{"id":1883,"date":"2025-09-17T14:17:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:17:53","slug":"osu-extension-intern-studies-agritourisms-role-in-local-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2025\/09\/17\/osu-extension-intern-studies-agritourisms-role-in-local-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU Extension intern studies agritourism’s role in local communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, my name is Cydney Stables, and I am the Agritourism intern for the Marion, Polk and Yamhill
\nCounty offices. A major part of my internship is traveling to Agritourism operations across the
\nstate, surveying their customers for a day. We are collecting their information in a consumer
\nsentiment research project to help understand the value Agritourism serves in our
\ncommunities.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n
A photo of the product shelves available in the honey tasting room at Flying Bee Ranch. Photo: Cydney Stables<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Our questions include topics of reasons for visiting the farm, distance traveled to get to the
\nfarm, amount of money spent, overall satisfaction with their on-farm experience, best ways for
\nfarmers to connect with consumers and why farms in general should be open to the public?
\nSeveral of these topics spark conversations with consumers and farmers alike. I have had the
\nopportunity while surveying to chat with individuals at the farm and learn more verbally about
\ntheir perspectives, experiences and personal opinions surrounding agriculture. I have found that
\nfor consumers, the main reasons as to why Agritourism should exist seem to reside around
\nhaving the availability of locally grown products, the exposure to agricultural operations, a way
\nfor farmers to make income and simply an activity to do with the family. To me, each of these
\nare important indicators that Agritourism is essential to educating consumers about the
\nagriculture industry.<\/p>\n

Besides talking with consumers, I have also had the opportunity to speak with passionate
\nfarmers and learn more about their challenges, goals and what they wished the public knew
\nabout farming. My most recent experience of this was with the owner of Flying Bee Ranch in
\nSalem. Jeremy owns and manages a small honey operation where they host guests at a tasting
\nroom on the farm, attend local farmers markets and provide direct-to-consumer products at
\nlocal stores. He sat down towards the end of my day surveying and chatted with me all about
\nhis views as a farmer when it came to regulations surrounding Agritourism and the impact his
\nfarm has on his customers. Some of these views include the difficulty he faces only owning a 5-
\nacre plot of land and trying to produce a living, the uncertainty of weather and other opposing
\nevents impacting his daily sales and even a trend he has noticed when attending markets that
\ninvolves competing with what consumers define as \u201clocal.\u201d Each of these concerns are topics
\nthat Jeremy and likely many other small farmers worry about regularly, yet customers likely
\nnever even realize.<\/p>\n

To me, these conversations have been the most impactful part of my internship experience so
\nfar. Coming from a small farm background and having the opportunity to network, learn and
\nexperience how other small farms across the state of Oregon operate, the challenges they face
\nand the ways in which they are successful, has been extremely worthwhile.
\nI can\u2019t wait to continue surveying farms across the state as I complete my internship. I am
\nexcited to learn, network and collect research that will help aid in the awareness and
\nexcitement surrounding a small sector of the agriculture industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi, my name is Cydney Stables, and I am the Agritourism intern for the Marion, Polk and Yamhill County offices. A major part of my internship is traveling to Agritourism operations across the state, surveying their customers for a day. We are collecting their information in a consumer sentiment research project to help understand the… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14884,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,65,64,51,114],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ag-and-natural-resources","category-marion-county","category-polk-county","category-small-business-development","category-yamhill-county","tag-cydney-stables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1885,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}