2023 Producer VAPG Boot Camp – Day 3

The Food Finance Institute and Jim Gage of JDG Consulting are excited to welcome you to Day 3 of the Value-Added Producer Grant Boot Camp! During Day 1 and Day 2, you learned all about VAPG eligibility, working with the USDA, and grant writing strategies. Now, in Day 3, we’ll explore integrating VAPG into your overall business model.

Day 3 – Beyond VAPG/ Integrating VAPG into your overall business model

July 21, 2023 | 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. Central

Topics to be covered include:

• Laying the market research foundation for your VAPG project
• Fitting VAPG into your overall capital stack
• Leveraging additional federal/state/local grant & finance opportunities
• Examples of how VAPG changed our customers’ food and farm businesses

Each team will meet with Jim for a 30-minute one-on-one consultation scheduled later in the day.

About the Instructors

James D. Gage is the principal for James D. Gage Consulting, Inc and a Food Finance institute (FFI) Expert in Residence.  He specializes in value added dairy and local foods business development. Gage is currently designing and leading programming to specialty clients, grant writers and agricultural entrepreneurs as they access and author the USDA Value Added Producer Grant.  He is the past manager of the Wisconsin Dairy Business Innovation Center, and has worked on business and marketing issues with over 400 value added clients over the last 18 years.

Specific consulting has included conducting market research, writing feasibility studies, business plans and grants, and providing small business management services.  He served as the business-strategist in residence for the American Cheese Society (2013-17), and is a certified Wisconsin Value-Added Food & Farm Business Consultant. Gage worked extensively with the private sector high technology community as part of the University of Wisconsin’s Environmental Remote Sensing Center, and has been part of agricultural research and management consulting teams in more than 40 countries worldwide while working with the Land Tenure Center (University of Wisconsin), the International Development Management Center (University of Maryland), and the Peace Corps.  Mr. Gage holds an MS in Horticulture and Plant Physiology from University of Maryland- College Park, and a BA in Political Science from Fordham University.

As Farm Outreach Specialist for FFI, Andy Larson works with entrepreneurial farm businesses to build farm financial management capacity and access the capital they need to grow. He brings his expertise in farm business and marketing, agricultural lending, and grantsmanship to Farm Boot Camp.

Andy’s background includes working as an Agriculture and Commercial Loan Officer at a community bank, providing commercial credit to family farms and small businesses in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. His portfolio included crop farms, dairy farms, and a wide variety of local food farms. Andy also worked in university extension in both Iowa and Illinois, providing programming on the business and marketing side of small farms, local foods, and sustainable agriculture. In addition, Andy grew up on a dairy farm, and now lives with his wife and three daughters on a small-scale poultry farm just down the road, where they produce free-range brown eggs for local restaurants, retail stores, and farmers markets.