>Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 08:37:26 +0000
>From: "Will Arnold" <warnold@coop.ext.colostate.edu>
>Subject: Agricultural Entrepreneur centers
>
>Hello net users,
>
>I am looking for information about any known Agricultural
>Entrepreneur (agripreneurs as I have heard them called) Centers. In
>particular I am looking for information about any entity that offers
>a service to individuals and/or groups interested help in the
>following areas:
>
>1. Research and product development
>2. Feasibility studies
>3. Business incubation services
>4. Market research
>5. Trade areas/distribution cost/benefit analysis
>6. Any thing else to help get a business up and going.
>
>I am not talking about many of current programs that want to fit you
>to their model rather that offer a service to help a person or group
>formulate and idea before going throughout the process of a business
>plan, and getting a loan. Where creativity is valued not the bottom
>line or limitations of the program. Are there such places in
>existence? I know of one in Kansas City but it must be geared toward
>the development sustainable ag and natural resource base. Thanks.
>Will
>
Sanetters & Will Arnold,
It's been awhile since I have posted to Sanet due to the demands of new
employment with a small business incubator. The incubator, the Alameda
Center for Environmental Technologies, provides services that correspond
with items 3 and 6 in Will's note. Items 1, 2, 4, & 5 are pretty much the
responsibility of the business entity. While I am aware of nearly 600
business incubators in the country, most, with a few exceptions, limit
their support to items 3 and 6 as we do. One great example of this, in your
"frontyard", Will, is the Denver Enterprise Center run by Dr. David
Gonzalez. DEC recently started a shared kitchen incubator with the
assistance of Dr. Cameron Wold (U of Colorado-Denver). It is my
understanding that at DEC, as with most incubators, some consultation is
available prior to actually setting-up shop in an incubator, but that a
solid business plan is required to become an incubator tenant, to gain
access to the "shared" facilities (with expensive kitchen equipment, this
sharing is extraordinarily valuable to start-ups), and access to management
and financial resources coordinated by incubator managers.
The notable exceptions to this approach to business incubation are found
nowhere else except in agriculture. Cornell has a few published reports on
farmer's markets as business incubators. It's an easy stretch of the mind
to see ag-based businesses incubating on the town square instead of in an
incubator building per se. The perennial challenge is to determine which
businesses on the square have the resource capacity, market, and earnings
potential to justify more capital-intensive business development. (From a
more esoteric, philosophical standpoint, if sustainability is our criteria,
is growth of a business from the town square to a larger,
less-of-a-direct-marketing approach, the right path to follow? It is
entirely possible that if the sustainability of community, economy and
nature are the principles, then nothing is superior to the one-to-one of
the square. A "natural" constraint on growth, might be the key to realizing
sustainability.)
In either case, whether in a facility or on the square, idea formulation
often takes place at home at the kitchen table. SBA, business schools, and
Cooperative Extension all offer assistance in "solidifying the idea" before
advancing to business plan stage and loan applications.
Now, more to the point, with the exception of farmer's markets, I am not
aware of any incubator that is oriented or committed to sustainable ag. One
idea that I am looking at right now is whether it is feasible to establish
a shared kitchen incubator with covenant requirements for organic content,
local and regional farm supply, and other sustainability criteria related
to the integrity of the supply chain that originates with land and
communities. As the DEC demonstrates, a shared kitchen incubator is a
powerful tool for economic development, so I have no doubt about the
feasibility of an incubator located in similar economically-distressed
neighborhoods/communities in the Bay Area; the unresolved question is
whether an urban incubator can sustain itself if it imposes new ethical
criteria on applicant/tenants of the incubator. My personal belief is that,
yes, this sustainable ag shared kitchen incubator can work. As I envision
this, I sense that an incubator with sustainable ag focus will educate the
managers of start-ups, stimulate urban demand and build new markets for
sustainable ag products in densely-populated, not-so-close-to-the-farm
cities.
I hope this helps, Will. With all the programs run by the USDA and
Extension, surely there are some formal business development programs? I do
not have any direct knowledge of programs that provide assistance to
agripreneurs, and would appreciate learning from other's what is out there.
Best Wishes,
Douglas B. Johnson, Ph.D.
Senior Associate
Alameda Center for Environmental Technologies
851 West Midway Avenue
Alameda Point
Alameda, CA 94501
phone: 510.749.6869
fax: 510.749.6862
email: johnson@greenstart.org
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