Learn about cooperative farm ownership, scaling your farm for wholesaling, and best practices for food-safety and post-harvest processes on the Love is Love Farm Tour.

EDUCATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

1. Certified Organic diversified fruit, vegetable, and flower operation growing for a variety of markets (CSA, restaurants, wholesale)

2. Best practices for food-safety and post-harvest processes, including washing and packing

3. Cooperative farm ownership

4. Scaling your farm equipment and processes for selling to wholesale buyers, especially institutions

ABOUT THE SOWTH FARM TOUR HOST

Love is Love Cooperative Farm produces Certified Organic vegetables, cut flowers, and plant seedlings in Mansfield, GA on 70 acres. Established in 2021, the farm is owned and managed as a worker cooperative model by Russell Honderd, Demetrius Milling, Monica Ponce, Joe Reynolds, and Judith Winfrey. Collectively, all five worker-owners have over 50 years of experience farming in Georgia. Mechanization where possible, infrastructure investments, diversity of experience, and collective decision-making have been key strategies to scaling up the farm. Products are marketed direct-to-consumer and also through several wholesale channels in Atlanta and locally.

ABOUT THE SOWTH FARM TOUR PARTNER 

The Georgia Organics Farmer Champion program exists to support local producer prosperity through fostering their relationships with wholesale buyers (from restaurants and pop-up businesses to institutions like schools and hospitals). Selling to wholesale can require producers to scale up in a variety of ways in order to accommodate the larger orders, deliveries, and nuances that come along with institutional procurement. Since 2019, Farmer Champion program has hosted three field days focused on connections between buyers and growers, post-harvest processes, and business technical assistance to approximately 25 farmers, and has distributed more than $20,000 in post-harvest packaging supplies including coolers, certified scales, and waxed boxes to farmers. 

TRANSPORTATION

Attendees MUST meet at 8:30 a.m. at the farm tours transportation hub at the Georgia World Congress Center Marshalling Yard (362 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd NW, Atlanta, GA 30313) and use the bus transportation provided to the farm site. Attendees will bus to:

Love is Love Cooperative Farm

101 Loyd Rd, Mansfield, GA 30055

Attendees can plan to arrive back at the transportation hub around 1:00 p.m.; however, this is dependent on traffic conditions. Please plan your day accordingly.