Online Marketing – a Review of Local Harvest

 

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This Kentucky based farm sells locally grown organic cornmeal in Local Harvests online store. Photo courtesy of localharvest.org

Are you looking to increase your local marketing power? Marketing your CSA, local and organic produce can quickly get expensive and time consuming.  A simple online tool to add to your marketing arsenal is the website.

Software engineer Guillermo Payet founded Local Harvest in 1998.  The Santa Cruz, California based project grew out of his desire ‘… to generate positive social change through the internet’.  Local Harvest supports family farming, organic and local food networks, and sustainable agriculture.  Their website encourages visitors to connect with farms in their area and learn about markets, restaurants, and products available locally.

The Local Harvest website offers a collection of valuable marketing and network tools.  A searchable map allows visitors to search for farms, CSA’s, farmers markets, restaurants, grocery/co-ops, or products that are local to them.  An online store offers farmers and businesses an affordable and easy alternative to starting their own commercial website to sell their products.  Farms and businesses register with Local Harvest, and receive a page where they can share pictures and discuss products, philosophy, hours, and refer clients to their home page.  Registered users may also choose to sell in the online store.  The store website is clean, neatly labeled, and very easy to navigate.  Farmers and businesses wanting to sell pay a flat fee per order to Local Harvest, and send out customer orders by mail.

The online store currently offers nearly 8,000 unique products including CSA shares, groceries, pet needs, flowers, gift baskets, and much more.  Products are listed with a photograph, price, and farm name.  Additional site resources include an events calendar, discussion forums, newsletter, and links to interesting agriculture related blogs.

Local Harvest is a popular site with up to 4.5 million visitors a year and an average of 20 new users per day.  Try it out, and you just might find that Local Harvest becomes a favorite website to visit, and a tool to promote your own farm!

 

Avatar of Michelle Podolec

Michelle Podolec

Michelle Podolec is the co-coordinator of the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project.  She may be reached at (607) 255-9911 or mls266@cornell.edu.

2 Comments

  1. Avatar of Amit Kumar Amit Kumar on January 13, 2016 at 7:36 am

    Thanks For sharing this information with us @ http://www.spicenpulses.com

  2. Avatar of Henry Larry Henry Larry on March 27, 2024 at 5:58 am

    Impressive initiative by Guillermo Payet. Local Harvest seems like a game changer for local farmers making it easier for them to market their produce and connect with consumers.
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