In our last N2Y2 Featured Project Profile of the week, we talked with Jim Slama of FamilyFarmed.org. You can listen to the audio recording of the interview, and FamilyFarmed.org's 5-minute pitch at the NetSquared Conference on the NetSquared Podcast.

JS: My name is Jim Slama. I'm the President of Sustain and the Founder of our FamilyFarmed.org project. FamilyFarmed.org connects local and organic farmers with both consumers and trade buyers. We do that in a number of ways, one is through our website, which has profiles and stories and pictures of farmers from states throughout the Midwest as well as Ontario, Canada.

We also have the FamilyFarmed.org Expo, which is both a consumer and a trade show. It's really all about introducing people to these farmers, and artisanal food producers, and helping them connect with them, learn what they do and what they grow, and really building that direct relationship with these producers.

We also do a significant level of policy work. In the last year have taken the lead, along with the Illinois Farmer Consumer Coalition, Evanston Food Policy Council, and Illinois Stewardship Alliance, in creating the Illinois Food, Farms and Jobs Act, which is a nationally recognized piece of legislation that is geared towards making Illinois a leader in local and organic food production. We'll do that by creating a state planning and appropriations process that we hope will result in millions of new dollars to support local and organic agriculture here in Illinois.

BB: Where did the idea for FamilyFarmed.org come from?

JS: It really began many years ago when Sustain was working on the "Keep Organic Organic" campaign. This was a national, multimedia effort that came up in response to proposed standards for organic food that were introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would have allowed food that was genetically engineered, irradiated and grown in sewage sludge to be called organic.

We didn't think that was organic, and lots of other people didn't as well. With our relationships with the key players in the organic industry, essentially we became the nonprofit communications group doing all the multimedia communications. It was really an amazing experience. In the end, the good guys and gals won, and the movement generated 275,000 comments opposing these rules. As a result, the USDA. had to come out with much stronger standards that protected the integrity of organic.

For Sustain, we learned, number one, that this is an amazing group of people who were doing all this work with lots of passion, lots of commitment and are really helping to grow this industry at a 20 percent annual growth rate.

We decided that a "buy local" campaign would be a great next step. The only problem is, when we went to do that, we realized that there wasn't any local organic food available. [laughs] So that was a problem. Most of it was coming from places far beyond Illinois. So at that point we started working on doing a lot of research to figure out why this was the case in a state as agricultural as Illinois. Over the course of a number of years that research resulted in a feasibility study, funded by both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Illinois Department of Agriculture, that put forth a number of recommendations that we made in terms of building a local food system.

In doing that, we learned a very important lesson. Farmers didn't really want to knock on doors of trade buyers and the trade buyers really didn't want to take phone calls from farmers. With that knowledge, we created FamilyFarmed.org as a way to start connecting these producers with markets.

That was four years ago. This year's Expo had over 3,000 people. Many of the top trade buyers, restaurants, institutions, hospitals, Whole Foods Market and other supermarkets were all there, plus a lot of consumers. Great speakers, politicians, and it's turned into a very successful project that we think is a model that can be replicated in other parts of the country.

BB: What is the next step for FamilyFarmed.org? What are some of its goals?

JS: Well, for us, our next step is really to prove our concept in a place other than the Midwest. I think at this point we have great relationships in the Midwest with buyers. Our Expo is a success. We have a lot of producers up on our web page, and that is growing. People see the value of this, whether it be consumers, farmers, trade buyers, artisanal producers.

We're in the process of developing a business plan to take FamilyFarmed.org to that next level. We're looking at the possibility of creating an Expo and a regional collection of farmers to be included on our web page in another market, with farmers from another market. We think that this would really help us figure out, can this concept be done in other places? Could this be potentially a national roll out?

By doing it in one other market, I think we'll learn a lot and will really help figure that out. If it is successful, then we'll examine ways in which this could be done in many markets across the country.

BB: What are some of the challenges for FamilyFarmed.org?

JS: Well, I think a significant challenge is money. We're ahead of the curve here. It's new, it's exciting and also funders haven't yet embraced local and organic food, despite the fact that it's got a lot of benefits, whether it be local economic development and job creation, rural revitalization, all the ecological benefits both in terms of producing food organically as well as cutting down the food miles. These are huge benefits and yet the funding from both foundations and major donors, I don't think, has really caught up to all the benefits that it provides.

We're looking at, first of all, expanding our network of possible funders. Secondly, examining possibly doing things with the private sector on this because there are elements of what we're doing that have long term, pretty significant commerce implications, such as the e-commerce applications for the FamilyFarmed.org website as well as the Expo. We're looking at, "Could there be a for profit component to that?"

Beyond that, I think, it's just doing it somewhere else. We're from the Midwest, we've got these established relationships. Clearly, if we're going to do this in another market, we're going to need on the ground partners who know the lay of the land and also have established relationship with producers. That's a really big deal. That's something we're looking hard at right now.

BB: Can you give an example or tell a story about how FamilyFarmed.org has or will create positive change?

JS: There are a lot of farmers that have developed new relationships with buyers as a result of being connected with us. There's a peach grower I talked to who got into Whole Foods as a result of coming to our Expo and now what he's doing is selling them a lot of fruit. There's an organic poultry producer who was introduced to a restauranteur in Chicago that now has two restaurants and is buying a ton of his product. So his business went through the roof. My guess is there are dozens more examples of farmers, or artisanal food producers whose businesses have increased significantly because of the contacts that we have helped them develop.

BB: What was the positive impact for FamilyFarmed.org of going to the NetSquared Conference?

JS: For us, first of all, we kind of became more aware of this whole "Web 2.0" world. We're kind of a Web 1.0 site, and web community has not been deeply in our consciousness. That hasn't been our skill set. We don't really have staff who are major techies with knowledge of that. I think by going to the Conference, it opened our eyes to that whole broader world of building web communities with sophisticated techniques, such as used by many NetSquared partners.

It was very eye opening to us and as a result of that, I think we've set our sights on developing a much more sophisticated "Web 2.0" platform as we move ahead on some of these e-commerce applications. We learned a lot about that at the Conference itself.

In addition, we also gained many potential partners and collaborators. Folks who would like to work with us as we move ahead, whether it be consulting with us, or potential investors. We were introduced to Yahoo, and Yahoo gave us their first annual Good Green Award and made a significant contribution of advertising dollars which we're starting to apply towards people who are looking for local and organic food in the Midwest. They're looking at expanding that relationship, something we're very interested in, once we finish our business plan. That was a stellar connection and I think others will come out of it as well.

BB: How can listeners help to move your work forward?

JS: I think that they can help move our work forward by sending us an email and letting us know what they're interested in. Whether it be technical support, financial support, giving us kudos, whatever it is. Maybe introducing us to other partners or potential partners in other parts of the country. Certainly an email to jimslama AT sustainusa DOT org would be a good place to start.

BB: Is there anything else you want people to know about FamilyFarmed.org?

JS: Well, bottom line is we're very grassroots. We're all about supporting farmers and artisanal producers to really grow and thrive and prosper. It's about helping consumers get access to food that matches their values. I think these are all really positive, important things and we're looking forward to growing this and connecting with as many people who can help us in this path as we move ahead.