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1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Prompts:
Where is your farm located?
How long have you been farming?
How did you come to be involved in farming? (family
farm or otherwise)
Do you have any qualications (agricultural or non-
agricultural)?
Have you worked outside agriculture? In what
area(s)?
Tell me about your overall farm operation, including size,
different areas of activity, level of diversication, etc.
Describe activities (if any) in mainstream commodity
agriculture (i.e. sales to factories, cooperative, etc.)
2. SFSC ACTIVITY
Prompts:
What kind of activities are you involved in which
could be described as being outside of the usual
commodity chains and where there is a short
distance and/or a small number of intermediaries
between you and the consumer;
Selling at farmers market(s)
Selling at country market(s)
Supplying to local shops/butchers
Supplying to local restaurant(s), hotel(s) cookery
school(s), food service outlets, institutions, etc.
Selling into more extended chains (e.g. into shops,
restaurants, etc. which may be at a geographical
distance from the farm but where the identity and
provenance of the producers and the product are
still to the forefront)
Selling with other farmers as part of a producer
group(s)s
Selling on-line
Farm shop/roadside stand
Box scheme
Other (describe)
What products do you sell currently?
What was your original motivation in getting involved
in this sort of activity? How did it come about? Were
there any particular push or pull factors or milestones
along the way?
Roughly what proportion of the total farm income
currently comes from these kind of activities?
What has been your overall experience to date of
selling into short food supply chains?
Detail benets/pluses
Detail negatives/difculties/setbacks
Detail learning, changes in mindset etc.
How does participation contribute to:
a. Income and nancial sustainability of the farm
enterprise (i.e. is it worth it?)
b. Your level of control/inuence in marketplace
c. Product range, quality
d. Any other complementary activities (e.g. tourism)
If selling through a variety of channels, which have
you found to be the most successful for you? Detail
why.
What skills do you bring to this kind of activity?
What skills and resources do you think are needed to
engage in this kind of activity?
Describe the amount and type of family involvement
in the operation
What is this contribution worth in terms of enabling
the farm to participate in short food supply chains?
What has been the reaction of your fellow farmers to
your activities? Has that changed over time?
What effect, if any, does your operation have on the
wider local economy (e.g. providing employment,
contributing to greater economic activity,
contributing to tourism mix, etc.)
What opportunities for networking with other farmers
and food producers, for the development of local
food clusters have emerged from the kind of
activities you are now involved with?
Did you receive any funding from LEADER to get this
activity off the ground?
If so, what was that experience like? If not, were there
reasons for this?
What was your experience of the soft supports/
advice, etc. provided by LEADER?
Appendix 1
NRN Research: Facilitating and Encouraging
Short Food Supply Chains
Semi-structured interview schedule for participating farm families