Rural youth now have a virtual coffee row in which to gather new ideas and offer advice.
Based in Bashaw, Alta., the FarmOn.com website has two goals: encourage farmers to learn best practices to build their business and persuade website users to mentor each other and help solve problems.
“We have a membership where everyone develops their own profiles completely free and can participate on chat rooms,” said Logan Northey, one of seven FarmOn founders who hope the farm profiles will introduce farmers to a wider audience and help educate urban consumers about rural realities.
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“We’re encouraging farmers to post videos and photo tours of their farm to show consumers what the farmer does and how.”
The website also plans to develop a farmers’ market type of electronic store this fall in which farmers can advertise their products, prices and locations for urban residents and restaurant managers. A fee for this service will help pay create an order list, track sales and let farmers know when they have new customers.
Northey said he and his wife, Sarah, developed the concept after they tried to start farming and realized it was different from starting a farm in their grandparents’ day.
“Coming out of college we didn’t know all we thought we knew,” Northey said with a laugh.
They started to gather resource material and adapted urban business models to rural locations. Marketing is a skill they saw as neglected.
“We saw a void in terms of having farmers look at their business as entrepreneurs rather than be production oriented.”
The website will also feature blogs. Regular columnists will discuss topics such as the economy, how to succeed in sales and adjusting to life as a farmer’s wife.
The website’s theme is bringing farming back. It notes that in the last decade Canada has lost half of its farmers younger than 35.
The website is prompting Northeys to delay their own farming plan.
“We want to wait until the website is running well.”
The website started earlier this month but is available only to 250 to 500 early subscribers, who will test it and provide feedback. Once it goes fully public in September, Northey hopes “the sky is the limit” for visitors. The group is also looking for sponsors and advertisers for the website.
For more information, phone 780-372-3648 or 780-678-9222 or visit www.farmon.com.
