Spring 2026 Virtual Member Meeting

Local Food Economy Series

“Running the Rows: Do the Realities of Produce Farming Still Add Up?”

About the Local Food Economy Series

In 2026, the cost of food is a hot topic. During the past several years, grocery store prices have increased at an inflated rate, and the word “affordability” has become a political buzz word. But, when we consider the food system as a whole, there is more at play than just the price that consumers pay at the grocery store. The Local Food Economy series is a series of SC Food Systems Network meetings that take a closer look at what it takes to make a thriving local food system economically viable for everyone.

Introduction

On Thursday, March 19, the SCFSN held its Spring virtual member meeting to hear from South Carolina produce farmers about what it takes to make their farms financially viable. The featured panelists were:

• Jordan Hodgens, Livingston Farms (Woodford, SC)

• Kevin Summers, Summers Wellness Farm (Branchville, SC)

Read on for some highlights from the meeting.

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Is it possible to run a financially viable, local produce farm in SC?

Jordan:

"I was blessed enough to come into a produce farm that had the infrastructure in place, had a lot of the customers. If you were coming in off the street, and you just decided that farming is your passion, and you're going to do it, and you've got to find land, that's a tough place to start from."

Kevin:

"I'm the seventh generation, but it almost wasn't the next generation, because my father, being the sixth generation, stopped farming...so when my brother and I took back over 7 years ago, we had to buy back land. We didn't have any tractors, we didn't have any infrastructure. I won't say we're profitable, but, we're getting there after we put that infrastructure cost in place."

Tell Us About the Sales Outlets for Your Produce

Kevin:

"You've got to sell retail. You've got to sell to distributors like Senn Brothers and GrowFood. You've got to sell to schools, and you've got to sell to farm stands, and all those price points and margins are different. Sometimes, you're not going to sell at a high margin to a distributor, but they take volume. I think that's the mix that's helped us with surviving."

Jordan:

"We have a retail stand. We made connections with FoodShare. Our local Piggly Wiggly's are great. I know a lot of grocery stores can't purchase directly from the farmer, but Piggly Wiggly's still do. I would get calls from people putting together mixed boxes and delivery services that would deliver the mixed boxes, but they weren't growing anything themselves. They wanted to supplement with as much locally grown stuff as they could, so, through one channel or another, they would find me. If they were filling X number of boxes, we check off 2, 3, 4 items from that box."

What are the Biggest Factors that Contribute to your Profitability?

Jordan:

"I think for us it is not trying to get too big. Some farms will make a profit and say 'we got to grow more of that', and that's not necessarily the answer, because at some point, you're going to saturate the market."

"Most people are outsourcing labor, but we use high schoolers, and that's worked really well for us. In a way, we are giving back to the community. These people are right here, so it kind of drives sales as well."

Kevin:

"On the cost side, it's by far labor. Labor is about 50% of our cost structure, but labor and fertilizer are our two biggest input costs."

"And then on the demand side, working with your outlets to understand what are their expectations in terms of varieties and forecasts, and then planning to what that demand is."

Tell Us About How You Set Your Prices

Kevin:

"If you're doing your own farmer's market, you have a lot of control over that price, because your customers are comparing what's in the grocery store compared to what they can get from your roadside stand."

"If you're the middle person, the distributor, or you're the retailer, all of them are trying to make profit as well. So they continuously try to squeeze you, right? I think that the way that we've approached it is just being transparent with, here's how much it costs to grow it."

Jordan:

"I want to know where this crop is going before I take the time to plan it. So, even down to the grocery stores, we just have trusting and transparent conversations. When the produce manager calls me, and I've got something new that's come in, he'll check what he's paying warehouse prices, you know, and then he always tries to do a little better for me, because we've communicated what the differences are."

What Role Does Transportation Play?

Jordan:

"We realized that it was much better to have committed buyers. I knew I was going to get a text every single week, sometimes twice a week, with a list of what they wanted. So we went with two smaller vans, so that, should we need to head different directions, somebody can take this van that way, and somebody can go that way."

Kevin:

"Logistics are extremely important. You've got to have refrigerated trucks, and we've been thankful to get some grants to help us out with that. That's a whole other project by itself, mapping out your routes, mapping out what size truck you're going to take, and then mapping out what you're going to have on that truck."

What is One Thing You Would Like People to Know about What It Takes to Make Your Farm Financially Viable?

Kevin:

"If you don't love this, and have the passion in your heart to make it work, don't do it. Because it's a lot. And that's why I do it, and that's why I get up in the morning and continue to fight to make it profitable. And last, I know that if we don't do it, who will? You walk in these stores and everything is coming from Mexico or Brazil. I know some of that's seasonal, but at the same time, we have a lot in the United States that we can grow and feed our own people versus taking it from someplace else, so that's the passion that motivates me."

Jordan:

"It really helps to have somebody to lean on that knows it, that's learned the hard way, to help you avoid some of those mistakes, just having that wealth of knowledge and somebody that's seen it and been there and knows the mistakes not to make."

"I think being proud of what you're doing is a big part of it, and the passion has to be there, otherwise, you know, you have no business in this business. This is way too hard to not love it."