Farm to market specifics get easier to find

From producer to consumer and back again, the food chain winds its way from field to fork across America.

But connecting the product with the customer can be difficult, particularly for smaller operations that may not have the resources to do extensive marketing.

The MarketMaker Web site is helping make those connections on a multi-state level.

MarketMaker currently includes Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, New York, Georgia and Mississippi, but Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have just recently announced plans to become part of the network.

Nearly a dozen other states have entered into discussions to join the effort to build this powerful Web-based marketing resource for consumers, farmers and food related enterprises.

"MarketMaker began as an online database of Illinois businesses and was so successful that now other states have joined the effort," said University of Illinois Extension specialist Richard Knipe.

"University of Illinois developed and owns the tool but the multi-state partnership that is able to pool large amounts of food-industry data and provide it to the public really adds value to the resource."

Individuals can use the MarketMaker Web site to search for restaurants or places to buy things like maple syrup, wine and produce direct and producers can search for farmers markets, grocery stores and other outlets to sell their food products.

The original Web site is located at http://www.marketmaker. uiuc.edu. From there, visitors can search for restaurants, grocery stores, farms and other production facilities across several states.

"It's more than a directory of information because it has interactive features like mapping and search capabilities so users can really target and focus on the data that they need," Knipe said.

Each state has a unique site but all the data from all other MarketMaker states can be accessed from any location. In June a National MarketMaker Portal was made available to the public. It is located at http://national.marketmaker.uiuc.edu.

The National Agricultural Resource Center at Iowa State University hosts the portal and includes a "clickable" map of the entire United States. Participating states are highlighted, making it easy for users to navigate from state to state or to regionalize their data searches.

There is no charge associated with having a business or farm listed on the site.

"Our goal is to make the site a resource for all farmers and businesses in the food supply chain," Knipe said. "We are as interested in helping a grocery store find farm-fresh eggs as we are in helping the farmer find a place to sell them, so it's important to include as many producers in our database as possible."

You can see MarketMaker by visiting any of the following sites:

Illinois: www.marketmaker.uiuc.edu

Iowa: www.marketmaker iowa.com

Kentucky: www.marketmaker.com

Nebraska: www.market maker.nebraska.edu

New York: nymarketmaker.cornell.edu

Georgia: www.market maker.uga.edu

Mississippi: www.market maker.msstate.edu

National MarketMaker portal: national.market maker.uiuc.edu.

For more information about MarketMaker, contact any member of the development team: Richard Knipe, rknipe@uiuc.edu, (309) 792-2500; Darlene Knipe, dknipe@uiuc.edu, (309) 792-2500; or Sandy Shetler, sshetler@uiuc.edu, (815) 441-0300.

• MarketMaker was developed through a collaboration among the University of Illinois Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research. The project was funded by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, University of Illinois Extension, and the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research.

For more information, call the Extension at (815) 338-3737 or stop in at 1102 McConnell Road, Woodstock.