluation and approval program. Farmers practicing sustainable agriculture who meet TFA’s strict eligibility criteria label their products with our seal of approval: Food Alliance-Approved. Consumers look for the Food Alliance-Approved seal when they shop, and buy with the knowledge that they are supporting environmentally friendly and socially responsible farming practices.

The Food Alliance’s role in the community is threefold. Consumer desire for environmentally friendly and socially just products is increasing, but oftentimes responsible farmers lack the resources to differentiate their products in the marketplace. The Food Alliance-Approved program provides farmers with increased market share, retailers with a broader range of sustainably produced products to offer their customers, and consumers greater access to healthy food and information about how it was produced.

Originally designed on a regional scale, today the Food Alliance-Approved program connects farmers, ranchers, retailers and consumers across the Northwest. From lush row crops in the Willamette Valley, dry-land farms and ranches in Eastern Oregon and Washington, to cranberry bogs and dairies scattered along the coast – it is our intent to reinforce the principles of sustainable agriculture in communities throughout the Northwest. As such, Food Alliance-Approved products are increasingly accessible across the region, from Portland, Oregon grocery stores and rural farmers markets, to Holiday Inns in Montana and four-star restaurants in Seattle, Washington.

Our vision is of a region where thriving farms provide healthy choices to informed consumers. Since we launched the Food Alliance-Approved program, we’ve come to understand that innumerable people share this vision. TFA’s seal has generated tremendous consumer support, as well as significant marketplace returns for TFA farmers. We believe we are now poised to grow our program considerably, delivering value to increasing numbers of farmers, retailers, manufacturers, and consumers. Our work is guided by four broad goals:

1. Increase the number and type of farmers who qualify for the Food Alliance seal of approval.
2. Increase the number of farm stands, restaurants and grocery stores that carry Food Alliance- Approved products.
3. Increase consumer awareness of and demand for Food Alliance-Approved products.
4. Share lessons learned from our project so that the model can be replicated.

Daily, we make significant progress toward each of the goals outlined above. Our most recent farmer recruitment campaign resulted in a near tripling of the number of farmers who’ve qualified for our program, and we recently signed a contract to make Food Alliance-Approved widely available in an additional 34 mainstream supermarkets across the state of Oregon. As we measure consumer awareness of Food Alliance-Approved products we watch the numbers grow from 0% consumer recognition of Food Alliance-Approved to well over 20% in just a few short months of promotional activity. Finally, this year for the first time our model will be replicated in the mid-west, as colleagues in Minnesota begin to market their sustainably produced goods as Food Alliance-Approved.

If you participate in one of the field trips offered during the Western SARE conference, you will have an opportunity to see The Food Alliance’s program in action. You’ll talk with farmers who have chosen to differentiate their products in the marketplace, and with retailers who made shelf space available so that consumers can vote with their food dollars for a more sustainable food system. We hope our program provides inspiration and generates ideas that you can take home and implement in your work. We’re happy to help in any way we can. For more information on the Food Alliance-Approved program, to inquire about administering the Food Alliance-Approved program in your region, or to order any of our consumer research reports, please contact us at (503) 493-1066 or visit us on the web at www.thefoodalliance.org.

Finally, as an organization dedicated to widely publicizing and sharing the many success stories of sustainable agriculture practitioners, we applaud the work of the men and women profiled in this conference proceedings, "Sustainable Agriculture … Continuing to Grow." It was an honor and a pleasure to participate in the creation of this publication. Congratulations, Western SARE, on a job well done, and enjoy the conference.

Sincerely,

Deborah J. Kane
Executive Director
The Food Alliance

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