Case Studies

Those long racks and shelves of annuals are an explosion of color that gardeners long to see through the winter months—an effusion of reds, yellows, pinks, blues and more awaiting a new home in a patch of soil. While the gardeners buying their annuals in big-box stores such as Lowe’s in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and […]

Bowen Kou knows what it means to have nothing except unlimited potential and a burning desire to succeed. He came to the U.S. from China at age 19 and, in 2009, began his undergraduate studies in supply chain management at Michigan State University. He noticed a lot of students struggling to purchase new textbooks, which […]

Jim Cheney had just graduated high school in 1968 and when his father advised him to look for a job at Wenatchee Pack, he thought he was going to work at one of the fruit packing sheds in town. And why not? His hometown of Wenatchee, Washington, is considered the “Apple Capital of the World,” […]

For a hotel guest, hospital patient, restaurant diner or nursing home resident, a green bean may just be another item on a plate. To Brian Gross and his family, it represents four generations of providing unparalleled customer service and exceptional quality products to the market—foodservice businesses across Pennsylvania. The Gross’ journey began in 1950 not […]

When Kaylie Reicks talks about needing internet connections in the barns at Reicks View Farms, it’s not so the pigs she and her older brother, Brady Reicks, are raising can stream entertainment. The internet in the barns and a new communication system are essential modern touches enabling farm employees to better communicate and share data […]

As people enter Cod & Capers Seafood in North Palm Beach, Florida, they step into a bustling, high-ceilinged marketplace with a display case running the length of the store. On any given day, it holds 50 to 60 different kinds of fish, as well as oysters, clams and scallops. There is a gourmet foods section […]

Founded in 1983, Merryvale Vineyards’ proprietor René Schlatter has announced that the winery will be celebrating its 40th anniversary through 2023 with a series of events to highlight the past 40 years of Merryvale’s Napa Valley wines, while also providing a sneak-peak at future wine releases. Over the last four decades, Merryvale Vineyards has established […]

In 2002, Angie Barber and her husband were at a crossroads. They were being asked to relocate from Clear Lake, Iowa, for their corporate jobs. They weren’t ready to upheave their lives, not with their 5-year-old daughter about to start school and their son about to go off to college. “We wanted him to have […]

Aaron Ott is part of the tradition of family farming. His father raised pigs and cattle, and Ott and his family live on the 160-year-old farmstead he bought from his grandmother and then restored and refurbished. Ott raises some beef cattle and has two swine nursery farms—raising 9,600 pigs weighing 13-55 pounds at each one. […]

On an average-sized farm, a dairy cow can consume up to 120 pounds of feed per day, which allows it to produce up to 80 pounds of milk. Most farms in the Midwest have at least 50 cows, though Derek Krosschell says farms with 1,000 to as many as 5,000 cows are becoming more common […]