This course is an interactive four-hour session for both economic development professionals and business leaders who are looking to develop high impact strategies for growing successful food companies and entrepreneurial farm enterprises.

WEDA and CRA Network Members are encouraged to bring a food products entreprenuer to the workshopThe entreprenuer's registration fees will be waived with each paid WEDA/CRA Member registrationThe entrepreuers name will be requested during the registration process.  Please contact weda@weda.org  if you have questions.

Workshop Deliverables:

  • Identify what it really takes for food companies and farms to be financially viable in the current business environment
  • Identify best practices from around the US in fostering the growth of financially viable entrepreneurial food and agriculture enterprises

Workshop Description:

Changing consumer preferences for food are forcing food manufacturers to innovate more rapidly or face gradual decline. These changes are also being felt at the farm level where the profitability of commodity production is eroding and new farm enterprises are emerging to meet these new consumer requirements. Communities that step up to help these enterprises thrive will be the winners in this new environment. Simply building a shared-use kitchen for food entrepreneurs and hoping they will come is no longer enough. This course looks at what companies and farms really need, and how addressing these needs can become the basis for a multi-dimensional sector development strategy for food and agriculture.

Our Presenter:

Tera Johnson, Director
Food Finance Institute


Tera Johnson is a serial entrepreneur whose mission is to create the next generation of environmentally and economically regenerative food and farming businesses. The founder of teraswhey® and host of the Edible-Alpha® podcast, Tera participated in the full arc of creating a successful investor-financed company. Now the founder of the Food Finance Institute at the University of Wisconsin System and winner of the UW-Extension Chancellor’s 2017 Wisconsin Idea Award, Tera is a frequent speaker, teacher and financial consultant to sustainable food and farming businesses, social venture funds and investors.

Fostering Entrepreneurial Food and Agriculture Enterprises

  • October 2, 2019
  • SentryWorld - 601 N. Michigan Avenue
    Stevens Point, Wisconsin
    United States
    54481