PROJECT OVERVIEW
The food heritage of the Southwest is as wild and rich as the imagination can conjure. Yet, one of the biggest challenges faced by local food producers is the need to do their own marketing, especially through an active online presence that is time consuming and requires constant learning and adjusting.
The Farmers, Ranchers, and Gatherers of the Southwest project was created to solve this problem , and in particular, to address three barriers Local Food Producers have in marketing their food products — time, money, and training.
Indeed, the project goal is to provide a simple, no-cost, indirect pathway for Local Food Producers as a means to develop new marketing channels to reach consumers, retailers, institutions, culinary tourists, and restaurants. Through collecting and aggregating the profiles, stories, and media they provide, this project can help strengthen the regional food economy. It also helps to conserve traditional knowledge, emerging new practices and creative assets to build stronger collaborations between the Knowledge Keepers of the local communities all over the world.
The partnership among CK Foundation, Pima County, Tucson City of Gastronomy (Main partners), Visit Tucson and University of Arizona – Center for Regional Food Studies (Partners) will strengthen the capacity of the regional food system through expansion of mid-tier value chains.
The expected results from this partnership, will include higher sales for Local Food Producers, increased availability of, and equitable consumer access to regionally produced, fresh, healthy, and affordable agricultural products and enhanced resilience of the region’s food supply chain by facilitating an increase in regional food production.
“Arid Lands food production and traditional ecological knowledge” by Dr. Sandra Bernal
BUILDING THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN
Knowledge seekers
(Student interns
/ Volunteers)
Knowledge Keepers (Farmers, Ranchers & Gatherers of the Southwest)
Creative Knowledge Platform
(web and mobile)
Makers & Artisans: Millers, Chefs, Producers, etc.
Visitors, Buyers, Retailers
Collect KK stories, media, and profiles
Share stories, practices, and products
Store Knowledge Keepers’ continuously updated multimedia contents
Expand networks, increase awareness, appreciation, and value of KK products
Expand customer base and increase interest in local quality ingredients and products
Knowledge seekers
(Student interns
/ Volunteers)
Collect KK stories, media, and profiles
Knowledge Keepers (Farmers, Ranchers & Gatherers of the Southwest)
Share stories, practices, and products
Creative Knowledge Platform
(web and mobile)
Store Knowledge Keepers’ continuously updated multimedia contents
Makers & Artisans: Millers, Chefs, Producers, etc.
Expand networks, increase awareness, appreciation, and value of KK products
Visitors, Buyers, Retailers
Expand customer base and increase interest in local quality ingredients and products
PROJECT METHODOLOGY, WEB AND MOBILE TOOLS
The FRGSW project adopts the Creative Knowledge Platform methodology (CKP methodology), proposed by the CK Foundation, to give cities and territories the opportunity to highlight their unique characteristics and implement a local model of promotion.
By applying the CKP methodology Local Food Producers can use the CKP application to close the marketing gap to consumers while strengthening the economic value chain.
The Creative Knowledge Platform application is a specific instance of the TRusT™ Platform developed by Tech Gap Solutions LLC in 2019 to showcase the uniqueness and creativity of food-producing territories and local communities around the world and to highlight their unique stories.
HOW THE PROJECT WORKS
The project seeks to expand awareness of Southwest treasures through the creation of an open access digital resource library with mobile use applications. Indeed, on the dedicated CKP application the project team has developed a framework to manage library content to allow Knowledge Keepers (KK) to tell their own stories and connect directly with artisans, makers, consumers, and visitors to share resources, practices, and products. Through fostering deeper and more direct connections the platform will support and strengthen links in the regional food chain and local food economy.
To support the realization of the project students from UA – Center for Regional Food Studies – interested in serving as Knowledge Seekers (KSs), will be involved to work alongside project advisors to undertake research and support the collection of stories from Knowledge Keepers (KK) along with images and video to be uploaded to the CKP application.
If you want to join the Farmers, Ranchers, and Gatherers of the Southwest project at no-cost, click on Participate below and fill out the form, or send an email to team@frgsw.org
OUTPUT OF THE PROJECT
By concentrating and aggregating the stories, videos, photos and the interviews of Knowledge Keepers (Farmers, Ranchers and Gatherers of the Southwest), Makers and Food Artisans in one “digital library hub”, consumers will have one-click access to local food producers. The FRGSW project will deliver the following outputs:
DIGITAL LIBRARY
QR CODE FOR EACH LFP PARTICIPANT
INTERACTIVE E-BOOKLETS AND BOOKS
DIGITAL LIBRARY
QUARTERLY MARKETING REPORTS FOR LFP
QR CODE FOR EACH LFP PARTICIPANT
INTERACTIVE E-BOOKLETS AND BOOKS
GEO-TAGGED TRAVEL ITINERARIES
TRAINING PROGRAMS AND STUDENT INTERNSHIP
GEO-TAGGED TRAVEL ITINERARIES
QUARTERLY MARKETING REPORTS FOR LFP
TRAINING PROGRAMS AND STUDENT INTERNSHIP
Credit pictures by: Mission Garden, Barrio Bread and King’s Avil Ranch.
The “Farmers, Ranchers, and Gatherers of the Southwest” Project seeks to strengthen the economic sustainability of local food business enterprises of farmers, ranchers, gatherers, and artisanal food makers in southern Arizona by providing no-cost marketing strategies and resources to increase their presence in new and existing markets with an indirect, producer-to-consumer, online marketing platform and mobile application. The project goal is to provide a simple, no-cost indirect pathway for Local Food Producers (LFP) as a means to develop new marketing channels to reach consumers, retailers, institutions, culinary tourists, and restaurants.
CONTACTS:
For more information: team@frgsw.org
To join as a partner email: partner@frgsw.org
PROJECT CREDITS
Project leader: CK Foundation
Main Partners: Pima County, Tucson City of Gastronomy; Tech Gap Solutions LLC
Partners: Visit Tucson, University of Arizona – Center of Food Studies.
Supporters: Mission Garden, Local First Arizona Foundation along with
the support and involvement of a number of Knowledge Keeper;
Advisors, such as Don Guerra with Barrio Bread;
Concept and realization: Pima County, CK Foundation;
Communication and graphic project: CK Foundation, Tech Gap
Solutions LLC (TRusT™ Team).
FRGSW TM INTERNATIONAL TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTE FOUNDATION