As customers, how often do we walk into a place of business only to learn we know more about the product line than the owners do themselves? Does this happen at your farm market? Do your customers consider you to be experts or are you just another place that sells products?

In today’s competitive business environment, customer service determines who makes sales. Awesome customer service begins with knowledge of your product line. With “buy local” coming on strong, and every food retailer using those words to try to keep their edge, your competitive advantage needs to include a complete understanding of the products you offer.

…Enter Dr. Joe Schwarcz… scientist and teacher of factual based knowledge over myth-based babble. Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, a unique enterprise dedicated to demystifying science for the public, the media and students.

This workshop is designed to help smart and inquisitive farm direct marketers hone their skills to become top marketers for the discerning customers. Place yourself among the elite in your community. You’ll combine your already strong understanding of your product line with Joe Schwarcz’s science based facts and you’ll develop the tools to be known in your community, among your customers, and in your local media as the real food expert.

Whether you sell at your home farm market, go to farmers’ markets or you train the front line sales people at your food retail operation, this workshop will take you to the next level. You’ll be known as the expert who can help customers sort the food sense from the non-sense with credibility.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz will explore a number of food related issues and provide information that allows you to answer questions raised by consumers based not on hearsay, but on proper scientific evidence, coupled with your knowledge of your own growing and handling methods.

Dr. Schwarcz focuses on three general topics high the minds of the customers who walk into our businesses every day:

The Diet-Disease Connection
      • Heart disease, cancer and diabetes have strong links to diet. 
      • What is the cholesterol connection?
      • What are the healthiest fats?
      • Is barbequing dangerous?
      • Are there any anti-cancer foods?
      • How can diabetics best control their blood sugar?

Agricultural Chemicals – The Risks and the Benefits
      • Pesticides are designed to kill. By definitions they are toxic substances.
      • Their intended targets are insects and fungi, but do they also pose a risk for humans? 
      • Depending on whom you listen to, genetic modification can solve problems or cause them?
      • Who is right?

Health Foods and Functional Foods
      • Are organically produced foods healthier than conventionally produced ones? 
      • Are probiotics beneficial? 
      • Do we need dietary supplements?