From the Road: Journal Entries from the Campaign Trail

Columbus: Growth in farmers’ markets and manufacturing
2006-03-13

Thanks to Jan Osten, Michele Uzendoski, Jed Brunken, Jeff Pokorny and others who set a great day long tour of Columbus March 13 that included stops at the Columbus Senior center, the chamber of commerce, the court house, the ag extension office, Grandma’s Kitchen, Nebraska Public Power statewide headquarters and a ’Meet and Greet’ and Country Shadows Country Club.

After a radio interview on KZ-100, Scott headed over to the senior center to have coffee with senior center manager Jean Sharman and others. Jean told him about a great pilot program (run by USDA) that issues coupons to seniors to buy fresh produce from farmers markets all across Nebraska. The program helps seniors facing difficult finances continue to put healthy food on the table. At the same time, it supports diversification of agriculture by ensuring that farmers who convert a few acres to produce production will have a steady and profitable market for their goods.

Casey Foster of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture said the coupons have a 90 percent redemption rate and have helped make strengthen the Nebraska market for locally grown fresh produce. There are 160 farmers markets in Nebraska today, and more than 600 farmers growing produce on their land.

The next step, according to Foster, is to allow produce growers to tap into the mainstream retail market by getting space on the shelves of major grocery chains. Before that can be done, however, there must be a "large quantity of product sustained over a large period of time." And farmers may have to band together and share resources so they can invest in the marketing and distribution tools that will take them to the next level of sales and profitability.

After the senior center, Scott headed over to Behlen Manufacturing and heard from Dick Casey and Tony Raimondo, Jr., how senior management engineered a buy-out in 1984 to return to company to local ownership and ensure that the jobs stayed in Columbus. The 1980s were a difficult time for Behlen, which manufactures steel buildings and livestock equipment, among other things. But the management team implemented an aggresive plan for identifying and pursuing new markets. As a result, annual shipments grow from $32 million to $186 million by the year 2000. Total employment at the Columbus facility actually surpassed 1,500 for the first time in the company’s history!

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