This YouTube video provides an overview of the site’s functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6DKQab0DAU
smallfarmlink.org is a web platform with the aim of promoting small-scale organic/regenerative farmers and grassroot organizations and enabling them to showcase their work and connect with the community more effectively.
Regional Pages
Farmers can create a profile (similar to LinkedIn), and share their information, growing methods, products and points of sale.
Organizations can detail their mission and work in their profile.
Farms and organizations can engage the community by advertising events, job/volunteer listings, buy/sell items, and knowledge sharing (similar to Craigslist).
General public has access to a directory of regional farms and organizations and can find farmers markets, and find farms based on their produce, market type and CSA delivery. People also have access to job/volunteer and event listings.
The regional map-based page provide visual understanding of the resources and connections within the region. So far, the functionality for the BC Southwest agricultural region is completed.
Additional functionalities such as forums, messaging, and announcements to further facilitate connections will be hopefully implemented in the near future.
Map Maker
The ‘Map Maker’ enables creation of maps by combining data layers and map drawings. It also allows for distance and area measurements. Data layers are mainly from government (federal, provincial, municipal) open data repositories. Specific relevant data provided by NGOs and organizations can potentially be made available also. Examples of farming-related and environmental data can include topography, contour lines, soil (texture, drainage, parent material), parcels, groundwater, agricultural land reserve, pests/diseases, waterways, pollution…
Capability for upload of user data (e.g. kml, gpx, geojson) will be implemented.
Education
Education pages are aimed at the general public and provide a high-level introduction to issues of industrial agriculture, factory farming, food security and food loss/waste. Concepts such as regenerative agriculture, agroecology, permaculture, agroforestry, urban farming and food sovereignty are introduced as potential solutions to the problems caused by the industrial model.
What is Possible!
‘What is Possible!’ page is a crowd-sourced database showcasing global case studies of different sustainable and regenerative practices. Anyone having done work of educational value can add their farm or project/initiative to the database. Projects are geo-located on the map providing users with a greater understanding of the suitability of a certain practice in a particular geographic and climatic zone.
There are multiple categories with subcategories such as permaculture/agroforestry (food forest, water management, guilds, alley cropping, hügelkultur, silvopasture…), urban farming (greywater, rainwater harvesting, wicking beds,…), community/co-op farming, food loss/waste reduction, market farming, projects with social impact, appropriate technology (biogas, water desalination, solar cooking/heating/drying, irrigation pumps, rocket stoves, composting toilet…), natural building (cob, bamboo, earthbag, straw bale,…), and community forestry.
The web platform is currently in the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) stage. At times it may be unavailable. The features are not finalized, and new features can be added or existing ones enhanced based on feedback from farmers, organizations, and the public.
For feedback and suggestions regarding features, problems and user experience, please email: feedback[at]smallfarmlink.org
For general inquiries please email: contact[at]smallfarmlink.org
This blog post was created by Shahram Yassemi, a visitor to the site. For more information contact them directly at contact@smallfarmlink.org, or at https://smallfarmlink.org/.
This blog post was created by a visitor, and not by Permaculture BC. As such Permaculture BC has NO FURTHER INFORMATION then what you see here. Do not call, email or toilet paper us with emails or phone calls, as we DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION. With quiet resolve, patience and determination we thank you.