What Stream B asks
Where can a consumer actually buy this product — farm store, farmers market, CSA, direct-to-consumer shipping, regional grocery, restaurants?
What you’ll usually find in a directory listing
High availability. Sales channels are a primary purpose of most directories — connecting the producer to a consumer who wants to buy. Most listings name the channels (farm store, named farmers markets with schedules, shipping geography for DTC, regional grocery partners, restaurant clients). The directory’s whole point is to make this question answerable.
This is one of the cleanest wins for Stream B. A consumer reading a Minnesota Grown profile typically learns more about how to buy a producer’s beef than they would learn from a year of looking at supermarket beef labels.
Three-step spine for Sales Channels on a directory listing
Required basics — what the directory itself surfaces. Most directories have a structured field for sales channels. The directory operator may verify the channels (a Minnesota Grown listing claiming a farmers market is reasonable to spot-check). Specific listings — named farmers markets with days and schedules, named CSA pickup locations, named regional grocery partners, defined DTC shipping geographies — score Known.
Verified programs — what a third-party seal proves. No third-party certification covers Sales Channels directly, but a Tier-A welfare or feed certification typically requires the producer to disclose where the product is sold (so buyers can be tracked through the certifier’s chain-of-custody system). When that information is published in the producer’s certifier-roster entry, Stream B treats it as third-party-verified.
Unverified marketing — what the producer says about themselves. “We sell at farmers markets” without naming the markets, “available at fine grocers across the region” without naming the grocers, “available online” without specifying the shipping geography, sit at Partial. The producer is signaling channel access but not naming the access points; a consumer can’t act on the disclosure as published.
Stream A vs. Stream B for this category
Retail labels almost never disclose sales channels — by definition, the label is on the product in the supermarket, so the channel is the supermarket where the consumer is standing. Stream A scores Sales Channels as Missing for the typical retail SKU.
Directory listings do disclose sales channels, often in detail. This is the structural inverse of the Processor Identity finding: where Stream A wins on processor disclosure (the establishment number is on every label), Stream B wins on sales-channel disclosure (the directory exists to surface it).
There’s no current Stream A LEARN page on Sales Channels — the category is structurally Missing on retail labels and a consumer explainer hasn’t been needed.
Verification ceiling callout
Stream B can score Sales Channels up to: Directory-verified, when the directory operator confirms the named channels (typical for state-agency directories). Otherwise: Producer-attested, which is usually still reliable because channel claims are easy for consumers to falsify in person.
See the Stream B methodology for the full rubric and the four verification-ceiling tiers.
Sources
- USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — Local Food Directory Service, the federal aggregator of state-level farmers market and CSA directories.
- State agricultural directories — Minnesota Grown, Kentucky Proud, Georgia Grown, Abundant Montana — each maintain a sales-channel field that the operator typically verifies.
- A Greener World — chain-of-custody requirements for AWA-certified products at retail.
- 9 CFR Part 317 — FSIS rules on the name and address of the manufacturer or distributor on retail labels.
- USDA Process Verified Programs — chain-of-custody disclosure requirements for PVP claims.
Last reviewed: May 2026