HerbalEGram: Volume 9, Number 7, July 2012

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced in February 2012 the recipients of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Value-Added Grants totaling more than $40 million. David and Jane Hawley Stevens, owners of Four Elements Herbals — a family farm based in rural, south central Wisconsin — were notified of their $300,000 award earlier this year.

“It’s a big honor,” said Jane Hawley Stevens (oral communication, May 18, 2012). “For this particular grant, you have to grow 85% of what’s in the package that you’re selling. I couldn’t market my creams or lip balms because they have oils or beeswax that I didn’t grow. It had to be my herbal teas.”

According to a USDA press release, “Value-added products are created when a producer increases the consumer value of an agricultural commodity in the production or processing stage.”¹ Four Elements herbal teas were eligible for the grant because the Stevens’ certified-organic herbs are ground and packaged into bags to make them accessible for the average tea drinker.

“Eighty-five percent of the public prefer their tea in bags, although herbalists really like to have loose tea to get a stronger infusion,” Stevens explained. “The grant itself is about packaging herbal teas into tea bags and to expand the market into grocery stores, beyond health food stores and specialty shops.”

Four Elements Herbals, which makes over 200 different products, sits on 130 acres of Wisconsin wilderness surrounded by 9,000 acres protected by The Nature Conservancy — an international, environmental conservation nonprofit organization — in a region known as the Baraboo Bluffs.² “It’s a very pristine region and it’s great for growing these pure herbs for these pure products,” said Stevens. “You think, ‘Wisconsin? How does anybody grow there?’ The growing season is so short, but we have this great soil and long, long days [because of the high latitude], … so things grow really well here.”

In addition to supporting small family farms, USDA Value-Added Grants are designed to help stimulate economic growth. “These projects will provide financial returns and help create jobs for agricultural producers, businesses, and families across the country,” said Merrigan in the press release.¹ “This funding will promote small business expansion and entrepreneurship opportunities by providing local businesses with access capital, technical assistance, and new markets for products and services.”

With funds from the grant, Stevens said she has been able to sponsor an intern from a local college and hire a marketing and promotion manager for her teas. She plans to hire a local accountant, as well as move part of her business to the nearby town of North Freedom, Wisconsin. “I want to move the manufacturing portion of my business into an empty bank and open a little tea house in front of it,” she explained.

Currently, Jane and her husband are prepping fields, planting herbs, and preparing for a busier-than-normal growing season. “I am so busy growing plants right now,” she said. “I’ve got to up my production from 200 lbs of dried herbs to about 1,500 lbs of dried herbs. This is all-American labor with hand-harvesting. It’s a lot of work.”

Importantly, Stevens noted that her grant is not simply a gift. “This is a matching grant that I have to match, dollar for dollar. Everything that we get from the government I’ve got to put into it,” she said. “It’s a big commitment on our part too. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, government handouts.’ I have to have a lot of faith in myself and my husband and my staff in order to think that we can pull this off because it’s a big challenge. I’m hustling.”

More information about USDA Value-Added Producer Grants, including eligibility requirements and application forms, can be found here.

—Tyler Smith

References

1.    Value Added Producer Grants Announced. [press release]. Chicago, IL: US Department of Agriculture. February 3, 2012.

2.    Wisconsin: The Baraboo Hills. The Nature Conservancy website. Available at: www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/wisconsin/placesweprotect/priority-area-the-baraboo-hills.xml. Accessed June 25, 2012.