Vision Statement
The recent Time Magazine cover story on Local and organic food made it clear. People want healthy food they trust grown by local and organic farmers. FamilyFarmed.org is a revolutionary system that connects consumers and trade buyers with a network of family farmers and artisinal food producers. FamilyFarmed.org is the place where consumers “meet” their farmers and re-establish connections with their food, their community, and the land. The benefits of local and organic food are numerous and increasingly being recognized by the media and philanthropists. Buying food from local producers improves the environment, increases access to healthy food, creates jobs and economic development, prevents sprawl, supports family farmers, and combats global warming.

FamilyFarmed.org is helping to create a sustainable food system by building a community of buyers and sellers of local and organic food. The system is designed to promote more transparency and accountability from producers while simultaneously creating many more opportunities for buyers and sellers to meet—both on line and in person. FamilyFarmed.org uses three tools to effectively link organic farmers with new sources of business and to educate consumers about the value of supporting local farmers: the FamilyFarmed.org website, FamilyFarmed.org EXPO, and networking/knowledge-sharing.

In the US, Organic food sales have grown nearly 20% a year over the past two decades. FamilyFarmed.org currently works with producers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, and Misouri. Sales of organic food in these states exceeds $2 billion annually, yet research indicates that more than 90% of this is grown and processed outside of the region. Our goal over the next 10 years is for midwestern farmers to produce 25% of the organic food consumed in the region. This will give producers a tremendous boost in income while promoting rural revitalization, job creation, and economic development.

WHAT WE NEED:

Resources needed

FamilyFarmed.org is ready to go to the next level by fully developing its capacity as a web community. We seek funding to fully develop content, social networking capacity, and a sophisticated marketing campaign. Content expansion will include improved farmer bios and product descriptions, a photo “album” or video tour of the farm instead of a single photo, and an “Ask a Farmer” column. Producers will also be given the oppportunity to manage the content on their site. More advanced changes will focus on building community by creating an environment where visitors can not only find information, but also share it.

Location