How to find Investors for an Organic Farm?

Question

We own a healthfood store, & want to purchase an Organic Apple Orchard & create an organic Market & Environmental attraction to educate people about buying local & supporting Organic food. How do you find like-minded investors?

Answer 1

I dont know all the details about growing organic, but I got to thinking about this some time back.  It would be EXTREAMLY difficult to be truly organic.  What will you fertilize with, manure?  You would have to find a rancher who feeds pure organic feed to those cows and doesnt vacinate or give medications to those cows.  Then theres a greater chance that manure will have more parasites in it.  Many cattlemen these days are injecting their calves with hormones and steroids to make the calves grow faster and larger in order to bring more per pound at the sale or to be of breeding size sooner.  These hormones and steroids will be in that manure you put on your "organic" crop.  See where I'm getting at.  To be truly organic, in my opinion, would be extreamly difficult, if not impossible.  I for one am not to worried about pesticides, herbicides, and petrolium based fertilizer.  I worry about the hormones and steroids in our meat.  Have you ever wondered why little girls are starting puberty earlier in this country?  People have told me that its because we have better nutrition these days, BULL BUTTER.  We had better nutrition in the 50's, maybe less food, but better food.  thanks, good topic

Answer 2

Check out a trade magazine called; "The Fruit Growers News" www.fruitgrowersnews.com.  It's a great news source for current happenings within the field of growing any type of fruit, both conventionally or organically, or for finding that perfect apple orchard.  There is also a-lot of information on Agra-tourism, like; what works and what doesn't.

Answer 3

There are all kinds of resources out there for New Crop and New Ventures type businesses.  Contact your local Extension Office.  Land Grant Institutions (Purdue, Ohio State, Clemson, Penn State, Rutgers, etc.) have all gotten heavily involved in helping people start or develop food based enterprises.  There might also be a number of state and federal grants that might help you out depending on where you are.

Answer 4

i admit that organic food r quite a huge stride in preserving n conserving the nature. but lots of people r not supporting it, considering the price which is slightly higher than ordinary food. maybe u should forage some environmentalists. anywhere, i'll giv u support if i'm able to coz i'm stil a student.

Answer 5

Some people have raised money for this kind of purpose by selling advance contracts for their produce. For example, you could agree to supply x number of bushels of apples each year for 5 years for x number of dollars.

Answer 6

right now in ffa i am writing a speech on the CSA program (community suppported agriculture) i haven't gotten all the research i need off of it and im still looking to find out how to start the whole thing. but when you find out please let me know! thanks

Answer 7

We checked with our customers and found several that were willing to invest.  It is good that you already have a going business, because investors usually want to see a proven track record.  Your customers are already likeminded and already buying into the Organic food concept.  We had a customer who dropped almost 500k for another large ranch for us to operate.