Indiana MarketMaker, an electronic marketing tool for buying and selling locally produced foods, is now home to more than 290 registered producers - and is growing.
The site, which draws an average of more than 100,000 hits each month, provides a directory for consumers to search for locally grown and niche food products.
"Let's say you're looking for frozen, organic blueberries or certified organic lamb - you'd be able to find those things," said Maria Marshall, a Purdue University agricultural economist. "The state's farmers' markets also are listed there, so consumers can find them that way as well."
Part of what Marshall said makes the site so important is that it helps support the local economy.
"If you spend a dollar locally, you're supporting farmers in your community," she said. "They are likely to spend that money at local businesses, which means that dollar can be turned around quite a few times within the community."
Since its unveiling a little more than a year ago, the site has undergone updates that make it easier to use for both consumers and producers.
"Producers can list their products by attribute, so if someone is looking for a particular organic fruit, the search option allows that person to type in what they're looking for and the site will find it," Marshall said. "The site also is geo-coded, which means consumers can actually find the products on a map. That's a new feature that closely resembles Google Maps."
For producers, the site now provides more statistical information about the type of products consumers are seeking.
"Producers will get more information about who's looking for their products and how many times their names have been hit," Marshall said. "Another feature producers can use is the buyer and seller forum. If producers have something to sell, such as an abundance of pumpkins, they can put it on the national forum for people in other states to find."
Indiana MarketMaker is part of a national effort started by the University of Illinois. Partner states that also have MarketMaker sites include Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. Florida and Arkansas have joined the push as well, and have sites in progress.
"The fact that this site is in several other states means that if a chef or specialty store is looking to source organic, natural or locally grown foods, they'd be able to do a multistate search for those types of attributes," Marshall said. In addition to the Purdue University College of Agriculture's New Ventures Team, Indiana partners include the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and Indiana Cooperative Development Center.
Nationally, MarketMaker sponsors include the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service and the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.