MADISON - Demand for locally and regionally grown food has increased enormously in recent years. Increased awareness about the importance of healthy, nutritious foods in the face of dramatically rising childhood obesity; rising consumer awareness about where food comes from due to recent food safety scares; and a desire to support local economic development and neighborhood and regional businesses means local food is an increasingly strong market.
Helping to address this growing demand is the new and improved Web site Local Dirt, formerly GreenLeaf Market, launched by local entrepreneur Heather Hilleren with support from the UW Extension Ag Innovation Center and Thrive, the regional economic development enterprise for the eight-county Madison Region (Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk counties). Local Dirt allows sellers of local food to market their products online and buyers to easily order from local sellers.
"We signed up this winter, got two new customers and sold over $8,000 potatoes already," said Brad Igl of Igl Farms, Antigo. "As we sell out the last of our 2008 crop, we expect to hit about $10,000 in sales via the Web site."
With the feedback she received from sellers (farmers and food processors) and buyers (restaurants, institutions and groceries), Hilleren retooled the site this winter. The new site will be even easier to use and will include enhanced features like "food mile" calculations and mapping capacity. Other added features include expanded capability for distributors, strong search functionality and a discussion board for shared distribution.
As an incentive to drive more users to the new site, Hilleren is offering a one-time special offer - sign up on the site before May 1 and the first year is free. All information entered to the current site will be automatically transferred on May 1 with the launch of the new site.
Farmers, food businesses, grocers, distributors and restaurants are urged to sign up to take advantage of the free year's membership. To learn more about how the program works and about this one-time offer, Hilleren has posted a video with project partner UW Extension: http://aic.uwex.edu
Helping to address this growing demand is the new and improved Web site Local Dirt, formerly GreenLeaf Market, launched by local entrepreneur Heather Hilleren with support from the UW Extension Ag Innovation Center and Thrive, the regional economic development enterprise for the eight-county Madison Region (Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk counties). Local Dirt allows sellers of local food to market their products online and buyers to easily order from local sellers.
"We signed up this winter, got two new customers and sold over $8,000 potatoes already," said Brad Igl of Igl Farms, Antigo. "As we sell out the last of our 2008 crop, we expect to hit about $10,000 in sales via the Web site."
With the feedback she received from sellers (farmers and food processors) and buyers (restaurants, institutions and groceries), Hilleren retooled the site this winter. The new site will be even easier to use and will include enhanced features like "food mile" calculations and mapping capacity. Other added features include expanded capability for distributors, strong search functionality and a discussion board for shared distribution.
As an incentive to drive more users to the new site, Hilleren is offering a one-time special offer - sign up on the site before May 1 and the first year is free. All information entered to the current site will be automatically transferred on May 1 with the launch of the new site.
Farmers, food businesses, grocers, distributors and restaurants are urged to sign up to take advantage of the free year's membership. To learn more about how the program works and about this one-time offer, Hilleren has posted a video with project partner UW Extension: http://aic.uwex.edu
