Farmer-Owned Food Brands for the Omaha Area
By
Jim Steffen
Omaha area residents spend about 4 billion dollars each year on food for home consumption. To date, our local farmers, food processors, and food workers have been losing out because most of this food comes from outside of our trade area.
To keep more of our money in our local economy, we are organizing a privately funded non-profit development company for farmer-owned food brands. We call this company “Raised Free” because of our commitment to building commercial-scale regenerative and organic food systems around managed grazing and profitable farmer-owned food brands.
Our two Omaha area farms are at the center of local demonstration projects. These projects will include housing for farmers and a limited number of non-farm residents. Please go to Bennington Agrihood for more on housing.
The balance of this website is on scaling up production and financing for local processing and farmer-owned food brands.
Financing
Competitive markets for land, livestock, and equipment are essential to free markets in the food industry. But free markets do not work without market access and financing all farmers, big and small.
To finance production efficiencies and access to high-value markets, I am inviting retired and working farmers to join me in one of our demonstration projects. We will, 1) Organize regenerative and organic production units, 2) Negotiate contracts with specialty commodity buyers, farmer-owned direct sales brands, and local food processors, and 3) Conduct public information programs to attract local investors. The goal is to build local direct sales operations into profitable farmer-owned retail food brands.
Production Units
We own two small farms in the Omaha area that are in pasture and rented to experienced beef cow-calf producers. I am inviting nearby landowners and farmers to help us organize production units around both farms. A production unit is a group of contiguous and nearby farms leased by the owners, with purchase options, to one experienced farmer selected by the landowners.
More regenerative and organic production sets the stage for better market opportunities without buying or selling land and without adding landowner debt. As financial conditions change for landowners, purchase options will allow negotiated sales within production units when market conditions and land values are favorable. Over time, these sales will increase farm family wealth, improve retirement options, and offer new profit opportunities for young farmers.
Supply Contracts
With my help from my business partners, my company will prepare preliminary business plans, as no cost, for each farm in our Bennington and Massena production units, and for both units.
These plans will be based on talks with wholesale buyers, local direct sellers, and processors. Since we are in the beef business, our business plans will use price ranges from local feeders, locker plants, packing houses, and direct sellers plus publicly available data on grain, hay, and alfalfa.
Local Investors
Scalable local food chains require trusted local investors who are willing to lend and invest with production unit landowners, farmers, and local food businesses. Larger processing operations with well-funded marketing programs for farmer-owned brands will become more important over time.
Investment Barriers
As it is now, strong local food economies are not possible given extensive levels of vertical integration across the food chain. Examples are Walmart in the beef industry, Costco with chickens, and Smithfield in pork. Long term USDA research shows clearly that consolidation works against small farmers who depend solely on commodities. The competitive environment will continue to deteriorate without private sector financing. However, there is an increasing number of investors interested in economic development with locally grown and processed specialty foods.
Investment Opportunities
For example, I belong to a small investment club in Omaha that lends money to farmers and food processors, and recently, to a new vegetarian and vegan restaurant. These business loans help spread risks and control costs while encouraging competition and/or cooperation as the owners see fit.
ROI
Reasonable returns on investments across the food chain are essential to strong local food systems. If one part of the system is underfunded, the chain breaks. Further, nothing is gained by investing in small farms and gardens while ignoring the investments needs of local marketers and processing companies, etc.
To overcome these obvious barriers, our final business plans will be based on written contacts for products and services. These contracts will include industry standard terms on price, quality, quantity, and delivery dates along with references to reports from a farmer-controlled market information and contract enforcement program.
Finally, each individual and company in the food chain, including Massena Farms, will be paid a negotiated fee for service or a percentage of the first-buyer gross or net.
More Information
The details on business planning, marketing, and finance can be found on pages 2 and 3. Our qualifications are on page 4.
Please contact me to arrange an appointment.
Jim Steffen, President
Massena Corporation
402-317-2639
jim@massenafarms.com
Posted 11-16-2025