Announcemnt: Invitation to SWFSFN farmers to Enroll in FL MarketMaker Website

Greetings on this warm FL day to all the members and supporters of the SW FL Small Farmers Network (SWFSFN).  I am very pleased to send you this announcement that UF/IFAS is making available free to all farmers the state-of-the-art online food marketing service, i.e., FL MarketMaker.  For some background on it, I’m sharing with you the following information:

The goal of MarketMaker is to make the site a resource for all businesses in the food supply chain. We are as interested in helping a grocery store find farm-fresh eggs as we are helping the farmer find a place to sell them. MarketMaker is rich with demographic and business data that the user can query. Details can be summarized on a map to show concentrations of consumer markets and strategic business partners. Providing this kind of information in a map-based format makes much more sense than business lists and statistical tables.  Census data is also a feature of the site. For example, a producer wanting to sell meat to Hispanic consumers can request a map showing the greatest concentration of upper-income Hispanic households, then request a complete demographic profile of those locations.  For more information, see the national website at http://national.marketmaker.uiuc.edu/

FYI – FL MarketMaker is open at this time exclusively for farmers.  The UF/IFAS team responsible for it plans for its full, free, public launch in early fall when all intended users will be offered access to register to use FL MarketMaker.  At this time they are requesting farmers register online to begin a comprehensive database of FL farmers and their food products.  To this end, please, go to the following website:  http://fl.marketmaker.uiuc.edu/index.php

 

All, feel free to distribute this email announcement to your small farmer associates and colleagues.

 

Thanks,

robert

 

 

Robert A. Kluson, Ph.D.

Agriculture/Natural Resources Extension Agent II

UF/IFAS - Sarasota County Extension

6700 Clark Road, Sarasota, FL  34241

(941) 232-3090;     FAX (941) 861-9886

http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/AG/ag.shtml