Success Stories

When Ruben Lopez and his wife Katherine moved from Texas to Price, Utah a few years ago, they didn’t have plans to open a restaurant. The idea began with a question Ruben posted on Facebook. “How would y'all like some Texas barbecue out here?” His query received hundreds of… [Read More]

Mark and Linda Graf have a crew of over 400,000 bees in over 100 hives working for them near Emerson, Nebraska. The Buzz, their store on Main Street, sells local honey and related products.   The Grafs are shining examples of entrepreneurship in rural America. Linda describes… [Read More]

The Yellowstone Valley Food Hub (YVFH) is a cooperative of farmers and ranchers that came together three years ago to increase the community's access to local food. It started as an online ordering platform and quickly grew into an enduring business. Today it provides the… [Read More]

As USDA Rural Development (RD) highlights National Cooperative Month, one worker owned co-op in Massachusetts stands out as a model for sustainability, collaboration, and local food system resiliency. The saying goes “it’s not easy being green.” But for Real Pickles in… [Read More]

McClellanville is a small town in rural South Carolina whose economy relies heavily on commercial fishing and seafood production. Unlike other coastal towns in South Carolina, McClellanville has kept its working waterfront from developing into high-end residential property,… [Read More]

Roam Free Ranch (https://goroamfree.com) is a 16,000 acre grass-fed bison ranch in Hot Springs, Montana.  In 2020, Roam Free Ranch utilized a USDA Rural Development Value Added Producer Grant to secure funding to help scale production capacity and expand their markets.  With the… [Read More]

RiverCrest Ranch has always been a place worth sharing. Nestled in Oregon's Applegate Valley, the ranch's 11 and a half acres still hold the remnants of an 1870s hydraulic gold mining operation and "the best swimming hole on the Applegate River," according to owner Cathy Rodgers… [Read More]

For over a hundred years, Wright's Dairy Farm, in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, has been providing the community with fresh dairy products. The five generation farm has been growing and innovating, adding a retail bakery specializing in whipped cream cakes, custard desserts,… [Read More]

Larry Harris and his son, Julian Harris of Harris Farms, LLC often struggled to find a way to package and distribute their fresh produce and increase their sales. Fortunately for them and many other farmers, USDA Rural Development (RD) assisted in finding a solution to this… [Read More]

Farm thrives, bolsters other local farmers during coronavirus pandemic   For Shelly Oswald, owner of Old Time Farm in Stoneboro, Pa., the novel coronavirus pandemic illustrates the vital role small, local agriculture producers play in safeguarding food security during a… [Read More]