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Abstract
Excerpt from the report: Focus group participants offered generally positive outlooks for direct marketing. They saw strategies that strengthen linkages between farmers and consumers as a way to increase demand and direct marketing sales. Linkages that are developing and are likely to result in expanded opportunities include: private-public partnerships, tourism connections, urban-rural links, farmer-restaurant and food service sales, farmer-school and government links, joint promotion of farm and food products, and more support for farmers through a better consumer and community understanding of agriculture’s contributions. USDA-AMS, further developing its direct marketing action plan, has the opportunity to promote linkages that improve access to markets for small farmers and to achieve its mission of facilitating efficient, dependable, and equitable marketing of agricultural products.