Appalachian Grown Producer Survey Report Offers Insights

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s (ASAP) Local Food Research Center has released the results of its annual survey of farmers in the Appalachian Grown Network. The report is available online and shows that market opportunities and sales continued to rebound after irregularities related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Farms also expressed a better market outlook in terms of the number of market outlets available in 2022. The report notes that though production costs rose again in 2022 for most farmers, many were able to take advantage of reopening markets by scaling up production and finding new ways to sell their goods. Additionally, nearly 60% of survey respondents said they wish to expand their farms by purchasing or leasing additional land but cited price and availability of land as two major challenges.