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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