First, let's talk about sales, which is the lifeblood of any farm business.
We are seeing farmers lose some accounts, especially in restaurants and the hospitality industry because of conferences, events and weddings getting canceled. Those contracts are being pulled back.
On the flip side of that, we're seeing record sales with home delivery, CSA, farm stands, and grocery store sales. Some farmers are seeing 3, even 4X in sales through these channels. You may need to pivot your business model online, and we’ll share some resources about that at the end of this post.
Second, there's a lot of mass hysteria out there. I've been talking to my father who's a physician, and teaches at a university in Virginia. His take is this is definitely real, you need to wash your hands, don’t congregate in efforts to slow the spread, but there is no reason to freak out. Focus on your nutrition and health and reduce your stress.
Farmer's markets in some cases are still open, and some are being closed. The criteria is based on how they are classifying those as a grocery store and actually saying they're better than a grocery store cause they're out in the open air, especially as you're getting vitamin D as you are shopping.