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Many farmers -- who have always been resourceful and astute entrepreneurs - are transforming their farms into entertainment destinations, therein making a quantum leap from the bottom of the progression of economic value of producing commodities to the top by producing experiences.
Progression of Economic Value
(using coffee as an example)
| Offering | Location | Price |
|---|---|---|
| commodity | grower |
$1.00/lb. |
| goods | supermarket | $6.00/lb. |
| services | fast food | $1.00/cup |
| experience | Starbucks | $2.00+/cup |
One of the many ways farmers are turning their farms into entertainment destinations is with adventure corn mazes. These are the mega-acre maize mazes you may have read about. Hundreds of these appear throughout North America each fall along with the appearance of the rotund squash - the great pumpkin.
This is a rather recent phenomenon. It wasn't until 1993 that Adrian Fisher and Don Franz produced the first entertainment farm maze in the shape of a dinosaur at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. It was a great success. Since then, corn mazes have grown in size and complexity, with some having double-decker Y-bridges, and have spread into many countries besides the U.S. In 2004, there were about 200 adventure mazes throughout North America.
The first corn maze was 3.3 acres and had 1.92 pathway miles.
There are currently four companies that specialize in designing and helping farmers produce and market their mazes:
Competition
stirs up creativity. This year, Don Franz of The Amazing Maize Maze
has outdone the other maze design companies, and for that matter, probably
the entire family entertainment center industry, by licensing the new
animated movie feature, Chicken Little, that Disney is producing
for release later this year. Chicken Little adventure corn mazes
will be appearing across America this fall. Talk about a licensing coup
and a great marketing scheme. Look out, family entertainment center industry!
Farms across the world are turning corn into exceptional family destination
experiences - the agricultural equivalent of turning lemons into
lemonade. And with that they are capturing an increasing share of family
leisure time and expenditures.
We feel honored to have among our agritainment clients two of America's most renowned agritainment facilities that include adventure mazes: Davis' Farmland & Davis' MegaMaze in Sterling, Massachusetts, and Cherry-Crest Farms, just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Davis' agritainment facility has been our longest continuous client, for over 12 years. We just started working with Cherry-Crest Farm on a new master plan and expansion of the operation.
Click here to see the Chicken Little movie trailer:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/chickenlittle/
Additional reading:
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