AMHERST, Mass. — UMass instructor, Renee Ciulla will offer her spring online class, Farm Management, Planning and Marketing, especially designed for new and future farmers and marketers in New England as part of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture Sustainable Food and Farming Online Degree Program. The complexity of whole farm planning is covered from agricultural business planning, thru organizational design, decision making, strategic leadership, management of employees, systems and record keeping, and marketing.
Renee Ciulla has been a successful organic market gardener, managing the Kitchen Gardener farm in Newington, NH and also created her own business to educate adults about sustainable living and growing their own food in Bozeman, MT. (Courtesy Photo)In addition, practical skills and essential farming techniques, such as tractor and small equipment use will be emphasized along with marketing, market research, selling crops and storage issues. Value-added production, CSAs, selling wholesale (grocery, restaurant), cooperative CSAs, agritourism and farmers market management will also be components of the course. Part of the class will be to develop a business plan by either working with an existing farm or to develop a new individual plan of yourown.
Renee Ciulla has been a successful organic market gardener, managing the Kitchen Gardener farm in Newington, NH and also created her own business to educate adults about sustainable living and growing their own food in Bozeman, MT. She has worked to assist refugee farmers to learn to locate farmland, access obtain small business loans, and grow and market produce in southern New Hampshire and been a regular contributor to Rodale Institute publications on organic farming. Renee currently teaches several online and on campus courses for the UMass Stockbridge School of Agriculture.
STOCKSCH 266 is a 3-credit college level class and maybe used to satisfy the degree requirements for the UMass Sustainable Food and Farming 15-credit Certificate, the 60-credit Associate of Science and/or the 120-credit Bachelor of Science degree programs. Credits may also be transferred to other colleges or universities. The UMass Stockbridge School of Agriculture Sustainable Food and Farming program is the only online program in the U.S. that offers 40 online classes that may be taken either individually or toward completion of one of these three fully online degrees.
In addition to Farm Management, Planning and Marketing, spring classes include other courses such as Pastured Poultry, as well as Global Food Systems and Holistic Fruit Production. Spring classes begin on January 22, 2019 and registration is now open. For information on the 10 online classes offered this spring semester at UMass Amherst, please see: https://onlinesustfoodfarm.com/.
–UMass Amherst
Stockbridge School of Agriculture
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