Florida Farm Link - Building the Foundation of a Sustainable Community Food System by Connecting Sustainable Agriculture to Economic Development Initiatives

Florida Farm Link - Building the Foundation of a Sustainable Community Food System by Connecting Sustainable Agriculture to Economic Development Initiatives

Summary

The Florida FarmLink outreach campaign funded by SARE is already achieving results with very little funding used. A buzz has developed following the soft-launch of the database webservice, with a statewide campaign using the SARE funds planned for June and July through September. Overall, early indications from the free press obtained and partnerships developed through the statewide network suggest that the Florida FarmLink project will have its desired impact on connecting sustainable agriculture to communities in an innovative way.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Facilitate linkages between rural landowners with farmers and farmers with land and additional resources to achieve their goals in their sustainable farming enterprises and build capacity in the local community food system.

2. Demonstrate the importance of agriculture and local food systems to overall sustainable communities and sustainable economic development using a natural capitalism partnership-based approach

3. Construct an innovative tool that can be used immediately by entrepreneurs in the susainable agriculture sector and function as an on-going needs assessment and communications method for sustainable agriculture and small farmers across Florida

4. Reach out to the community members that may have never had a connection to agriculture, but are interested in community development, civic participation, and sustainability and include them in the solution of a local food system

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. Outreach to Florida Farm Bureau and local county chapters

2. Presentation at the 2nd Annual Small Farms Conference in April of 2007

3. Promotion in the Florida West Coast RC&D e-newsletter and at all RC&D events

4. Development of logo and general brochure promoting the service

5. Selection of web developer and programmer

6. Establishment of database parameters and static page content

7. Promotion of the service on the RC&D’s website

8. Design of the website.

The vast majority of the funded activities have not been initiative and are due to kick off upon the launch of the website service, which is estimated to be Spring of 2008.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The impacts during 2007 have been largely internal and behind the scenes, such as logo development and graphic design work.

The materials that have been developed for the outreach campaign are highly professional and eye catching and have received enormous positive feedback from the partners.

There has also been interest in the Florida FarmLink service developing from the early promotion, such as articles in local media outlets and the www.fwcrcd.org website.

Approximately 10 people have contacted our office inquiring on the availability of the website.

Announcements of the rollout have been made at several small farm network gatherings and e-mail correspondences.

Collaborators: