In this episode, Sue Beckwith and Mike Morris, co-authors of the new book Beyond Fresh: a Food Processing Guide for Texas Farmers, discuss the book and the issues it addresses.

The book, a workbook, is focused mostly on Texas farmers, helping them decide whether they should move beyond just selling fresh and whole fruits and vegetables by trying to create and sell value-added food products.

Beyond Fresh isn't a how-to book for creating particular products. Rather, it looks at product development, storage and distribution, regulations, labeling, market trends and more - as part of determining whether a product will be profitable for the producer.

A team of farmers, economists, and food experts led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology studied opportunities in Texas to create value-added food products from sustainably-grown fruits and vegetables, and created this workbook.

Though the information is derived from the market in Texas, its benefits are easily transferable to producers in other states.

If you would like more information on this topic, you can contact Mike Morris at [email protected].

Related ATTRA Resources

Beyond Fresh: A Food Process Guide for Texas Farmers

ATTRA: Value-Added Food Products

Other Resources

Texas Center for Local Food

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