During the COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. producers struggled to find markets for their crops or livestock.
Ariana Torres, Associate Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, says even the best crops lack purpose when there are no markets.
“You can have the most beautiful peaches or tomatoes, but if you don’t have someone to buy it from you, then you’re actually not doing much,” Torres says.
Torres is part of the Diverse Corn Belt Project Markets Team, which researches the factors involved in creating and maintaining avenues for selling farm products. The team studies each aspect of the supply chain, from the field to the retailer and the consumer.
Aslihan Spaulding, Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky, also works with the Markets Team. She says when the team surveyed fresh produce farmers, retailers, and consumers who purchase oat milk, each group’s priorities were different.
Spaulding says fresh produce growers focused on “supporting farmers with supply chain disruptions” and “paying price premiums.” However, the growers didn’t believe that consumers were willing to pay that price premium.
“There is an educational piece that’s missing,” Spaulding says. “We do everything in our power to diversify our farms for the environment, and we want to be sustainable and profitable. Yet, consumers don’t see that, and then they are not willing to pay a premium for that product.”

Aslihan Spaulding, Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. Photo provided.
Torres says bridging that educational gap is called “translational economics.”
“Throughout the supply chain, things don’t stay the same,” Torres says. “Some consumers may know what a crop rotation is, but most of them cannot associate it with the oat milk that I’m drinking. Translations need to be happening in the supply chain, and that’s why we have so many food labels.”
She adds the meaning of labels may be getting lost in translation from the farm to the field, with farmers’ priorities misaligned with those of the consumer.
Spaulding says the translation from the farm to the table is essential for success in agricultural diversification.
“You can have the best genetics and follow the best practices and improve your herd,” Spaulding says, “but if there’s no market, what’s the point?”
By translating diversification or conservation agriculture practices throughout the supply chain, consumers can better understand farmers’ actions, such as planting cover crops, using no-tillage, or grazing livestock in rotations. They will then look for labels designating a product that came from a farm using those practices. The consumer will then buy those products and drive demand.

“You can have the best genetics and follow the best practices and improve your herd, but if there’s no market, what’s the point?”

Data Insights
The Markets Team also surveyed retail store managers in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Torres says that farmers with large harvests sell to wholesalers who can handle bigger volumes. Wholesalers then sell to retailers. However, most small farms find their most profitable option is a farmer’s market, followed by direct sales to restaurants.
The Markets Team surveyed restaurant and winery operators, as well.
“A lot of the restaurants sometimes behave like wholesalers,” Torres says, “so we’re looking into the behavior of these buyers. What are their preferences? What are the labels that they’re looking for that are going to be passed on to the consumer?”
Consumers’ values and motivations affect sales of the end product. Market team members decided to analyze oat milk consumption to understand consumer demand and the future outlook for oats, a crop farmers can grow in rotation with corn and soybeans. However, if there is no oat market, even the best oats can’t be sold, Torres notes.
“There’s a high demand because a lot of oats are used for oat milk, oat ice cream, you name it,” she says. “Oat milk has the highest growth on demand in the past few years relative to all alternative or plant-based milk.”
Through surveys, the team found three primary motivations for purchasing oat milk: environmental, psychological, and budgetary. Some consumers view oats as more environmentally friendly than dairy cattle. Economic factors also played a role in consumers’ decisions.
“We found that a lot of people actually buy oat milk because of the long shelf life,” Torres says. “These are younger individuals who have budget constraints.”
Oat milk can be consumed for a month, while milk from dairy cows needs to be consumed within a few days of purchase.
Each of these studies within the Markets Team leads to an analysis of risk management within the supply chain, as ensuring market access can mitigate risk for farmers and retailers.
There are a lot of risks in agriculture, Spaulding says, and risk management is an important aspect of agricultural diversification.

In this cover crop field, oats grow between rows of radishes. Oats can be used in several different ways, both on-farm and on the table.


Torres adds that having multiple markets helped mitigate risk for farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s.
“A lot of product wasn’t able to be delivered,” Torres says. “Having these connections with restaurants and with catering services or with local consumers in the community helped a lot of farmers to be resilient.”
See research publications and presentations from the Markets Team and other DCB Team members on our Publications page.
Catch the latest from the Diverse Corn Belt Project on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, and learn more about agricultural diversification in our blog post “From the Ground Up: Agricultural Diversity at All Levels of the Farm.”