Let's get together and talk about the possibilties.
Below is the November Small Farm Central newsletter. If you are seeing this for the second time through the blog, I apologize!

----
As we approach the end of 2007, I see farms and farm-related organizations getting excited about the possible applications web technology. It really is a perfect fit: the Internet connects geographically separated organizations and people at a negligible cost. Many small, direct-marketing farms are rural, but market to the urban customer. As our lives, especially urban lives, move further online it is important to find creative solutions to connect farms to eaters.

Perhaps the largest obstacle to this goal is the cost, expertise, and will required to develop complex web systems that solve these problems. I believe that Small Farm Central is one small part of this puzzle. Providing a professional web-presence and e-commerce at low-cost is important because most farmers do not have the time to learn the technology and just want it to work.

There are also many other parts necessary to solve these problems -- listing services like LocalHarvest, coops that use technology to augment their business (such as Penn's Corner in the future or as Lancaster Farm Fresh is doing now), and systems that have not been imagined yet. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a regional sustainable agriculture organization that wants to deeply connect farmers and customers in the region through a comprehensive website. He has some great ideas and I am excited to see that project take shape.

Given creativity, will, and technical skill we can create tools as a community that will keep environmentally sustainable farms economically sound.

Stay in touch!

Otherwise, things are rolling along here at Small Farm Central. I will be at the Acres U.S.A. conference tradeshow in Louisville, KY in December. Come say hi if you will be there! A great way to see the possibilities of the service we provide is to have a phone demo. I can walk through the features of the system with you; it is quite different than most people are used to interacting with a website so it is a worthwhile experience to see a demo.

Articles from a month of blogging at Small Farm Central:

Use web teaser cards to create loyal customers and farm website readers
More patience and "growing" your small farm marketing
Canning is ideology in a jar
Farm ecommerce brings direct, local sales to farm websites
Ruminations on farm business from an aspiring farmer
Connecting with farm customers through website and blog comments

--

-Simon Huntley
Lead Developer, Small Farm Central
http://www.smallfarmcentral.com

Support Phone Number: 412-567-3864