LocalHarvest.com Connects Farmers and Consumers Online


Consumers worldwide are rediscovering the benefits of buying locally grown food. It is fresher, tastier and more nutritious than anything in the supermarket. It also boosts local economies -- buying directly from family farms helps them stay in business.

Ocean Group, a Santa Cruz, California, based internet engineering company, has developed a unique way for farmers and consumers to connect both online and offline. The Web site, named LocalHarvest.com, allows farmers to post their product information so that hungry Web-surfers can get fresh locally grown food directly from the farmer, or through their local farmers' market.

LocalHarvest.com provides farmers with an inexpensive marketing tool to reach thousands of people who are interested in agriculture and product availability. Registration is free for producers through the year 2000, and only $40 annually afterward. The site offers a 50% discount on annual membership to all members of a sustainable agriculture organization.

Web surfers can search by ZIP code, state or farm name to find the freshest produce in their area. Each listing gives contact information for the farm and lists when each crop is available (spring, summer, fall, all year long). LocalHarvest encourages people to purchase food grown close to home, so it does not list health food stores, mail-order suppliers, or large coporate farms.

From the LocalHarvest web site...
The goals of Local Harvest are to host a reliable, "living" public directory of small farms nation wide, and in so doing, to provide people with direct contact to farms in their local area. In addition, we designed the site to strengthen the Internet connection among direct-marketing farmers, offer them unique services, and lay the groundwork for additional direct marketing opportunities for farmers who "opt-in."

Whether you're a farmer or a consumer, a visit to LocalHarvest can help you find growers in your local area who are committed to American agriculture.

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The copyright of the article LocalHarvest.com Connects Farmers and Consumers Online in American Agriculture is owned by Rena Larranaga. Permission to republish LocalHarvest.com Connects Farmers and Consumers Online in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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