Farmer & Producer Work Group

Goals & Objectives

The Farmer and Producer Work Group seeks to increase the viability of WNY farmers, with particular emphasis on smaller, newer and limited resource farmers. To do this, the WG is working to understand and address both obstacles and challenges farmers face related to markets, access to processing and other infrastructure, availability of affordable finance and capital, and the need for peer support and networks. Within these broad objectives, the WG has focused on four priority areas, described below.

---

Current Priorities & Initiatives

The Farmer & Producer WG has identified four priorities. For each of these priorities, a small group of two to six people has volunteered to further research to increase the understanding of the issue and develop concrete action steps.
​

• Expanding, improving markets for local foods
• Land access, affordability
• Strengthening and expanding infrastructure for meats, dairy and value-adding processing
• Building or strengthening farmer networks to increase access to information, resources, markets The primary tasks of this WG are being determined by the individuals working on the four priority areas.

In addition, the Work Group is helping to promote the farmer survey among farmers in WNY

Work Group Members

---

MATTHEW AGLE
Produce Farmer 

ABBY BENNETT
Coordinator, Project Work Groups

MEGAN BURLEY
Burley Berries & Blooms

KATIE CARPENTER
Dairy Farmer 

RACHEL CHROSTOWSKI 
WNY Land Conservancy 

​ALLISION DEHONNEY
Urban Fruits & Veggies

KRISTIN HELTMAN-WEISS
Providence Farm Collective

JOE KURTZ 
Work Group Convenor
​Buffalo Urban Growers 

MAHAMUD MBERWA
Providence Farm Collective/Somali Bantu Community Organization

WILL MOSS 
Produce Farmer

CHRIS NOBLE
Noblehurst Farms

MIKE PARKOT 
Always Something Farm 

JOAN PETZEN
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wyoming County

KATIE PFOHL
Massachusetts Avenue Project

GREG PUTNEY
Rise "N" Swine Farms 

JAKE STEVENS 
Fire Creek Farms 

MARLENE WAKEFIELD
Seneca Nation of Indians

ALEXANDER WRIGHT
​African Heritage Food Coop / Blegacy Farm