New Tools to Support Collaborative Marketing — Grounded in Farmer Experience

Farmers and community-based organizations across New England are working together through online farmers’ markets, food hubs, cooperative farm stores, and multi-farm CSAs. These collaborative marketing models can improve market access and reduce marketing burdens — but they also bring real operational and relationship challenges.

The UNH Food Systems Lab in collaboration with the Center for Social Policy in Practice recently shared new resources designed to help farmers and partners make more informed decisions based on peer learning exchange and applied research:

What’s included:

• Peer Learning Workshops: Insights from educational workshops that fostered learning and networking among farmers and stakeholders.

• Comparative Case Study: Findings from four collaborative marketing models in New Hampshire, informed by interviews with 60 farmers, customers, managers, and staff (2024–2025).

  Research Briefs:

  
• Brief #1: Common operational challenges—and practical strategies farmers use to address them.
• Brief #2: Approaches for building strong, long-term farmer–customer relationships.

These resources highlight what’s working, what’s challenging, and what can help strengthen collaboration over time. Explore the briefs and workshop synthesis to find ideas you can apply to your own collaborative marketing efforts.